Computer Won't Boot

U

upskid

Joined
Mar 18, 2005
Messages
12
Reaction score
0
Just recently i installed a new heat sink on my CPU. But now all of a sudden the computer wont boot. I tried to be as careful as i could to but the dang thing on. Is it possible the i may have cracked the CPU or is it somthing else. The fans will start up but thats all then after 5 seconds the computer shuts off. Nothing shows up on the monitor. I dont even hear the hard drive start to go. I tried unplugging everything then starting it but still nothing happens except the fans and it shuts down.

Specs
AMD Athlon XP 3000+
Asus A7N8X-X motherboard
2x256 Corsair PC 3200 XMS memory
Hitachi 160GB hard drive
ATI radeon 9200 graphics card
DVD drive
DVD-RW
 
It sounds as if the heatsink isn't sitting tight on the CPU, that happened to me once, one corner of the heatsink was sitting on top of a capacitor so it wasn't making full contact.

The CPU will heat up extremely quickly and the motherboard will shut down to save the CPU from damage.

What Cooler or heatsink/fan did you use? Does the cooler fan spin? If not make sure it's plugged in somewhere.

If the cooler fan is connected to a four pin PSU molex connector and your previous one was connected to the motherboard, it's possible that your Bios is set to shut down the motherboard if a fan isn't detected plugged into one of the motherboard headers.

To see if this is the case, plug in your old fan to the motherboard fan header it was in previously, hold it in your hand or make sure it's secured, then see if it will boot.

If it does boot, then go into the Bios and disable the CPU fan detection setting.

If the heatsink isn't seated properly, remove it, perhaps bend any offending capacitors over a little to allow fitting, clean off old heatsink compound with clean rag, meths & cotton buds, then try fitting it again.

If it's an Athlon 64 CPU, I feel it's unlikely you've chipped the core. EDIT: Just noticed from your sig it's a soket A CPU, so check the core for any bad chips or fractures. It would have be a pretty severe breakage to break the CPU, they can stand a surprising amount of punishment, chipped corners usually make little difference to operation.
 
The heatsink i used is a Thermaltake POLO735. I took the heatsink off then put it back on. It boots now but when i turned it on and looked the screen it said warining CPU may have been changed. Now it wont run at the speed it is suppose to run at.
 
Last edited:
I reckon your computer is set to shut down upon"CPU FAN FAIL" - i would assume the old one is 3 pin, is the new one 4 pin? if so, theres your problem. The motherboard wont detect any fan RPM so imediatly shuts down.

That it??

edit: oops i see flops already mentioned that, sorry...
 
I got it working now but when it started up there was an error message that said " CPU may have been changed!" and now the processor wont run at the speeds it used to run at.
 
upskid said:
I got it working now but when it started up there was an error message that said " CPU may have been changed!" and now the processor wont run at the speeds it used to run at.
Click to expand...

Go into the Bios and if necessary reset the multiplier.

Also check it's running at the correct fsb. If that's an XP3000 it should be shown as 333 or 166 fsb in the Bios.

If you're not sure what we're talking about, ask away, although I'm not familiar with you motherboard's Bios setup.
 
When i change the FSB to 166 then save and restart the computer wont restart. So i have to hold the power button and power it on again and change the bios settings back.
 
I've just realised the XP3000 comes in two flavours, 333fsb & 400fsb. Both run at 2.17Ghz.

The settings for the 333fsb version will be 13 x 166fsb and the settings for the 400fsb version will be 10.5 x 200fsb.

You don't know which version you have do you?

The fsb should set automatically, if not try the 333fsb settings first. Then the 400.

You may have to reset the CMOS via the motherboard jumper at some stage during this trial and error setup, in which case you will need to reset all relevant Bios settings.
 
OK. I'm stumped.

If you know for sure it's a 333 version, don't try the 400 version settings.

Try resetting the CMOS/Bios (see the manual, this usually involves turning computer off, swapping a jumper position for a few seconds, then putting jumper back).

Reboot. Note the Bios settings the CPU defaults to (multiplier and fsb) and the speed the CPU is running at (Control Panel, System). Then post here letting us know.

A Bios upgrade may be a good idea, but the fact it was running fine before changing CPU cooler indicates that would probably not be the cause. I don't suppose you took the CPU out of it's socket briefly when you changed cooler did you? I'm thinking wrongly seated CPU here, but this is extremely unlikely.

Other than that, unless I get a brainstorm, I'm baffled for the time being.

Anybody else got any ideas?
 
OK i reset the bios and it defaulted to 100mhz X 13 multiplier. But a thing i just noticed is that when i turn on my neon light in the computer i can hear the fans get slower. Also the light doesnt light up all the way. Is it possible the cpu isnt getting enough power to run at higher speeds?
 
450w but as i said when i turn on my neon light all the fans slow down. And the neon light doesnt light up all the way. So should i buy a new power supply?
 
Iit says L&C computer company. Its the one that came with the case.
 
Last edited:
L & C are no good. I've had a couple of those fail on me, they weigh next to nothing and are not to be trusted. They often come with generic cases.

However, we've gone from CPU at wrong speed after changing cooler to a self-diagnosed PSU problem.

Hmm.
 
Its pretty wierd. So I should go ahead and get a new power supply and see if that does the trick?
 
upskid said:
Its pretty wierd. So I should go ahead and get a new power supply and see if that does the trick?
Click to expand...

It wouldn't hurt, would it?

But you state everything was fine before you changed cooler, so no, don't buy a new PSU just yet, let's try and get your CPU working at the correct speed first.

If you think you don't have enough power, disconnect all your lighting and anything else you don't need just to get CPU at correct speed.

Disconnect power to your floppy and optical drives, all lighting and anything else that's not needed for your system to boot to Operating System.

Now try to set CPU within Bios to 13 x 166 fsb.
 
Also, why did you delete one post and edit another?

Your original statement was that 'I think it says L & C Computing Company'. Well, either it does or it doesn't.

Is it definitely an L & C PSU?
 
Back
Top