Fishlips said:
A7N8X Deluxe
Bios: 1001.G
Athlon XP 1500+
My computer has worked fine for a year or two, since I've had it.
Today it froze up, so I turned it off and turned it back on again. It
worked for a while and then I left it and when I came back I saw that
it had frozen right up again shortly after I restarted it.
I turned it off again, and when I tried to restart it I got this
message from the BIOS:
Warning!! CPU have over speed!
It will allow me to enter the BIOS setup, but the computer will not
boot. It just keeps giving that same message.
I have not changed any settings, and the computer has never been
overclocked.
There was a lot of dust inside, but a thorough cleaning with a vacuum
and compressed air has not helped.
Is the CPU fried? Or could it be a different component?
Is the CPU fan spinning ? Is the CPU fan plugged into the
header ? Maybe it has come loose. That is the only suggestion
I see in Google.
Using compressed air to clean electronics is a no-no. There
is the potential to generate static electricity on surfaces
where you apply the air. People have posted here, about
their computer being dead after cleaning with compressed
air, so it happens. Similarly, any product that causes
an extreme temperature drop when applied (some dust-off products),
can thermally shock and crack ICs that don't have a very
large thermal mass, so if the dust-off can contains an
expanding liquid, that is another reason not to use it.
(In my experience, it is ICs like the old windowed DIP EPROMs
that are sensitive.)
If you used thermal paste between the CPU and heatsink, now
might be a good time to reapply it. My preferred method, is to
do this with the motherboard outside the computer case, as it
is easier to see what you are doing, and reduces the risk of
damaging something if a screwdriver slips etc. Whether that
is practical, really depends on your computer case, and the
size of the heatsink. I have some computer cases with a
stiffening bar across the case opening, and that bar gets in
the way of inserting a motherboard with heatsink attached.
I like a heatsink that screws in place, like a Zalman 7000
for a situation like that. With heatsinks that screw into
place, there are no tricky clamps to fiddle with.
If you want to clean a board, I would use a paper towel moistened
with an alcohol based cleaner. The ICs on the board will be
compatible with alcohol, and your dampened cleaning cloth can
be used to wipe the tops of any ICs on the board. There is no
need to wipe the smaller components.
To reduce dust buildup in the future, I recommend balancing inlet
and exhaust fan air flow (CFMs). Placing a fan in the front of the
case, down low, blowing into the case, will help keep the dust
floating in the air, until the exhaust fan blows it out the back.
By reducing dead spots where the dust can settle out, you can reduce
but not completely eliminate dust. (I don't like to use screen based
filters that come with some computer cases, because those need to
be cleaned regularly. Better to just design the airflow so what is
pulled into the case, is flushed out again.)
I had a computer with just one fan on the back, and it needed to be
cleaned of dust every 3 months or so. Once I installed a fan in the
front of the case, down low, I haven't cleaned it since. I had to
remove the speaker that was located down there, to make room. The
speaker is now bolted to the outside of the case
Ugly, but it
works...
Paul
