Aces High Bulletin Board
General Forums => Hardware and Software => Topic started by: SuperDud on August 16, 2006, 06:59:21 AM
-
So I'm chuggin along with my new PC lovin life when...BAAAMMMM, it completely shuts off on me. I think "Hmmm, must be working out a chink". So I fire'er back up and start my adventure again and BAAMMMM, back off we go. Now I'm thinking there's a problem. Open up the case, fudge with the wires, close her up and... nuthin:mad: This was last night night and I had to go to work so I figure I'd fool with it when I get home. Come home today reopen it, reconnect all the power wires/cord and... nuthin!
My thought is power supply is dead. I know the PC is new but reading some of the reveiws they warned the power supply might not last long. Also, when you turn on the switch in the back, the mobo gives you a green light letting you know you have power to the board and I don't get that either. Does this sound like the likely culprit?
Here's the case with built in power supply:
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.asp?Item=N82E16811209018
-
Sounds like the supply may have gone away. Are any vent fans running? I don't suppose you have a volt meter handy by any chance?
-
OK it might not be my power supply. Or it might not only be my power supply. I just took the one outta my old PC and it fired right up. My PCU is running HOT! I'm talking 90C. Before it would run at about 65C. Well when I was having an unrelated problem I took the heatsink off the PCU and noticed my thermal paste seemed to be thinnly spread. So I went ahead a plastered more of it on thinking you can never have to much of a good thing. Well that must not be true because I was watching my PCU temp gauge and it starts at around 65 then just keeps climbing to 85 then poof, system shuts off. So now I think it might be both. I still think the power supply is junk b/c when I flipped the switch for it I got nuthin, no fans, no anything. So looks like I'll have to scrape off my plastering job and just add as much as I did last time.:O
-
heatsink paste should be a VERY thin layer. As thin as possible while keeping it evenly spread. Lots of people used to use a razor blade to scrap it until it was a very thin and flat layer.
-
More thermal paste is a bad thing. Thermal paste actually inhibits thermal transfer when it interferes with the metal-to-metla contact. It is only meant to be used to fill the gaps between the contact surfaces which cannot mate due to irregularities in the surfaces.
What thermal paste did you use? If it is conductive or of a low die-electric strength and you got some bridged across the pins of the CPU or nearby components you could have damaged the CPU or related electronic components.
-
Originally posted by eagl
heatsink paste should be a VERY thin layer. As thin as possible while keeping it evenly spread. Lots of people used to use a razor blade to scrap it until it was a very thin and flat layer.
Yeah that's what I'm gonna do. I know it's globed on now. What can I say, I'm a dud.:D
Skuzzy, I used artic silver 5. Gonna take a look now.
-
Yeah it was on thick. I took a lot off and reattached the pcu and heatsink but it still got to hot. I think I might have fried it.
-
take it all off, clean both the cpu and heatsink with rubbing alcohol. Put a drop of AS5 the size of a grain of rice in the center of the cpu, and attach the heatsink. After clipping on the heatsink, if possible gently twist the heatsink left and right about 1 degree (but just ONCE!) to help spread the little drop of paste.
That's the instructions on the artic silver website.
-
OK, I'm good. I did just that eagl and am now running at about 50C lol. I now have a new problem that I wasn't sure was a problem at all b/c of all my other problems. Sometimes my computer just restarts itself for no reason. I thought it was do to temp but just now running at 50C it did it? I just went to read your reply and mid paragraph poof, I get a black screen. It then restarts my computer but as it goes to load the windows screen(with the blue thingy ticking across) I just never get anything back? I have to manually turn it off and restart. And there seems to be no rhyme or reason to it. Before I had the heat problem it could suddenly happen 5 mins or 2 hours after turning on the PC. As a matter of fact I'm editing the heck outta this because I was afraid it'd do it mid paragraph again:noid
-
Oh, and thanks for the help guys!
-
It would not surprise me if it was power supply related. Caution: If it is power supply related and the supply is crow-barring, then it is also slowly damaging the power regulator circuits on the motherboard.
Conutinued use will eventually cause a total failure of the regulators and you will be out a motherboard and CPU.
-
Looks like I'm just gonna stay off it then. I just ordered a 550V PS so hopefully that'll clear things up. Thanks again guys.
-
Name brand power supply? It is not the wattage the supply produces, it is how it is distributed over the various voltage rails which is important.
For high end systems, I would only trust PC Power & Cooling, Antec, and Enermax supplies.
-
I'm surprised you didn't go to the arctic silver webpage and print off the instructions!!! They have them online. I think my tube of AS5 has the url on it somewhere. I did a google and found the official site. More = BAD.
Also this is a silver-based material, it has actual silver in it. As such it conducts electricity. If you had it plastered all over it can cause a short somewhere. Make sure you clean up any residue with rubbing alcohol or something.
-
LOL as luck would have it, it is an Enermax. And I went ahead and went with a 600V b/c it was only $13 more. Talk about lucking out:D
-
600V? heeh watch out for the fire 8) GL with the psu , hope it solves the issue .
-
I (cough) posted this to you on (cough) July 31, 2006:
Read the instructions about installing the thermal paste.
Wiring and instructions will come in the motherboard box.
Everything you buy has instructions included, doesn't it?
This will not be as hard or as complicated as you think it will be. Read the instructions and you'll be fine. The intructions and photos/illustrations are written at a 12 year-old level.
If you get stuck, remember that Chinese peasants can assemble PCs, then read the instructions again.
:eek:
It's been a learning experience though, hasn't it? ;)
-
1 last question:
How do I erase windows so I can do a clean reinstallation?
Everythings up and running now but every now and then my PC will make a clicking sound and then my monitor goes off. My tower and my led fans all stay lit and it restarts itself. Thn it says "windows encountered an error and had to restart". So I think windows didn't take to smoothly on the 1st go and I'd like to retry it.
-
Boot the computer off a Windows CD. Format the hard drive. Delete the partitions and make new ones.
If you EVER pull a heatsink off a CPU, you have to ENTIRELY redo the thermal paste. You undo all of the paste taking it apart and it won't work properly.
-
I think I might have fried/damaged the cpu and/or the mobo during these weeks of construction. Whenever I make the CPU do any amount of work 1 of 2 things happen. 1st, my temp starts rising and doesn't stop until I close the application. For example I tried to play rome total war but after only a minute my PC shut down. The 2nd common thing that will happen is my screen locks up, then I get the thing I mentioned above. If I try to have to many programs running, it'll just freeze and go blank and then reboot. I don't think that is heat related b/c I've seen it happen at 40-50. I think that might be windows screwed up but I dunno. All I can do on this thing right now is surf the net. If I try to put any stress on it, it does either option 1 or 2. :(
-
Yo Dud dude
Been watching your posts go by and I'm wondering, do you know what instructions are? Your haphazard method of PC construction (lets try X and see what happens) is entertaining in a nail biting "O NO" kind of way, yet educational to. I think you would be doing yourself a big favor if you did some reading. I built my first PC about 3 years ago, its not very difficult, as a matter of fact its pretty easy. The first thing you should do is some reading. There are many places on the Internet to find out about building your first PC. I did some study before I built my first PC and put it together and it booted loaded and ran first time rite out of the box. I'm just saying this because I fear you may have damaged some of your components and you may need to send them back and start over. Next time you may want to do some reading, especially the instructions that come with the parts, components and supplies. Just having a little fun at your expense. I hope you don't mind. I have learned a few things from your posts or I should say from the replies. Lesson learned always read the instructions.
Good luck let us know what happens.
-
double post
-
No offense taken on my part. I did read the instructions as I put it together and did a little googling. My main mistake was forgetting that I wasn't suppose to cake the paste onto my CPU. I remember reading that, but had a brain fart. When I 1st got this thing running it ran at about 65. I remember reading to add more to help cool but dummy me didn't think that you could get carried away. So I think the constant overheating I allowed my PCU to suffer might have damaged it.
With my current problems I'm not sure what it could be. Either
A) My PCU is done(most likely)
B) My video card is having troubles with windows. I read some don't do well with windows and when my screen goes blank my whole tower doesn't go down, just my monitor and I get a reboot.
C) My sound card(s) drivers are clashing. Most the time I get the blank screen when I try to do something related to sound. If I try to play rome total war I get booted just as the opening sunds would start. I'm starting to lean that this could be the problem. I've removed my installed sound card and driver and am now using the intigrated. I'm about to fire up rome and see what I get.
I dunno, I think I'm the reason people buy systems prebuilt lol:D
-
YOUREEKA@!##@#@
I'm not incompetent after all!!!! It's my flubbin video card! I'm now typing on a screen with about 16 pixels on it after getting a message that my video card stopped sending information. Like always, it went to that darn black screen 1st and then chugged back on in this horrid display to tell me it's a peice of junk. Or at least I hope this is it!
-
lolololololol
I hope so
-
Heat man. Heat is the enemy of all electrical devices. What are your temps. Find this out first. You said you fried a power supply. And, you have this heat problem. Nothing should fry and nothing should be hot. You may be drawing a voltage/current load some were. (A short circuit, or a partial short circuit.) If you fried a new power supply this maybe the case. New voltage transformers (power supplies) don't usually just up and fry unless an undo load gets put on them. (A short circuit, a partial short circuit, a strain from heat or a load demanding to many watts). I don't think you hurt anything so far. Hopefully. Usually semiconductors they either work or they don't. But what ever you do keep an eye on your temps. Temperature is an indication something is not right. Temperature is fatigue. If I were you I would start from scratch and keep your hardware to a minimum till you get things going. Maybe try using different components from your old system and see if that helps. Make sure everything is compatible!!!!
lefty2, almost nothing as far as computers and software is easy. I don't care what anybody says, I know better.
-
If you do a little work upfront and make sure your PC parts are compatible and you stick to the golden rule KISS (keep it simple stupid). I still say putting together a PC is relatively EASY. Not childes play and not nuclear physics but some where in the middle leaning toward relatively EASY.