PC will not start

[danno74]

I woke up one morning and went to my PC and the screen was frozen. MY computer is extremely stable, so it was cause for concern. I had in the back of my head that the CPU fan might have expired because I had a heatsink with 2 fans on it, and I had the case open a week prior to that and had noticed one fan was not working, so I was going to replace it. I felt the case and it was quite warm. I went into the bios and the temp was 132 F! I was like oh crap. I set the option under it, which I believe was to give a warning if too hot, because I wasn't sure if 132 was too hot or not, I just automatically figured the other fan had died. It's an Abit KT7A board, and I looked in the manual and cannot find under the PC health menu stuff any options like the one I had checked off...

But anyhow, I went to reboot, and it would not start. I let it cool off, tried again, still would not start. It will start for like 2 seconds, then shut itself off. I can take out the CPU and it would start, but I don't get a BIOS screen. I thought, damnit, must have burned the CPU out. I conferred with the local PC shop, they thought the same as well after I had confirmed both fans were dead. So, I purchase another CPU, a AMD 1.2 Tbird. With a Volcano fan , to make sure this didn't happen again. I put it in - same thing.

So needless to say, being a network admin at my company, and being w/o a PC at home... I'm very distraught!!! could someone PLEASE help me? I really don't want to bring it down to the shop, being I fix these damn things all day...

Thanks in advance!

 

[paparazi]

Well 132F is only mid to late 50's C so not hot enought to crash and definately not hot enough to do any permanent damage.
These boards can be very funny about needing a proper rpm signal from the fan, dual fans can also be a problem for the motherboard to sense as can be 80mm slow rpm fans, typical symptom is "spinning up for a couple of seconds then stopping" sounds familiar? just attach a standard 3wire 60mm fan to the CPU fan header (put your Volcano on a case fan header temporarily )if it boots you know it's having this sensing problem.
A couple of warnings:
Absolutely must use thermal paste on the raised CPU core*
The recess in the heatsink base must go over the socket "A" writing (it is possible to fit 180degrees out)
If a Volcano 9 DO NOT trap the thermal sensor tape between the CPU core and heatsink (believe me, I have seen it done)
As I have said, there must be a fast fan attached to the CPU fan header of the motherboard, 3 wire variety (yellow is rpm sensor)
Reset cmos clear, reset bios.
Martin

Replying helps further our knowledge, without comment leaves us wondering.

 

[stevieblunder]

Maybe you never had any CPU or heat problems, just managed to trash the flash or CMOS.

Also, reseat the DRAM.

Steve

 

[jayjaykay]

If you have not already solved your problem it may be worth noting that some m/boards (Unfortunatly I dont know specific models off hand,) but I do know that some abit and asus m/b have a cut off sensor that shuts down your pc automatically to stop damage if it senses that you machine is cooking, it may be this sensor on the mb thats not working correctly and is shutting down your pc for you.

 

[BadBigBen]

Hi there,

Paparazi you said it right - he needs to clear the CMOS, while reading his post I noticed he said that he was in the BIOS Setup and changed the setting for the Thermal shutdown... and tried to reboot the system and it didn't POST!
Yeah, those damn FANS can get annoying... I got a mobo that for some reason wont show rpm range below 2650 and the fan I got hooked up runs between 2600 and 3000 rpms...

DANNO - when applying the thermal paste, make sure that you don't use TOO MUCH, some CPUs will go GURU and disappear in a puff of smoke and are in Nirvana... JUST COVER THE DIE... and follow Paparazi's advice on the placement of the heatsink...

and do post back to us if it worked or not... so we may advice you further...

Ben

 

[danno74]

I'm afraid after all the great stuff you guys gave me, it was a sad case of operator error. Instead of pluging the fan into the CPU slot, I was pluging it into the system fan slot. Pass the dunce cap! Live and learn...

Couple questions though. I started it up and the temp was 150 F, 66 C. What is considered OK? And I did reset the CMOS, and it came up with a CMOS checksum after reboot. Is that bad? What does a CMOS clearing do, reset the BIOS?

Thanks again for the help folks.

 

[ceh4702]

Sometimes you will get the checksum after clearing the BIOS with the Jumper and you will not see it next time. 150 degrees F is the absolute limit any processsor should ever reach. The processor may be getting too hot or the CPU heat sensor may be malfunctioning.

If you do not like my post feel free to point out your opinion or my errors.

 

[paparazi]

66C may be OK if you're in an Autralian summer or similarly warm climate but a 1.2 Athlon generally should be a lot cooler than this,you should be seeing (45-55C) depending on ambiant (surrounding temps).
Follow original advice (refit heatsink) fit extra case fans.
Martin

Replying helps further our knowledge, without comment leaves us wondering.

 

[paparazi]

66C may be OK if you're in an Australian summer or similarly warm climate but a 1.2 Athlon generally should be a lot cooler than this,you should be seeing (45-55C) depending on ambiant (surrounding temps).
Follow original advice (refit heatsink) fit extra case fans.
Martin

Replying helps further our knowledge, without comment leaves us wondering.