Need advise from Overclockers

[Rjel]

First, I want to say my issue was not due to IL-2 BoX in any way as far as I can tell. About three weeks ago, I started getting the dreaded BSOD. I've rarely experienced those in 30+ years of computer gaming. Unfortunately with a single exception, it happened while playing BoX. Initially I thought I may have had a bad update as recently I had also experienced a modem going bad. Dropping the cable signal several times an hour. Once that was replaced, that problem disappeared. Then I started having BSOD while flying shortly there after. The error messages ranged from page file errors to IRLQ NOT_LESS_OR_EQUAL error messages. I reinstalled BoX. I've reinstalled every driver on my computer and reinstalled the last Win 10 update. I seriously considered reinstalling Window. Lots of web searches offered solutions which I've tried but the situation persisted.

 

Today, while making sure a rogue program hadn't attached itself to me machine at startup, I noticed in the Task Manager Performance tab that it showed my CPU running at or nearly at 5 GHz. I honestly don't know when I overclocked my machine but apparently in the Asus suite while I was trying out settings for fan controls, I overclocked the CPU. Temps never seemed out of line but higher than I was used to. I have a pretty good cooling setup (I think) with a Cooler Master Hyper 212 ED Turbo fan system on my CPU. It's quiet and my temps seem in line with what I've read of other systems. But apparently it made my system very unstable. After resetting my machine's CPU overclock to the original speed, IL-2 BoX has run for four hours without issue.

 

Sorry for the long background story, but have I damaged my system in any way? I'm not nor ever have been an overclocker preferring to buy better performance parts to get the power I need. Any thoughts or recommendations to further check my system's possible damage would be appreciated.

 

 

 

[Flashy]

I wouldn't worry about any damage caused, especially if your temps were fine throughout. It seems to me that you simply had an unstable overclock, which is no big deal. Overclocking is more of an art than an exact science, and every combination of motherboard, RAM and CPU is different. To do it reliably you need to play around with individual voltages and clock speeds and all sorts of things, and it takes a fair bit of trial and error to get it right. Its true that overclocking can reduce the life of your components, but we're talking about a reduction from 30+ years at stock speeds to 10+ years at overclocked speeds. I have been running my CPU at various stages of overclock for 10 years now and its still going strong.. 

Edited August 3, 2019 by Flashy

[Rjel]

Good to know. Then am I right in assuming the error messages and the BSOD were a result of the overclock?

[Flashy]

Probably. If you dont increase the voltages when you overclock, you can get all kinds of system instability and weird behaviour. Sometimes the system will BSOD when trying to load windows, or sometimes it will BSOD when you run a game or some other intensive test, or even just randomly,  but its pretty much always a sign of an unstable overclock. I dont know what the ASUS suite does exactly, but I highly doubt it can change voltages and, even if it does, its not an exact science as I said, so a piece of software is unlikely to get it right, especially at the 5ghz mark..

[[DBS]MDS1]

My old gaming PC, that I purchased pre-built, must have got shaken about or dropped in transit, and as a result the CPU cooler was not properly attached. I was totally unaware of this - but did think the fans were a "bit noisy" when playing games.

 

It was like this for at least six months. I eventually checked the temperatures of my system, and to my horror the CPU was running at between 96 and 99 degrees C under load. It only crashed once in that time, hence why I never thought anything was wrong. Of course once the problem was diagnosed, and the cooler correctly fitted - it ran much quieter, and at temperatures below 60C even under full load. That CPU is now over two years old is used everyday in my Son's PC and is holding up strong.

 

I would hazard a guess that your system is OK, no damage done - it just overclocked to a point of instability, and as a result..... shut down.  For the record the CPU that was utterly cooked for the first six months of it's life was an i5 7400.

 

Kind Regards,

MDS1

[Flashy]

Yeah, modern hardware is pretty clever and will shut down automatically when/if it overheats so its actually pretty difficult to break it.. its almost idiot proof so I wouldnt worry

Edited August 3, 2019 by Flashy
I ..uh.. wanted to edit something.. duh!

[Rjel]

Thx to you both for the replies. It does seem to be running as stable as it has since I built it last year. While no expert with computer systems, this is my 6th build and I've long prided myself on my ability to track down problems with my somewhat limited knowledge and keep them running. This one really had me confused and ready to take it to repair shop. 

 

Thank you both again.