Athlon XP 2500+ became unstable at stock speeds

[Crayon Shin Chan]

I've been running a Barton Athlon XP 2500+ system for some time now (due to be replaced with a Phenom II X4 955 soon), and lately I've noticed that even when overvolted to +0.05V, it's just not stable at 166*11=1833MHz. This problem did not happen before. I took it back to stock voltages, and the problem still happens.

Also, this is a pretty small quibble, but I noticed that when I set the voltage in my MSI KT3V motherboard to +0.05V (on default 1.65V), the voltage value reported by CPU-Z ranges from 1.68 to 1.73V or so. Is that normal? I think that's a pretty big voltage swing.

I haven't been pushing it past 1833MHz, so I don't know what could've happened. My guess is that maybe one of the voltage swings got a little too high, although I've heard CPUs should withstand voltages of +-0.3V. Or maybe it gets a bit too hot - can't be bothered to smear any more thermal grease on such an old computer, I'm afraid.

Has anybody had a similar experience?

[JustAnEngineer]

I ran my Athlon XP 2500+ at 10.5 x 200 MHz for years without any problems. Besides the thermal paste, you may want to check if dust bunnies have taken up residence in your heatsink.

I would not be at all surprised if you have some failing capacitors on your motherboard.

[flip-mode]

I would not be at all surprised if you have some failing capacitors on your motherboard.

That would be my bet too.

[Crayon Shin Chan]

I've given my motherboard a long look and I can't find any bulging capacitors. They all look quite flat. Some are touching the heatsink though - it's unavoidable.

[mikeymike]

I had an Athlon XP setup until very recently, and used an 2500+ for years (until a friend gave me his old 3200+). The Athlon XP 2500+ always said its core voltage was 1.7v on my ASUS A7N8X-E Deluxe. No problems with either setup, and near the end of its days (though I upgraded before any stability issues occurred), one board capacitor was just starting to bulge, only very slightly.

PSU is a possibility IMO. The board is another possibility, even though all the capacitors look ok. I once saw a board that looked absolutely fine, except the secondary IDE chain one day stopped working in DMA mode, and nothing I did resolved it. I kept the board for a couple of years, looked at it again, and the dodgy capacitors were obvious. I'm not implying that you're not noticing a bulging capacitor, just that a board component could be dodgy without looking dodgy.

How does it show its instability? Also, is it just after you boot it up, or under sustained load?

[Crayon Shin Chan]

Only after sustained load, when I've turned down the multiplier. At stock speeds it randomly bluescreens when idle.

Oh well, I've got a new Phenom II X6 build now, so I don't really care - I'm halfway across the globe from it anyway. I just hope that in 7 years my new build won't end up like that either...

[just brew it!]

Only after sustained load, when I've turned down the multiplier. At stock speeds it randomly bluescreens when idle.

Oh well, I've got a new Phenom II X6 build now, so I don't really care - I'm halfway across the globe from it anyway. I just hope that in 7 years my new build won't end up like that either...

My guess is that the caps which were touching the HSF probably dried out from the heat. That would cause them to fail without showing any physical signs of damage.

7 years is a long time for a piece of consumer electronics. Unfortunately, things have gotten to the point where almost everyone looks at price above all else; this forces manufacturers to cut corners on components to remain competitive, and this negatively impacts long-term reliability.

[Sargent Duck]

7 years is a long time for a piece of consumer electronics. Unfortunately, things have gotten to the point where almost everyone looks at price above all else; this forces manufacturers to cut corners on components to remain competitive, and this negatively impacts long-term reliability.

This is true for pretty much any industry. My Maytag washer's pump died last year. Repair guy said they're only built to last for 10 years.