Built my new machine, I think its fried.....

[eightman2k]

I posted this yesterday:

"I built my new machine last night (specs below). Everything went fine, I got everything to install, windows xp booted and installed clean. No problems. However one weird thing did happen, when I connected my old HD as a slave to the CDRW, the screen started to act funny, almost as if I was having video card problems. On the boot up, the BIOS splash screen had lines running through it. The text of the POST was garbled, hard to explain, almost as if the text was encrypted. And when XP would start it would sometimes be affected by this, showing the discolored lines across the screen. Here is some weird stuff associated with that, it seemed to go away when i stood the tower up, and everything worked fine last night. I noticed that this morning the cd was not reading things properly, I assumed it was because I had the HD slaved to it. So i went to bed and left it for this morning to remove the HD, I have it on there just so i can copy over old savegames and pers. files, after that I really don't plan on using it. This morning when I woke up, the weird colors and garbled text on startup were back , this time, XP wouldn't boot at all. So I removed the old HD, and things booted ok, and I was able to read from a CD. "


I had some good feedback and advice and tried a few things last night. I went home and turned the machine on, everything looked good. I tried turning it on its side and again it went haywire, so I tried moving it from being on its side to straight up and it would go from bad to good. So I unplugged the machine and took it to my worktable. I put on my wristband and went about checking all the connections n the system, I basically reinstalled everything. I then went and plugged the machine back in and it spun up for a second and then shut down. So I rechecked my wires and tried to start again. Spun up and shutdown. I then noticed a burning smell coming from the MB. I checked all the parts it was coming from the chip. I removed the cooler, removed the chip and sure enough there was a bubble on the underside of it and what looked like oil on top in the thermal grease.
The chip is obviously fried...my questions though are these....
was the chip faulty? Was it causing the weird display? Should I just replace the chip? Will this happen to the next chip I put in too?

Athlon 2000
Biostar M7VIF
PNY GeForce 4 4600
512 MB 2700 DDR Ram
16/12/40 CDRW
SB Live Audigy
Maxtor 80GB U133
Coolermaster HCC-002

 

[GrumpyMan]

Did you turn the machine on it's side and start shaking it while it was running with hard drives spinning and all? :Q

 

[eightman2k]

Well i guess I should 'splain better...what i mean by that is I slowly leaned the tower onto its side and slowly leaned it back up straight.

 

[ScrapSilicon]

<< Well i guess I should 'splain better...what i mean by that is I slowly leaned the tower onto its side and slowly leaned it back up straight. >>

kewl..:Q.. was nothing wrong with the processor until you decided to make the HSF lose contact with the processor...rather expensive keychain you have there.

another one to add to the "How Do I Kill My Processor" annals.

 

[eightman2k]

HUH?? At no point did the heatsink lose contact with the CPU, like I said I reconected everything. In fact, looking at the bottom of the heatsink, you can see the mark in the silcon gell where the cpu was in direct contact with it.

 

[ScrapSilicon]

nm...remember clip/ears retention allows some degree of HSF movement in relation to the tension of the clip ..<reedit>from below..

<< I see you edited your original post....
but whatever, I posted on the board to see if anyone could HELP me. >>

this is my second post to this thread...my original post will stand as it is what has taken place..you admitted that you have taken off..put back on the HSF..everytime you remove the HSF if you do not clean all points and refresh your application of the TIM..you have your results..read on as you nail it down..

<< If you read the post again, the chip failed after I had removed and reconnected all the components, in fact it failed while it was laying on its side, I was not moving it at the time of failure. >>





<< And beside, are you saying that computers are never to be moved?? That once you build a computer you must keep it in the exact same position or you run the risk of having the cpu melt? >>

A CPU will tolerate moving around(esp. the HSF..as it sits on a layer of "silicon gel"i.e.grease)...no....the whole yes but you run risks(motoamd points out one)..hard to get a moving violation ticket while sitting outside your vehicle but it is possible.

 

[eightman2k]

I see you edited your original post....
but whatever, I posted on the board to see if anyone could HELP me.

If you read the post again, the chip failed after I had removed and reconnected all the components, in fact it failed while it was laying on its side, I was not moving it at the time of failure.

And beside, are you saying that computers are never to be moved?? That once you build a computer you must keep it in the exact same position or you run the risk of having the cpu melt?

 

[microAmp]

<< I see you edited your original post....
but whatever, I posted on the board to see if anyone could HELP me.
If you read the post again, the chip failed after I had removed and reconnected all the components, in fact it failed while it was laying on its side, I was not moving it at the time of failure.
And beside, are you saying that computers are never to be moved?? That once you build a computer you must keep it in the exact same position or you run the risk of having the cpu melt? >>



True, computers should never be moved when they are turned on because of that HDD is spinning. When you shutdown and wait for @ 10 seconds for that HDD to stop spinning, then it's ok.

You also said in your 1st post :


<< I removed the cooler, removed the chip and sure enough there was a bubble on the underside of it and what looked like oil on top in the thermal grease. >>



Are you saying there was thermal grese on the male pins of the cpu? or thermal grease on the female socket on the motherboard where the CPU plugs in?

If there was thermal grease then it was your fault for letting thermal grease getting in between the CPU and socket where it should be, not a faulty chip.

But if that wasn't the case, when you reinstalled the HSF for the 2nd time it might of been not perfectly flat on the CPU die, causing it to fry, even though you saw a die imprint on the HSF, it could have been from before when it was properly installed.

 

[ScrapSilicon]

<< When you shutdown and wait for @ 10 seconds for that HDD to stop spinning, then it's ok.
>>

actually I have a drive that will continue to spin down even at the 45 sec mark(sometimes a little longer..) but the processor is dead and if you have a Duron or cheaper Athlon ( 1GHZ or less) test the board again to see if it was a voltage problem(your original problem has some indications of voltage or just bad connections..AGP ? )...oh...and as always YMMV <edit this time due to punctuation not content disclaimer added a space and a ( >

 

[Oakenfold]

<< I then noticed a burning smell coming from the MB. I checked all the parts it was coming from the chip. I removed the cooler, removed the chip and sure enough there was a bubble on the underside of it and what looked like oil on top in the thermal grease. >>

So there's nothing wrong with the board then? Have you examined the entire motherboard, I've never seen AS create an oil like substance on a cpu. Also did you count up your standoffs to make sure you weren't shorting the board somehow? At this point it's more or less what you can salvage. Got a pic of the CPU? I'd like to see it.

 

[eightman2k]

I really don'tknow if anything is wrong with the board besides what i could see from a visual inspection. That is at least until i get the new CPU and put it in.

What do you think the possibility of other components being damaged?

To resond to several questions asked above....No the thermal compund was placed on the top of the cpu between the CPU and the HSF.

and I dont know if anyotn has the wrong impression but I didn't pick the thing up and shake it

 

[GrumpyMan]

Sorry misread your post.

 

[eightman2k]

I admit a little ignorance here, but how would an overheated CPU affect the motherboard....wouldn't it(cpu) just burn itself out?