Author Topic: PC locking up during boot up (Read 641 times)

Glasses · « **on:** May 14, 2003, 02:10:28 PM »

Well I finally got my system but I have a little problem. You see each time I boot up my PC it locks up even though the reported CPu tem is about 31C on boot up,yes I have an Athlon Tbird Heatsink CPU, but I put in some Arctic silver thermal compound to increase the heat conductivity in the core,although some of it seems slipped into the little jumpers north of the core, I don't know if it has to do do anything with it, so I cleaned it up, it still boots but in the Boot up sequence it locks up.

One thing I must say that at first it was booting up fine and everything worked in fact I could go in to the BIOS and set everything up to my CPU speed and get to windows but once windows started my keyboard and mouse stopped responding, yet the PC was working like nothing has happened,except the mouse and keyboard are not working.

I don't know what's wrong so maybe you can help me out.

System:
Epox 8rda+
Athlon XP 2400
PC2700 Kingston 256 333mhz DDR Ram x2
Geforce 2 GTS

Thanks Glassoidio

Pfunk · « **Reply #1 on:** May 14, 2003, 03:46:54 PM »

If you didnt get the artic silver 3 completly off before you booted and gave it power it is entirely possible the cpu is fried. Also the 8rda+ has had issues with USB keyboards and mice, go to http://www.amdforums.com and look at the epox part of the motherboards section, lots of good answers there.

Glasses · « **Reply #2 on:** May 14, 2003, 04:02:47 PM »

Well it does boot it just locks out my keyboard. it keeps functioning. For example sometimes it just locks up completely and other times it locks out my keyboard and Mouse and the CPu Temperatre keeps reading normally and everything goes on as normal.

Modas · « **Reply #3 on:** May 14, 2003, 04:43:21 PM »

Somewhere I read that you could use alcohol to clean A/S off off the CPU with fairly good results. Don't quote me on that one tho, cuz I've never actually tried it.

Try doing an google search on removing A/S. I think that's how I found it.

Good luck

San · « **Reply #4 on:** May 14, 2003, 04:55:39 PM »

Paint thinner is the best cleaner I have found for getting Arctic Silver off. You can use it on the chip but don't get any on the core. To clean the core use rubbing Alcohol. I normally clean the core first then use some paint thinner to clean the rest of the chip. After you get it cleaned up go back and wipe it down with rubbing alcohol and a lint free rag if you have one if not an old teeshirt will work.

I read somewhere the other day that AS3 will not short bridges not sure how true that is. I know AS2 will cause them to short so you will need to clean it off for sure if you used the older AS

Glasses · « **Reply #5 on:** May 14, 2003, 05:10:05 PM »

Hey it worked I removed the arctic silver thing with a lint free cloth and it booted up nicely no lockups, I think Pfunk might be the bearer of extra bad news or just preparing me for the worse, but IMO if the chip was fried it wouldn't even boot would it?

San · « **Reply #6 on:** May 14, 2003, 05:12:47 PM »

I think your alright and I found this on Arctic silver website

Negligible electrical conductivity.
Arctic Silver 3 was formulated to conduct heat, not electricity. It is only electrically conductive in a thin layer under extreme compression.
(While much safer than electrically conductive silver and copper greases, Arctic Silver 3 should be kept away from electrical traces, pins, and leads. The compound is slightly capacitive and could potentially cause problems if it bridged two close-proximity electrical paths.)

AKS\/\/ulfe · « **Reply #7 on:** May 14, 2003, 05:18:59 PM »

If you fried the CPU, the only thing that would come on would be the system fans...
-SW

Glasses · « **Reply #8 on:** May 14, 2003, 05:57:35 PM »

I reckon Seawulfe burnt plenty of chips to know when a chip is kaput.

AKS\/\/ulfe · « **Reply #9 on:** May 14, 2003, 06:00:31 PM »

When the chips aren't on your dollar, it's easy to push them beyond their limits... "They were like that when they arrived!"
-SW

Glasses · « **Reply #10 on:** May 14, 2003, 07:04:52 PM »

Well it still does it, It did work once,after I cleaned it with rubbing alcohol, and I got into bios could fiddle around with it for a while and after I rebooted it,with the new settings, it booted up Blam freezed like a 17 year old virgin girl on prom night.

You can still see the numbers of the temperature moving up and down and everything else it just doesn't let my keyboard do anything. I'm using the same keyboard from this PC,a Ps/2 keyboard.

It lets me go into the bios after I press delete like mad but then it doesn't do anything else, the CPU might not be fried but it might aswell be my damaged.

Oh and I didn't or wasn't pushing my CPU to do anything I was trying to boot it up on the normal settings,might be that I FUBARED it with too much of the Arctic 3 grease.

AKS\/\/ulfe · « **Reply #11 on:** May 14, 2003, 07:26:27 PM »

Could of damaged it, but just to be sure- start from bare bones- just CPU, mobo, 1 stick of memory, video card, and keyboard. Start it up. See what it does, see how long you can stay in the BIOS if you can get that far.

After that, add hard drive, then mouse, then sound card, etc.

Also be sure the heat sink is firmly seated over that small raised area in the center of the CPU. If it's elevated on one half, it can still read "normal temps"... but overheating half the CPU causing it to lock up.
-SW

Pfunk · « **Reply #12 on:** May 14, 2003, 09:17:25 PM »

The most common misconception with AS3 is that you need alot of it. In reality you only need the a small amount and then thin it out with a credit card or something similar about this much----0------ is needed with the 0 representing the amount you should put on, it is quite possible that you put to much on. If you got it in the bridges just using a rag will not get it off, you need to use rubbing alcohol or denatured alcohol to get it off completely. But look at it this way if you did in fact fry the chip newegg has an xp1700 for $42 shipped

You might get a "B" core which allows you to overclock it more, but it seems that newegg is shipping more "A" cores. If you plan on oeverclocking you can get an xp1700 from googlegear.com which guarantees you a "B" core but they are a few more $$$. Since you have an 8rda+ which is an overclocking madman and if you feel comfortable using it to its full potential I would recommend getting a "B" core. I got one and have it overclocked to 2.2ghz at 11x200 FSB running 42C under load, granted the memory is going to be the limiting factor I have Kingston HyperX PC3000.

Pfunk · « **Reply #13 on:** May 14, 2003, 09:25:32 PM »

http://www.googlegear.com/jsp/ProductDetail.jsp?ProductCode=80154

Thats the B core i was talking about $44, pretty much everyone is hitting 2.0ghz with it some getting up to 2.2

Glasses · « **Reply #14 on:** May 14, 2003, 09:46:51 PM »

Well I finally gave in called Mwave and asked for an RMA I'll be sending it back tommorow.

Will prolly have to buy a new heatsink fan combo to work with an Athlon XP especifically so I stop getting these problems and could someone point me out how to put the thermal grease onto the CPU or heatsink how do I properly use this thing first time I've had to apply the damn thing on my own.

I just fried the 1 Gig CPu I had on this rig forgot to plug in the fan now I'm down to the last CPu an AMD Duron. I was getting too anxious I guess, impulsivity made me do stupid things with my first rig now I guess it has done the same with my last one