Did I cook my old lady's computer?

  • Thread starter Thread starter Dr. J. Smith
  • Start date Start date
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Dr. J. Smith

My wife brought home 2 sticks of DDR ram to replace 133 for her computer
(ECS/K7S5A Athlon/1.4 ) and a new heatsink and fan to replace the old one
(too loud). The old one didn't look much different than the one she bought.
I cleaned the grease from the CPU and put the new one on just to hear the
difference. Powered up with only power cord plugged in back. Ran for 20?
secs then shut itself off. Sounded the same to me but what do I know? Went
and got her to listen and did the same thing. She wanted to hear it with the
case closed. Did that but then it wouldn't power up (she says it does this
from time to time). Clicked the switch a few times on the PSU then killed
the power bar before it powered up. Reset? Anyway it died again after 20
secs, she said it was quieter, she'd keep the new fan. So I added grease,
put in new ram, hooked everything up, then powered it up and everything
seems to work but screen says "No signal check the signal cable" and no beep
at post. Put old ram back in, no change. It only has two cards, AGP video
and a SCSI. The SCSI has an LED which still lights up at power up. Hooked up
my old 300w PSU anyway but no change. Unplugged power to all drives, no
change. If I cooked the CPU would it do this? Suggestions? (Yeah I know,
take a long trip...)
 
My wife brought home 2 sticks of DDR ram to replace 133 for her computer
(ECS/K7S5A Athlon/1.4 ) and a new heatsink and fan to replace the old one
(too loud). The old one didn't look much different than the one she bought.
I cleaned the grease from the CPU and put the new one on just to hear the
difference. Powered up with only power cord plugged in back. Ran for 20?
secs then shut itself off. Sounded the same to me but what do I know? Went
and got her to listen and did the same thing. She wanted to hear it with the
case closed. Did that but then it wouldn't power up (she says it does this
from time to time). Clicked the switch a few times on the PSU then killed
the power bar before it powered up. Reset? Anyway it died again after 20
secs, she said it was quieter, she'd keep the new fan. So I added grease,
put in new ram, hooked everything up, then powered it up and everything
seems to work but screen says "No signal check the signal cable" and no beep
at post.
Click to expand...

You might still have hope. I just posted about my ABIT going dead.
Ive had tons of problems with all my refurbed motherboards - the ones
they give you to replace bad ones under warranty - ASUS, ABITs.

The one MB that I havent had this problem is the reburb ASUS nforce2 I
bought directly as mark down - a return to Newegg.

Basically the older boards - the ones that have been around for a
while seem to develop all kinds of quirks. One of them is this strange
thing where they seem totally dead. You would swear they were dead.

My Abit which I Im using on a second PC would power up but there was
no video after shutting it off the nigth before. I tested all the
components which were OK and narrowed it down to the MB. I even took
the MB out of the case and reseated the CPU , used a different CPU,
Memory, PS and video card and powered it up OUT Of the case just in
case of shorts. NADA. Same no video. I cleared the CMOS several times
over and over again. And I took the battery out.

I ket it sit for a few days and then reassembled everything today and
it worked. Yup. Wacko. Same thing with a neighbors ABIT refurb
replacement. Wouldnt power up repeatedly when I got it . I cleared
the CMOS over and over and over again and suddenly it did. It crashed
once in the last 5 months and then wouldnt start up again so I cleared
the CMOS and it once again it worked.

Put old ram back in, no change. It only has two cards, AGP video
and a SCSI. The SCSI has an LED which still lights up at power up. Hooked up
my old 300w PSU anyway but no change. Unplugged power to all drives, no
change. If I cooked the CPU would it do this? Suggestions? (Yeah I know,
take a long trip...)
Click to expand...

I would clear the CMOS , take the battery out if it still doesnt work
and then try it.

Im assuming you didnt have the PC plugged in while you were changing
the mem etc. Some people say they didnt have problems but they give
you warning not to change mem or cards unless you turn it off at the
power supply switch or unplug your PC because there still some juice
in the board.

The other thing Im assuming is there isnt some weird jumper you set
when you go to DDR ram. Or you didnt mix ram - which they tell you not
to do on the boards Ive seen which take both. Or that you didnt
forget to plug the fan in.

One thing Ive run into is if you set the bios to auto shutdown if the
CPU fan isnt working. You have to have the CPU fan usually plugged
into the FAN 1 plug on some boards that senses this or it keeps
shutting the MB down after 10 secs or so . That wouldnt explain your
no video though.

But like I said - both ABITS Ive replaced - mine and a neighbors are
quirky as hell and I just fixed a relatives ASUS replacement board too
that has this weird recurring system file corruptiuon problem. Seem to
happen like roughly every month or two.

Try clearing it and taking all cards out except the video and one mem
stick and then go immediately into the bios if you get something on
the screen to check if the CPU settings are correct.
 
Dr. J. Smith said:
My wife brought home 2 sticks of DDR ram to replace 133 for her computer
(ECS/K7S5A Athlon/1.4 ) and a new heatsink and fan to replace the old one
(too loud). The old one didn't look much different than the one she bought.
I cleaned the grease from the CPU and put the new one on just to hear the
difference. Powered up with only power cord plugged in back. Ran for 20?
secs then shut itself off. Sounded the same to me but what do I know? Went
and got her to listen and did the same thing. She wanted to hear it with the
case closed. Did that but then it wouldn't power up (she says it does this
from time to time). Clicked the switch a few times on the PSU then killed
the power bar before it powered up. Reset? Anyway it died again after 20
secs, she said it was quieter, she'd keep the new fan. So I added grease,
put in new ram, hooked everything up, then powered it up and everything
seems to work but screen says "No signal check the signal cable" and no beep
at post. Put old ram back in, no change. It only has two cards, AGP video
and a SCSI. The SCSI has an LED which still lights up at power up. Hooked up
my old 300w PSU anyway but no change. Unplugged power to all drives, no
change. If I cooked the CPU would it do this? Suggestions? (Yeah I know,
take a long trip...)
Click to expand...

Although you could have "cooked" the cpu if you did not put the heatsink
back on correctly...you would have definitely smelled something burning.
If you inspect the cpu with a good light and reading glasses, you'd see
that it was burned.

I'd check to see if maybe you simply dislodged something...
recheck all connections etc
also, you may want to try resetting the bios...
there is usually a bios reset jumper next to it
 
John Smith, good name. Thanks for taking the time to respond. Glad you got
your problems woked out but I'm still struggling with this one. Here's my
reply...
I would clear the CMOS , take the battery out if it still doesnt work
and then try it.
Click to expand...

Did this several times, no change... battery r&r, no change
Im assuming you didnt have the PC plugged in while you were changing
the mem etc. Some people say they didnt have problems but they give
you warning not to change mem or cards unless you turn it off at the
power supply switch or unplug your PC because there still some juice
in the board.
Click to expand...

No, I had the box unplugged completely. Today though I learned the switch on
her power bar doesn't work, though the light does. So when I turned off the
switch I killed the light but the power was still on. I mostly use the
switch on the PSU but I'm working on this under her desk so I might have
used the power bar switch and had power on when I was troubleshooting it but
this would be after the problem started. It is possible I put the old ram
back in with power to the MB.
The other thing Im assuming is there isn't some weird jumper you set
when you go to DDR ram. Or you didnt mix ram - which they tell you not
to do on the boards Ive seen which take both. Or that you didnt
forget to plug the fan in.
Click to expand...

No jumper indicated in User Guide, unlike her old K7AMA board. Didn't mix
ram. Plugged the new fan in when I installed it. Also tried old fan again as
a long shot. No difference.
One thing Ive run into is if you set the bios to auto shutdown if the
CPU fan isnt working. You have to have the CPU fan usually plugged
into the FAN 1 plug on some boards that senses this or it keeps
shutting the MB down after 10 secs or so . That wouldnt explain your
no video though.
Click to expand...

Bios reset. Auto shutdown defunct, runs continuously now.

Try clearing it and taking all cards out except the video and one mem
stick and then go immediately into the bios if you get something on
the screen to check if the CPU settings are correct.
Click to expand...

Did this, get nothing but "No signal check the signal cable" message. This
message is continuous except when I power up, then the screen turns black
for a moment before the message appears again. Again, thanks John.


Still open to suggestions.
~Dr.J.
 
Although you could have "cooked" the cpu if you did not put the heatsink
back on correctly...you would have definitely smelled something burning.
If you inspect the cpu with a good light and reading glasses, you'd see
that it was burned.

I'd check to see if maybe you simply dislodged something...
recheck all connections etc
also, you may want to try resetting the bios...
there is usually a bios reset jumper next to it
Click to expand...
Philo,
Although I assembled my own system I've never dealt with a problem like
this before. I cleaned up her CPU and found no physical indication of
burning but there might have been an odour. Hard to tell, I was working on
it under her desk with a hot light for illumination which smells kind of,
well, hot. Removed everything except ram and (reseated) video card. Reset
bios. Everything seems to be in order, pulled off and pushed on wire
connections and video card though I doubt it would make a difference. What I
did in the first place was pretty isolated and straight forward.

Thanks for your input.

I'm running out of ideas. If it's a problem with the CPU which would be the
safer option to test it... put her CPU in my MB or put mine in hers?

~Dr.J.
 
..
I'm running out of ideas. If it's a problem with the CPU which would be the
safer option to test it... put her CPU in my MB or put mine in hers?
Click to expand...

That I don't know...but I don't think a "blown" cpu would take out a
motherboard.
If the cpu is bad and there is absolutely no signs of burning...
it might be covered by warranty.
i had a cpu fail after about a week and was quite pleased when i found out
it was covered by warranty!
 
My wife brought home 2 sticks of DDR ram to replace 133 for her computer
(ECS/K7S5A Athlon/1.4 ) and a new heatsink and fan to replace the old one
(too loud). The old one didn't look much different than the one she bought.
I cleaned the grease from the CPU and put the new one on just to hear the
difference. Powered up with only power cord plugged in back. Ran for 20?
secs then shut itself off. Sounded the same to me but what do I know? Went
and got her to listen and did the same thing. She wanted to hear it with the
case closed. Did that but then it wouldn't power up (she says it does this
from time to time). Clicked the switch a few times on the PSU then killed
the power bar before it powered up. Reset? Anyway it died again after 20
secs, she said it was quieter, she'd keep the new fan. So I added grease,
put in new ram, hooked everything up, then powered it up and everything
seems to work but screen says "No signal check the signal cable" and no beep
at post. Put old ram back in, no change. It only has two cards, AGP video
and a SCSI. The SCSI has an LED which still lights up at power up. Hooked up
my old 300w PSU anyway but no change. Unplugged power to all drives, no
change. If I cooked the CPU would it do this? Suggestions? (Yeah I know,
take a long trip...)
Click to expand...

"Some" of those K7S5A motherboards are very temperamental, to put it
mildly. I won't use word "defective" since *some people* don't like
that word, but, that board is a lottery, if you have the right
(version) number you might be ok, but the wrong number and you have a
dead, dart board.

IF you didn't install the heatsink correctly, it's certainly possible
the CPU is damaged. If it was installed ok and the CPU has no signs
of damage, I'd lay odds on the motherboard being bad.
 
Well you can try pulling the cpu out of her sys and putting it in yours. I
just built a comp for a guy and accidentally pasted off the chip, (you know
on the board it sits on. Anyway, the sys would turn for about 10secs then
power off. When I pulled the CPU it ran and didn't shut off, so I went and
replaced the CPU and, Voila it powered on and ran like a champ. Oh and BTW
I did clean the grease off the chip, ut it still wouldn't run.

Chris
P.s. Sorry for bad grammar but I am on Vicodin right now.
 
Chris Stolworthy said:
Well you can try pulling the cpu out of her sys and putting it in yours. I
just built a comp for a guy and accidentally pasted off the chip, (you know
on the board it sits on. Anyway, the sys would turn for about 10secs then
power off. When I pulled the CPU it ran and didn't shut off, so I went and
replaced the CPU and, Voila it powered on and ran like a champ. Oh and BTW
I did clean the grease off the chip, ut it still wouldn't run.

Chris
P.s. Sorry for bad grammar but I am on Vicodin right now.
Click to expand...

Put her chip in my MB tonight. It's dead. Not sure I follow you about
pasting off the chip. Are you saying your thermal compound is conductive?
The stuff I usually use is non-conductive, my chip is swimming in the stuff.
This time, on hers I used the stuff that came with her cooler and I didn't
think to be tidy. Well that's a hard lesson if that's the case. It would
explain why it's dead with no apparent heat damage.

Thanks for the help, ~Dr.J.

BTW, what's the best way to cut the grease on the CPU? Might as well give it
mouth to mouth and see if it comes back.....
 
Put her chip in my MB tonight. It's dead. Not sure I follow
you about pasting off the chip. Are you saying your thermal
compound is conductive? The stuff I usually use is
non-conductive, my chip is swimming in the stuff.
Click to expand...

Ideally, thermal compound is highly conductive thermally and not at
all conductive electrically. Silver-laced compounds are slightly
conductive electrically, rarely enough to worry about, except around
high voltage.

You're not supposed to use so much compound that the chip "swims" in
it. Apply only enough to completely coat the contact surfaces of the
chip package and heatsink and leave no air pockets between them.
Always use something soft and gooey, like thermal grease, a thermal
pad, or a phase-change pad (only one of these), and never run a CPU
for even the briefest moment without the heatsink properly installed
and the fan operating. An Athlon or Duron will burn out in no more
than about 0.5 second if run without a heatsink and in a few minutes
with the heatsink but no fan.
 
never run a CPU
for even the briefest moment without the heatsink properly installed
and the fan operating. An Athlon or Duron will burn out in no more
than about 0.5 second if run without a heatsink and in a few minutes
with the heatsink but no fan.
Click to expand...

Fan and heatsink were in place, though I didn't apply thermal grease when I
tested the fan. Never ran it for more than 20 seconds like this. Still, the
chip failed.
 
Fan and heatsink were in place, though I didn't apply thermal grease when I
tested the fan. Never ran it for more than 20 seconds like this. Still, the
chip failed.
Click to expand...

Whoever gave you the impression that a heatsink can simply be
installed without any compound, may have contributed to the death of
your CPU. Unless the heatsink is very smooth and flat, the system
should never be turned on without heatsink compound. Even if it was
smooth and flat, you have voided any warranty on the CPU.
 
Put her chip in my MB tonight. It's dead. Not sure I follow you about
pasting off the chip. Are you saying your thermal compound is conductive?
The stuff I usually use is non-conductive, my chip is swimming in the stuff.
This time, on hers I used the stuff that came with her cooler and I didn't
think to be tidy. Well that's a hard lesson if that's the case. It would
explain why it's dead with no apparent heat damage.

Thanks for the help, ~Dr.J.

BTW, what's the best way to cut the grease on the CPU? Might as well give it
mouth to mouth and see if it comes back.....
Click to expand...


Petroleum-based solvents, in many types of cleaners or even WD-40,
will clean off just about any type of thermal goo. Heatsink compound
should be applied in a paper-thin layer only. If the heatsink looks
so rough that a paper-thin layer isn't enough, the heatsink isn't fit
for use, should be returned to seller or lapped to a smooth/flat
finish.
 
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