Tale of an uppity Duron

[Wombat]

So,
My machine decided to wig out today. I have it at 7.5*133, but it decided not to boot for some reason this afternoon. I've heard how sometimes unlocks just go bad, and the bridges have to be reconnected. I got out the Duron, erased the pencil on my L1 bridges, and redid it.
Then it got strange. My CPU wouldn't OC or even UC. It just ran at 850. So, I took it out and tried again, and also patched up the L7 bridges to raise my default voltage. Still running 850 @ 1.6V. Hmmmm.
So, I got out my other pencil, and put some new lead in it. Unlocked the chip and raised the voltage.
Everything works now, but I haven't heard of anyone else saying that had non-conducting graphite.

[EchoWars]

I've seen this happen lots of times. The first few T-Birds and Duron's I unlocked were with a pencil. But a few came back after a week or so running at the default speed. Screw it!! Went out and bought the conductive paint for car rear window defroster repair ($10!) and a small, very fine paintbrush. Using a magnifying glass I painted the bridges closed. End of problem...

[impact]

"Everything works now, but I haven't heard of anyone else saying that had non-conducting graphite."

That depends on the type of pencil. The hard ones are made from graphite mixed with other ingredients and aren't very conductive. The softest ones are almost pure graphite.

The best thing to do would be to use a conductive marker, those are usually used for repairs or rewiring of electronic components.