Can you tell if a computer has been overclocked?

[dario03]

If you overclock a computer and then set everything back to stock is there a way for someone to find out that you did overclock?
Also if you switched out parts but changed them back can someone tell? Not by a broken sticker but like does the motherboard record those kinds of things?

Just wondering because a friend is thinking about doing things with a Cyberpower pc (I assume you could overclock them) but would prefer not to void the warranty. That would void the warranty right?

 

[computer newbie]

i dont think ther is a way. i did a bit of a google search and couldent find much. i found that but im not sure if that'll detect previous oc'ing.

Crystal Dew World

 

[BongWizard]

there's no way to tell if a rig has been OCed before if all the stock settings are reset... especially if the BIOS is freshly flashed

 

[QuaziBee]

The problem is getting to the bios jumpers if they have those shiny seals on ur case. Using the in bios reset to defaults function should suffice though.

 

[Lexluethar]

Only real way they will be able to tell is if he overclocks it too much and destroys the chip. At that point they can tell b/c there will be physical damage to the CPU/GPU.

 

[C0RR0SIVE]

Even when you overclock a bit, there will be some sort of visible damage, at the microscopic level, but there is no point in someone trying to go that far lol... But yea, there is no way a normal user can tell unless the chip is damaged and performs slowly or is fried.

 

[objecterror]

Back to the point, I do believe it voids the warranty. Overclocking,misuse or any additional tweaking you do to the hardware voids the warranty. Which, on top of one year parts and labor, they might check the last time the bios was flashed or erased.

There are certain things in a bios/hardware you notice. That's my opinion on the latter anyway.

 

[QuaziBee]

but if they ask why the bios was flashed just say your email wasn't working and it was running really slow. so you did all that and defraged the cpu. They will believe you to be an idiot and not pay any more attention, nor try to accuse you of overclocking your processor.

 

[dario03]

Don't some manufacturers list their bios updates right in their site? I could swear a problem with my sisters computer was fixed by the dell recommended bios update. Point being is updating the bios is not warranty voiding, right?

And he won't do anything crazy with the overclocking, probably keep the volts under the recommended max and all that good stuff.

 

[Baez]

Flashing the BIOS doesn't void the warranty. If you open up the CPU you can see signs of overclocking but only when dangerously overclocked. Other than that there is no way to find out.