Topic: PC failing post

[MarkHudds]

In order to silence my PC, I've just installed the following:
1. An 'Arctic VGA cooler' to my gfx card
2. A SilenX heatsink/fan to my Athlon 1600XP

Everything seemed to go ok until I tried to power up ... power is coming on, all fans start, the hard disc winds up and then after about 10 seconds everything powers down. There is no display during this period.

I've eliminated the gfx card as this works on another pc, so I guess I've got a cpu problem now? I'm not getting any BIOS diagnostic beeps to help me so I'm a bit stuck!

As far as I can tell the heatsink/fan has been fitted correctly and I used artic silver compound.

I'd really appreciate any help! What normally causes post failure with no display or beeps?

Thanks

[Camstop]

Hi Mark and  

I'm no techie Mark but the thing that springs to my mine is that your power supply may not be up to it  

I'm sure we will have some techie help on this throughout today mark so keep em peeled  

[Dack]

You did only put a VERY thin coat of Arctic Silver on did you? (A work colleague just told me of a computer he had brought back where the fitter had used the entire tube!).

Usual cases for non-post that come to mind:
1. Memory - did you nudge it when you were fitting the GFX card back in?

2. Power - where did you connect the fans for the GFX card and Processor? Did you just change existing fans and use the same power points - some GFX fans are wired in reverse BTW. What power rating is your power supply - I'd guess 300W. May be worth you trying the power supply from the second computer in this one.

3. Processor - Is it inserted correctly and have you got any bent pins?

[Tony]

Well having done it myself, I'm going for: bad HS and CPU seating.

Personally I would try reseating the HS on the CPU.

I cannot see a couple of fans swops making your PSU trip out, they would have to be the straw that...... I think you may of experianced trouble with your PSU before their addition.

By the way AMD will not uphold warranties on CPU's were "paste" has been used, they insist on heat transfer pads being used. Dont supposed it is relevent regards your current problem, but I thought you may appreciate being aware of their position , if in the future you were to install an expensive CPU.

[MarkHudds]

Thanks for the responses and suggestions!

Unfortunately I can't try anything out until tonight (UK time).

I've found out that my motherboard (Asus A7N266-VM) has a feature called 'C.O.P' - CPU Overheating Protection, which is done all in hardware rather than BIOS.

If the HSF isn't seated right, could the CPU heat up to the maximum allowed by C.O.P in 10 seconds from power on? I'd still expect a display if everything was working though!

And yes, it was a thin film of artic silver ...

Is it best to apply paste to both CPU and heatsink or just the CPU?

[Sandra]

It can reach that temp and shut down in even less than 10 seconds if the heatsink isnt in contact with the cpu correctly or if the fan fails  
Usually a thin smear on the cpu itself is all that it needs  

[MarkHudds]

Finally sorted (at expense!)

Tried re-seating the heatsink on the CPU a number of times, however I didn't get anywhere.

Managed to pick up a new CPU today, popped it in tonight, added the heatsink and it fired up first time!  

Guess I must have damaged the old one  

Thanks everyone for the suggestions and compliments on a nice forum!

[Simon]

Thanks for the compliment, Mark.  

Glad you got it sorted - shame it was at a cost.