J said:
Im using xp and have award bios. I was changing my procs settings to
overclock and when I tried to reboot I get nothing. I hear my fans and outer
lights working. But I cant get xp up again. Did I fry my motherboard?
It would have helped, if you mentioned what kind of motherboard
and processor you're using. Yes, some of them can be killed,
if you overclock too high. (Like, doubling the speed would be
a bad thing.) But most of the time, the results are
one of two things -
1) The motherboard has an overclock recovery procedure. On my current
motherboard, I push the reset button three times in a row (with
a 15 second delay between each press). On the third push of the
button, the computer returns to defaults. On my other overclocking
motherboards, the recovery is available on power off and then
back on again. You should read or research what the features are
in each case, to understand what to do, and what to expect.
2) If all else fails (and one of my overclocking motherboards gets
"stuck" occasionally), you can use the "clear CMOS" jumper.
Now a warning about that, is the power should be unplugged from
the computer, when you use the jumper. Read your motherboard
user manual for exact instructions. A typical sequence would be
a) Switch off computer at the back. Unplug the computer. Wait at
least 30 seconds, or until the green LED on the motherboard
goes out. Now, there is no power at all inside the computer.
b) Locate the CMOS jumper. It consists of three pins, with a jumper
on two of them. Say the jumper is on 1-2 right now. Move the
jumper to 2-3. That means, the jumper will short together pins
2 and 3.
c) Wait ten seconds. Now, move the jumper back to the original pins.
d) Plug in the computer and switch it on at the back. Press the
power button on the front. Next, press the key you normally use
to enter the BIOS. If the computer POSTs OK, you should be able
to enter the BIOS screen. The clock time should be reset and the
settings should have returned to default values. Enter your
normal BIOS settings. Make sure the boot order is corrected.
Save and exit.
e) The next thing you should see, is the computer booting again.
f) If the procedure fails to correct your problem, repeat
the procedure, only at the end of step (b), remove the
CMOS battery (the CR2032 in the round socket). Leave the
battery out for at least a couple minutes, with the jumper
still in 2-3. Now, put the battery back (remembering to
reinsert it the same way it was originally). Finish the
clear CMOS procedure, put the jumper back in the original
position etc. The battery removal is necessary in some
cases, as the jumper doesn't seem to drain the circuit
properly. I've had to pull a battery at least once, because
the jumper didn't work. If the clear CMOS thing is working,
the clock in the BIOS should get reset. So you'll need to
set the clock again in there.
g) If that doesn't work, power off and unplug. Pull the RAM
sticks out of the computer (store them in an antistatic bag).
Power up the computer and listen for beeps from the case
speaker. (If successful, the beep pattern signals "bad RAM".)
Power down and unplug. Reinstall the RAM and try
to enter the BIOS. If you got no beeps while trying this,
you may have killed it. If you get beeps, there is some hope.
HTH,
Paul
