I'm having computer troubles again

[motoki]

Well I got my new power supply and the computer would turn on, but it still was running too hot and would sometimes get to the point where the computer felt it was reaching dangerous levels of heat and shut itself down if there was a lot going on (playing Morrowind for more than ten minutes, using a relax modifier in Deep UV with preview in realtime on etc).

So I went and bought a new better heatsink, fan and some more thermal paste. Well last night I took off the old heatsink and fan, cleaned the cpu, applied the thermal paste and mounted the new heatsink and fan, only now it won't boot. It just turns on for like a half a second. The fans start to spin, then stop.

I think I may have messed something up with the cpu, well I will keep at it and see what I can do, but for now I have to borrow this computer and it's not as good and my files aren't here.

I think my Morrowind time will be reduced for the time being though I will try and pop in here if nowhere else. On the bright side, it should keep me off the damned ES Forum which always gets me so worked up.

[Calislahn]

Oh dear

Well i hope you get it fixed without any more mishaps, and like you said it will probably do your blood pressure good if you can't trawl the forums as much ;D

[HeWhoWatches]

Hiya Motoki, that's not too good is it?

You could have blown the CPU if the voltage was too high but it's always worth taking them out and putting them back in a few times - sometimes a bad contact or some dust in there will stop them working.... I'va had that happen a few times.

Also, consult your motherboard manual (or find one online if you don't have one) and check to see if it isn't compatible with a particular voltage, etc.

Could be something on the motherboard is screwy I suppose.

One rather obvious question - you aren't overclocking your CPU somehow are you? It may not even be intentional - perhaps some hardware / BIOS settings are wrong. If you can get it up and running at all it may be worth resetting your BIOS to defaults. There's also the possibility of flashing it but that's always a last resort as I'm sure you know!

Good luck fixing it!

[motoki]

No I'm not overclocking it, in fact I tried under clocking it.

Well today I got close but no cigar.

I found out the new heatsink and fan wasn't on tight enough so I took the shim off the cpu and screwed the heatsink in tighter. Then the thing actually booted into Windows! Since I was just testing and not really expecting it to work, I didn't have the keyboard or mouse hooked up. Some I went to hook them up (they are both USB and can be plugged in while the computer is already on) I went back and the screen froze. I thought I may have accidentally bumped the video card a little, since it wasn't screwed in either.

So I took out the video card and reseated it. This time the Power supply, power supply fan and cpu fan all came on and spun normally but I never got anything on the monitor. I could also open the CD tray and the floppy drive's light was on. I thought I could hear some hd acitivity, but when I plugged headphones into the motherboards onboard sound, I waited and waited but I never heard a thing and if it was booting into Windows and I just couldn't see it I would have heard the Windows start up sound.

The first time I had the problem with the heatsink not being close enough to make contact the fans would start for a half second and stop. Now they just stay on but nothing happens after that one time I was able to boot into Windows successfully.

I've swaped the video card with one in this computer. In this computer my video card works fine and the video card that works fine in this computer still doesn't dislay anything in mine. I've swapped monitors, same thing my monitor works fine on this computer, this computer's monitor works fine for it but not my computer.

I've reseated the video card in the AGP slot and the memory sticks in various of the 3 slots (one at a time and also tried with both) more times than I can count. I took the new heatsink and fan off and put the old one that worked back on after a thorough dusting off (man I could see why the cpu was getting overheated, I have never seen something so completely clogged with dust or so much dust in such a little area). i was very gentle in my cleaning so as to not mess anything up. I took the cpu out and put it back in again just in case. nothing looked fried.

Still same thing. i've taken the motherboard out and laid it on a flat non conductive surface to make sure there weren't any screws causing shorts. Same thing.

Only thing I can think of is maybe some of the Artic Silver 5 thermal paste melted or somehow got smeared onto a part of the cpu other than the die where it doesn't belong and is causing the cpu not to work.

I did try to follow the Artic silver instructions as best I could. one thing I did differently was how they said to apply the thermal paste on the area of the heatsink that is going to touch the die on the center of the cpu. It was hard for me to tell exactly where that was so I applied it to a wider area of the heatsink. You clean it all off anyway so I didn't think it was a big deal and I have done that in the past and it seemed to work okay. Apparently, the past bonds to some of the microscopic pores in the metal or something so it retains some of its properties even after you clean it off.

Goof Off (xylene) can remove it completely, hell that stuff could remove anything I think. heh.

I'll try a few things tomorrow. Swap the rams between computers. try the cpu in this computer in mine (my cpu won't work in this computer because it's newer and this computer's a little older). I'll also try the heatsink from this computer on my cpu.

What really burns me up is that I actually got it to work today and then back to square one. Well not totally. At least the power comes on and the fans and anything hooked up to the power supply.

*sigh* I am going to bed but tomorrow I will have the joy of fooling with the damned computer all day again.

[Mebyon]

I'm impressed by you tenacity Motoki. I have a dreadful feeling it would be a case of chucking the whole thing at the wall for me!

There used to be a 'three inch cure' for the old XTs. Hold the keyboard three inches above the desk and let go. If that didn't work then repeat for the system unit and monitor. Probably not a good idea for the more modern machines! ;D

[Calislahn]

Well i touch nothing

It goes back to the shop i bought it from and i let the professional sort it, i just know i'll mess it up if i try.

I do hope you sort this out though, there's always what Mebyon suggested, if all else fails thump it ;D