My First PC Build: Dead CPU?

[ZeFyre]

Greetings,

Nice to be back on the MSFN forums after being idle for several months. ;-)

I just completed my first complete system build yesterday - an AMD XP 2600 with 333FSB inside a black Shuttle XPC case, and it seems that my CPU may have died, but, I am not quite certain, so, I would like to see what you guys have to say about it.

Anyway, I should say that the build was a complete success - got everything into the case as it should be, booted it up, installed Debian 3.1 Stable, rebooted into debian, installed Video Drivers, and rebooted into SETUP to make sure all of my motherboard settings were as they should be (I hadn't bothered to set up the BIOS yet, which I know is quite lame.)

About 15-30 seconds after the system entered SETUP, it just plain died - no wierd sounds or anything - just cut off, and now I can't get it to power-on again. I can see the little power LED on the mainboard come on when I press the power button, and it will turn off the standard 5-15 seconds after holding the power button again, just as if the PC had been turned on, and then been forced to hard-off by holding the power button.

I should say that I find this very odd, because the system had been running for at least 10-20 minutes before it died, so I have my doubts about a fatal processor overheat, but, then again, this is my first time installing a CPU by myself - as I usually have somebody do it for me, due to a significant visual impairment I have.

Any suggestions or solutions would be greatly appreciated, as I have been technologically out of commission for about 24 hours now, and it is drastically affecting my little software development business. ;-)

Thanks in advance for any help you may offer!

--Quinn Ebert

--President, EbertSoft

[dman]

very first thing to try is re-seating the processor and all cables and cards. Highly unlikely (but possible) that processor died.

[LiquidSage]

If you connect lots of power demanding items like lights, fans, devices, etc... check that the power connections are snug and connected correctly. If they aren't the power supply can shut off instantly. Also if the bios is set to regulate temps and you don't have any temp sensing fans, that also could cause your problem. Check that your board is properly grounded (it should be on raisers) as well.

[ZeFyre]

DMan,

Thanks very much for your reply!

I'll grab some lunch, re-seat everything, and let you know what I come up with.

Thanks again!

--Quinn

[ZeFyre]

LiquidSage,

Thanks as well for your reply!

Not many power-hungry items in there - I don't have an AGP or PCI card in there yet, just the CPU, RAM, HDD, and a DVD recorder.

Thanks again!

--Quinn

[Bigbrit]

It may be the power supply is bad or down on power.

If the MB has the "Standard" power connections i.e. 20 pin and the small 4 pin (check that one is always plugged in) try putting a regular 300watt+ power supply at the side of your case and use that one to test. Try booting to the BIOS and stay there. If the PC does not shutdown in the BIOS it may be a memory problem, Try Memtest86+ ver 1.55.

Hope this helps

BigBrit

[dman]

dont forget the ram. push all cards and connectors on and off several times. if this doesnt work, next suspect power supply like bigbrit + sage mentioned.

Edited June 18, 2005 by dman

[Seanie's Show]

Hi, It sounds more like a mobo problem to me than the CPU, if the CPU has popped everything else should still power up ie CD rom lights (self test), spinning hard drive, and any case fans which you might have, etc, I know everything powers-up on my PC, it just bleeps at me in certain ways to let me know whats wrong, 5 bleeps for a faulty CPU, so I would say Mobo or PSU problem.

[ZeFyre]

Greetings all!

You guys may kill me for not figuring out and/or troubleshooting this on my own, but, the short is that I found the problem (a bum PSU) and fixed it by "out-boarding" the PSU from my old case.

So, at least for now, I am up and running until I can get in a new internal CPU later in the week.

Once again, you guys may feel free to hack on me mercilessly, but, even if you do, I still cannot thank you enough for your kind help!

Thanks again so very much!

--Quinn

[dman]

Nobody will "hack" on you here, there are other forums for that. We just glad you back up and running.

[ssmokee]

It may be the power supply is bad or down on power.

If the MB has the "Standard" power connections i.e. 20 pin and the small 4 pin (check that one is always plugged in) try putting a regular 300watt+ power supply at the side of your case and use that one to test.  Try booting to the BIOS and stay there.  If the PC does not shutdown in the BIOS it may be a memory problem, Try Memtest86+ ver 1.55.

Hope this helps

BigBrit

<{POST_SNAPBACK}>

Why the older version of memtest? Youre not the first person Ive seen recommend it, so I figure there might be something to it that Im not aware of.