CPU could be dead, need feedback before I'm sure.

[THK1138]

Hi,
I have an Intel D875PBZ Motherboard with a Pentium 4 Prescott 2.80C retail processor. 2 SATA 150 HDD, and 1 IDE CDRW and 1 IDE CDROM. 8x AGP eVGA 6200 Video, SoundBlaster Live 5.1, Belkin 4 port Firewire card. Internal multi-card reader attached to an external USB port.

OK, that's my configuration/setup. In the beginning I had some heat issues that caused the CPU to overheat and cause the system to shutdown. My first mistake was that I put some white thermal grease on the CPU instead of relying solely on the grey thermal grease on the fan that came with it. 10 years working with PCs and I make a Dee Dee Dee mistake like that.

Well, I fixed that by changing the case with better
ventilation and more fans. I also cleaned off the CPU and heatsink and put a thin layer of grey thermal grease. That seemed to work for almost two years.

Suddenly, the PC would not start up. No POST beeps, but the drives would spin up, and the CD lights would come on. Nothing else. All I did then was move the modem from one slot to another, and put new thermal grease on the CPU/Heatsink. It worked fine for a few months like that.

Now, all it does when I turn it on is start up, then reset before anything can even come up on the screen. At one point it did give a message that it was shut down due to a CPU overheat. I only got that message once, and not even after the first time it restarted. I tried replacing the thermal grease, but I think it might be too old and thick.
I doubt that new grease would bring it back to life.

So, with all that said, I was hoping someone could tell me if the kind of power on and constant reset is a symptom of a bad CPU. I don't have another I can try. Just to be clear, when I turn it on, all of the fans, mobo lights, drives, etc turn on. I can even hear the sound card make a bass thump when it resets. I can tell it is resetting because the CD drive lights come on after every 'thump'.

Thanks for any opinions.

James

 

[wolluf]

first thing I'd try would be replace the power supply.

 

[G0AOZ]

You didn't mention the Wattage of the original PSU, but possibly try one with a higher Wattage output.

ROGER - G0AOZ.

 

[Grenage]

I concur, the PSU is the most likely culprit. While it is 'possible' for similar symptoms to be caused by a bad CPU, I've only ever seen that once before. Even with poor thermal grease, you would normally be able to get to the BIOS boot before it overheated.

Of course, before you replace it, unplug any non-essential pieces of hardware/cabling and see if it boots then.


Carlsberg don't run I.T departments, but if they did they'd probably be more fun.

 

[wahnula]

PSU, PSU, PSU, Ho, Ho,Ho maybe Santa has one in his bag for you!

First step in testing is strip out everything non-essential (CPU, Video, one stick of RAM) and see if machine POSTs and asks for HDD. Next hookup OS drive and try. Start adding components until, well, you get it.

Tony

 

[THK1138]

Thanks for all of your suggestions. I've had heating problems with this system from day one, about 2 years. It had a 400 watt psu with 1 fan inside then. I then upgraded the psu to a 550 with 2 fans inside. I also put some better thermal paste on the heatsink than the little patch that came with it. It seemed to work fine for next 2 years, up until this post, that is.

I've never heard of a bad psu causing this, but I could see how it could if the 4 wire CPU connector had a problem.

Well, lo and behold Santa had a 3 GHz P4 under my tree. It also came with a huge aftermarket fan and heatsink. When it comes to placing thermal paste on the CPU, I hear 2 schools of thought on that. Place a thin layer on the CPU, or put a small amount the size of a grain of rice on the CPU. I went with the latter this time. I did the former last time, and the old CPU stuck to heat sink. I couldn't tell so when I pulled the heatsink off, pins on the CPU were bent when I failed to pull it straight out :-(

It seems okay for now, but it still runs hot (bouncing around 40 to 45c).

Thanks again for all of your help and suggestions, much appreciated!

James

 

[johnbullas]

I get the temperature issue when discussing oil temperatures in my Mini (original cooper) web group .... processor temperatures are a similar issue? (except over cooling might not have negative concequences for procesors?)

So I googled and found this among others:

http://www.computerhope.com/issues/ch000687.htm

"The majority of today's desktop processors should not exceed temperatures of 95°C and most will run between 70-90°C."

http://www.amd.com/us-en/assets/content_type/white_papers_and_tech_docs/26633_5649.pdf

(for my athlon 64)

"The significant temperatures for the AMD Athlon 64 and AMD Opteron processor systems are 32°C and 42°C. These temperatures correspond to room temperatures of 25°C and 35°C, respectively, with an additional 7°C allowed for the temperature rise from the system external temperature to the system internal temperature at the processor location."

http://download.intel.com/design/PentiumXE/designex/30683010.pdf

for pentium 4

http://download.intel.com/design/Pentium4/guides/30255304.pdf

Are you trying to put too much into trying to run the processor at ambient temperature?

Can't find any critical data for processors but I think you might be trying to overcool on the basis of the heat outputr of the processor?

My Athlon 3200 64 sits at 43c in my Antec case with a Arctic Freezer 64

http://www.arctic-cooling.com/cpu2.php?disc=1&idx=10

JB
Southampton UK




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Transport Solutions
Southampton UK