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Geek Culture / Interesting read about how overclocking can cause crashes...

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Nicholas Thompson
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Location: Bognor Regis, UK
Posted: 18th Apr 2007 12:53
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http://blogs.msdn.com/oldnewthing/archive/2005/04/12/407562.aspx

Everyone knows that overclocking can cause instability and therefore should really only be done by people "in the know", however this article makes a good point about something I've never considered before (mainly because I build my own machines).

If you buy a machine from a small computer shop (eg, not PC World or equivalent) then you might run the risk of them selling you a machine which has been overclocked (eg, selling you a 3.5Ghz machine which is really only 3.2).

Yes, the machine may boot up - but if you have any stability issues are you 'defaultly' going to blame:
a) Microsoft
b) The vendor?

That article is about the guys at MSDN getting a lot of crash reports coming in and not being able to figure it out until they requested 10 people give them their details for contact purposes.

They found out that 5/10 HAD overclocked and the other 5 were overclocked but didn't know they were.

It was causing all kinds of unusualy problems (eg, a CPU crashing when trying to do a simple XOR).

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Jess T
Retired Moderator
21
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Location: Over There... Kablam!
Posted: 18th Apr 2007 13:22
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Heh, nice.

I never thought of that possibility before!

Nintendo DS & Dominos :: DS Dominos
http://jt0.org
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bitJericho
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Location: United States
Posted: 18th Apr 2007 18:27
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I'd be so pissed if I bought a machine that was overclocked so they could sell it for more money (or make it look more worthwhile).

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Pricey
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Posted: 18th Apr 2007 19:15
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interesting story

back in 96 i bought a packard bell spectria from PC World
it was me and my dad's first IBM PC and it had windows 95, 4mb of ram and a 486 DX-4 CPU. it was quite neat as it had a tv tuner and remote and cool media centre style software (quite good for '96 eh?)
the whole system was built into the same package (montior and computer like a mac)

after a few years, when we had expanded out knowledge of PCs, i was experimenting with overclocking. when i discovered what we had been sold was actually NOT a 100mhz 486 as we had thought, but a 75mhz O/C to 100mhz!! we had never found any instabilies, but it definatly was not what we had been sold!

http://forum.thegamecreators.com/?m=forum_view&t=97191&b=32
God Of Thunder DEMO
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Phaelax
DBPro Master
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Location: Metropia
Posted: 18th Apr 2007 23:17
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I dont think that was uncommon back them. Anyone remember the "turbo" button?


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Peter H
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Posted: 19th Apr 2007 00:58
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wait... microsoft actually looks at those error reports?

One man, one lawnmower, plenty of angry groundhogs.
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GatorHex
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Joined: 5th Apr 2005
Location: Gunchester, UK
Posted: 19th Apr 2007 10:51
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overclocking causes crashes because the CPU gets too hot and the electrons jump circuits and cause an error in the code.

Overclocking = you need more cooling.

When they make a CPU they don't know how good it will work so test it at various speeds to see if it's stable then badge it at the stable speed. Celerons are reputed to be pentiums with and error in the cache. They don't wana chuck this stuff away so they dissable the bad bits and csell it cheaper.

If a seller sells you a 3Ghz as a 3.5ghz (and never mentioned it was overclocked) you take the matter to the small claim courts under miss-selling of good / trades description act.

I had to do this once when a small producer sold me a 2Ghz Pentium on 400Mhz bus when it was supposed to be 533Hmz. I guess the average punter wouldn't notice. First they refused to swap it, but after the threat of court action things soon changed

A faster bus speed is almost as good as having a faster CPU!

http://www.KumKie.com http://bulldog.servegame.com
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bitJericho
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Posted: 19th Apr 2007 17:20
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Quote: "overclocking causes crashes because the CPU gets too hot and the electrons jump circuits and cause an error in the code."


Only if you do it wrong

Overclocking my celeron lowered the temp Cuz my processor for some reason could handle a substantially lower voltage and run just fine.. That's how I got it overclocked 20% with stock cooling ^.^ It never crashes either.

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NeX the Fairly Fast Ferret
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Posted: 20th Apr 2007 00:28
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Never crashes?
Even if I tell it

?


Since the other one was scaring you guys so much...
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