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General Forums => Hardware and Software => Topic started by: Glasses on May 14, 2003, 02:10:28 PM

Title: PC locking up during boot up
Post by: 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
Title: PC locking up during boot up
Post by: Pfunk 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.
Title: PC locking up during boot up
Post by: Glasses 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.
Title: PC locking up during boot up
Post by: Modas 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
Title: PC locking up during boot up
Post by: San 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
Title: PC locking up during boot up
Post by: Glasses 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?
Title: PC locking up during boot up
Post by: San 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.)
Title: PC locking up during boot up
Post by: AKS\/\/ulfe 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
Title: PC locking up during boot up
Post by: Glasses on May 14, 2003, 05:57:35 PM
I reckon Seawulfe burnt plenty of chips to know when a chip is kaput.
Title: PC locking up during boot up
Post by: AKS\/\/ulfe 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
Title: PC locking up during boot up
Post by: Glasses 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.
Title: PC locking up during boot up
Post by: AKS\/\/ulfe 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
Title: PC locking up during boot up
Post by: Pfunk 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.
Title: PC locking up during boot up
Post by: Pfunk 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
Title: PC locking up during boot up
Post by: Glasses 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 :( :mad:
Title: PC locking up during boot up
Post by: Pfunk on May 14, 2003, 10:10:37 PM
Like i said before use a SMALL amount and then spread it out evenly on JUST THE CORE, use a credit card, or something similar with a straight edge .  Here is a how to guide


http://www.arcticsilver.com/arctic_silver_instructions.htm
Title: PC locking up during boot up
Post by: Pfunk on May 14, 2003, 10:11:54 PM
Only a very small amount of Arctic Silver is needed on small CPU cores like Intel P3s and AMDs. Transfer about 1/2 the size of an uncooked grain of short-grain white rice or 1/4 of a BB for small core CPUs.
Title: PC locking up during boot up
Post by: Glasses on May 15, 2003, 02:18:04 AM
Well I went to the AMD forum and I saw what might be the culprit of my  New rig stopping  to respond.

It might not have been the CPU at all but the  PSU I only Have 300W while many people on the board with higher PSUs didn't experience any problems. Apparently and I didn't know this the Epox board is a Power hog. I guess not only would I need to send the CPU back but now I need a new PS to supply the power to this system.

oh man :rolleyes:
Title: PC locking up during boot up
Post by: straffo on May 15, 2003, 02:22:45 AM
Hallo El Gloassoïd ;)

have a look here : http://www.coolermaster.com.hk/inc/install/thermal-compound-guide.jpg

and here :

http://www.overclex.net/content.php3?id=%2Foverclocking%2Farticle.php3%3Fid%3D48%26page%3D3

I'm very sorry, I dunno how to translate how I do because of vocabular limitation :(
Title: PC locking up during boot up
Post by: Glasses on May 15, 2003, 08:20:37 PM
Anyone with an Epox board  can tell me if it could actually be the PSU instead of the CPU that it's causing the lockups?

Since at first it only locked up during windows and the last time it locked up or was  very delayed in the response of the keyboard.
 WOuld getting a PSU with at least 400w fix my problem?

What's the avg  the Epox owners have of PS.

Any help would be appreciated since now I'd prolly have to plop down 94 bucks for the new PS

or could  it be the RAM?

Bloom anyone?

Thanks for all the help guys appreciate it
Title: PC locking up during boot up
Post by: AKS\/\/ulfe on May 15, 2003, 08:50:02 PM
I have an Epox 8KTA3 Pro with an Athlon XP 2000+.. I had it running on a 300W PS, but then I put in a GeForce 4 and it would crap out in games and run slow. Sometimes simply locking up for no reason. On the GF4 box it says a minimum of 350Watt PS. I put in a 400W PS, and since then I've had no problems with lockups or poor performance in certain games.
-SW
Title: PC locking up during boot up
Post by: Glasses on May 15, 2003, 08:54:01 PM
So it is highly likely it's the 300W PS I have with certainty that might be doing this?
Title: PC locking up during boot up
Post by: AKS\/\/ulfe on May 15, 2003, 09:05:27 PM
I can't say for certain... but my 400w PS was only about $40, ATX sized 400w for P4/P3/AMD mfgd. by A1 Power, it was the cheapest one I could find in that power range but it's been working great.
-SW
Title: PC locking up during boot up
Post by: Glasses on May 16, 2003, 08:34:02 PM
Would a Power Magic 450 Watt PSU would do the trick? Or is it not a reliable power supply found one for 40 bucks with shipping included.
Title: PC locking up during boot up
Post by: Glasses on May 16, 2003, 09:59:21 PM
Apparently according to the AMdforums the PC2700  memory I have non HyperX might be doing the locking up aswell  grrr this PC has become more expensive by the day :-/
Title: PC locking up during boot up
Post by: Glasses on June 05, 2003, 07:15:56 AM
Well I finally got it to work I bought my new 420 Thermaltake PSU booted up and it did the same thing, called MWAVE.Com tech support and he suggested that I should take the Mobo out of the case to see if it worked and IT DID!!!! So I called him back and he then recommended me to not leave any spaces in between the screw holes in the mobo and the copper ones to cover them with electrical tape to  make sure nothing would short out the motherboard while inside the case.

Well...again he was correct! it worked like a friggin charm and I'm posting from my new PC :D :D :D  
already tried different games and my FPS is uber sweet.

So far the Kingston Valueram PC2700 hasn't given me any problems so we'll see as I go along. I'm going to wait one more day before I cancel my RMA because I was frustrated that I called before  I decided to give it one last shot and  that's how it Happened.

to Richard @ Mwave.com<--he's the guy that helped me out :D

Things like these make you want to shop from these people again. Nice customer care, tech support and prices can't be beat.