Processor

[Strat]

Hello All:

Maybe some of you can help me out,, I built my own system, it was running fine, I needed to put a new thermal pad on my heatsink, so I did that today. All went well removing the HS and cleaning the HS and the processor. I then put on a new thermal pad, mounted the heatsink back on.

When I booted up the system it got as far as the voice saying memory failure then the system completely shuts off, will no continue to boot up. Is there a possibly that I might of messed up the processor? I've reseated the ram, the video card all that I could think of from what I've read on these forums.

Just looking for some advice on this matter, all your help will be deeply appreciated.

Thanks all in Advance

Strat

Sys Specs
Asus A7N8X Delux
Corsair XMS 512 twin DDR
Radeon 9800 pro
Tornado 10 heatsink
AMD XP 3000+Barton

[DallasDon]

did you reinstall the fan, with it connected to the cpu fan pins on the mobo? If it doesn't detect a fan, could cause a shut down.

Might try clearing the CMOS, and let the BIOS redetect the components. If you changed the ram slots, It could have caused the error.

[ArcticFox]

Funny you ask, I have the same problem with my RAM, with the same motherboard but I use cheapo memory from TCWO.com. The machine does not boot first, I have to hit the reset switch several times before it starts the BIOS screen and continues the process. Try doing that, if the computer stays on hit the reset switch, wait a few seconds, and keep doing that for, say, 8-10 times unless it boots. Sorry, but that's the way the cookie crumbles.

My second suggestion is to remove one of the sticks, and seeing if it boots with one stick. Then try the other one. If it works, good for you! Also, try to replace the RAM with extra memory if you have some. If your bus is 333Mhz, try to use DDR333 if possible. 400Mhz use DDR400, although this is not critical but I've seen it cause some problems.

Hope this helps,
Fox

[Strat]

Ok,, I tried using just one stick on ram, switching them both out, I also cleared the CMOS, I will try again reseating everything, RAM, Video Card, resetting the CMOS, HeatSink is installed properly, when I take it off I see a nice impression of the processor even tho the processor hasn't had a chance to get warm yet...

Hoping I didn't mess up this processor,, sys worked fine until I did this...........ARGH

[Strat]

Update:
Still the same, powered up board with no processor to see if the board would talk to me and tell me there was no processor in,, it did, just trying to troubleshoot, was thinking maybe the board went bad. Reseated everything, tried to boot with one ram chip, no go, reset CMOS, unplugged all the drives when I tried to boot. Same result, it gets a far as voice saying memory sys. failure, then boom computer shuts down...

I'm going to have this processor tested tomorrow to see if its toast... hoping I'm wrong.

[Jeordiewhite]

I've expirienced this once doing something inside my system. I'm using the same board.
I had cleared the cmos and let it stand for a little bit unplugged, then it booted with no problem. I knew the ram was ok, however it worried me for a moment when seeing this. Never happened to me again.
Try removing the cmos battery and unplugging the psu and let it stand for a couple of minutes and try again.

If the cpu does happen to been burnt, you should be able to determine if any cracks or overheating has occured. Smelling it will be a dead give away if it does smell burnt.

Also, you should use something else besides a pad, reason being, thermal paste may not cool quite as good, but it won't melt or artic silver is a better choice.

[Strat]

Thanks for your reply,,, Midvale, Utah,,, Sugarhouse here,,,

Yes I've tried all that you stated, still no go...

[beppodmime]

Have you tried/can you try a different stick of generic memory? If you have a friend with any speed DDR, other than Corsair memory, try sticking one in, entering the BIOS, save changes and exit. My Epox board would do the same thing if I even adjusted the memory clock 1 MHz. Has something to do with the board defaulting to latency settings the Corsair WON'T run, or so I've heard. Using a generic stick of PC2100 saved me, though, until Epox recently updated their BIOS with a workaround for this problem. Try a slower stick of RAM, and see what happens. After you save settings and exit, all you'll need to do is plug the Corsair back in, and it should boot up.

Hope this helps.

[Jeordiewhite]

That's interesting, however I have two computers and two asus a7n8x deluxe motherboards, one with generic winbond and kingston hyper x memory. This was on the other machine with the generic ram that it happened, I think I switched the memory or was doing something with it. However I didn't have to do any special thing to it besides clearing the cmos and letting it sit with the psu off. However I'm not sure if the psu step was necessary in my case. The generic ram may have been it, as that does sound like a plausible cause.

[Strat]

Going to buy me a stick of the cheap ram today and have the processor tested, I will know today whats up,, thanks all for your help and replys...