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Question

CPU Over Voltage Error!

by Dec 16, 2017 3:17AM PST

Lately my PC has been resetting randomly when it shouldn't. While gaming sometimes he just shuts down and when he resets it first shows me a screen saying "CPU Over Voltage Error" and "Press F1 to continue/something like that". I've googled the issue and most people say it's due to a bad power source, and that I should buy another one. Is that the only solution or is there anything else I can do? I've also seen people changing some options in BIOS to make the problem go away, but I didn't wanna play around with that because I was afraid of breaking something.
The motherboard website I'll link below says that it has Anti-Surge Protection and that it's probably the reason the PC has been shutting down.
I guess my question is, can someone explain the BIOS way of fixing it step-by-step and if that's not possible can someone give me an alternative to buying another power source?

Specs:
Processor: AMD FX(tm) 6300 - 6 core, 3,5 Ghz
RAM: 8GB
Graphics: AMD Radeon R7 250 series
Motherboard: ASUSTeK M5A78L-M PLUS/USB3 (https://www.asus.com/Motherboards/M5A78L-M-PLUS-USB3/)

Discussion is locked

3 Posts
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Answer
Re: over voltage
by Former Forum moderator Dec 16, 2017 3:36AM PST

If you've seen people changing it in the BIOS, ask them how to do it and if it's safe. Nobody here knows who you have seen and what they did.

The best way to fix broken hardware is to buy a replacement. Quite often it's the only way, unless it can be repaired. But I know of no-one repairing a PSU.

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Answer
Over voltage
by Dec 16, 2017 5:11AM PST

Boot the machine and enter the bios.
Look around for a setting that says something like 'load defaults'.

If that does not work then change the cmos battery.
They are only a few bucks.

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Answer
I've seen this.
by Former Forum moderator Dec 16, 2017 6:26AM PST

And while there could be a time when it could be a BIOS setting, my encounter was with "yet another AMD CPU and motherboard" issue. The combination you lead with is a common shop hound.

It is not a good idea to take this one to a shop here since you are out 150$ and just starting.

My advice is to try the usual cleaning (canned air to insides, vents, heatsinks and fans. What canned air is, fans, vents and how to use is on the web so I don't duplicate that. Now that it's clean it might be OK but if not the last try before you buy a new motherboard and CPU is to replace the old heatsink compound. The failure message has mislead folk to think it's a setting but it was just old boards or heat. We can help the heat with cleaning and new compound. Again, what is this compound and how to do the work is on the web.

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