CPU too hot?....please read!

[PLow]

ABIT KT7A
Thunderbird 1.1Ghz
Maxtor 40Gb Hard drive
Pioneer 16X DVD
Geforce 2 GTS
1 stick of Micron 256 PC133
ANTEC KS282/300W power supply

Ok here's the problem.... The system boots and recognizes everything fine. I am able to fdisk and format the hard drive. Also I am able to copy from the CD to the hard drive in DOS. However, when I go to install windows (both windows98 and ME) it either freezes, or I get strange errors, such as outside MS-DOS Extender, Windows requires so much space on the hard drive please remove any disks. Sometimes it will get to scan disk and half way through start giving me real funky errors such as stack overflow, or something about MATH116 (I'm not sure if it is really the number 116, that's just an example). One time the computer started beeping and spitting nonsense characters all over the screen, like smiley faces, clubs, and a mishmash of letters. Now I'm not sure, but I think it is a heat issue. It came with a pretty week heatsink and fan, and when I go into the bios I watch the temperature quickly rise to 52*C. I did order a new heatsink and fan (FOP32), but I'm not all together sure that is the problem. Anyones help is greatly appreciated!

 

[Mandlf]

Had a similar problem setting up my EPoX 8KTA3 about a month ago. Couldn't install Windows for sh*t. 98SE or 2000 from CD or HD. Turns out for me it was my RAM. I was using 1 stick of PC133 CAS 2 256MB which was brand new. I tried many other things first, but nothing worked. Then someone suggested different memory and I stuck in an older, slower 64 MB DIMM and it worked like a charm. I had the 256 MB stick replaced and it works fine now.

 

[Tsaico]

The problems sound common to heat realated issues. You mentioned it came with a heatsink, so I willpresume that it is a retail box. To my experience the retail fans are just enough to keep it operational. I would check to make sure you have the heatsink on right. Most of them of with a step in them for the raised part of the socket. If you put it on backwards, sometimes the heatsink won't seat properly and is not making full contact with the core. The only other thing I can think of is poor quality memory or incompatiple. i know you have micron, so I doubt it is this problem. I had some cheap generic ram once that I could not install windows 98se. After many days of frustration, I finally just took out the parts to put into my other boxes, and then the one box that got my ramstarted to have problems. Never thought of it since it posted and passed the Ram check. So when I used my Crucial stuff in there all the problems went away and all is still going well.
Good luck

 

[PLow]

yeah thats what I thought too. But when I swapped RAM for a stick of 128 Mushkin PC133, it didnt make a difference. Any other suggestions. The heastsink this came with is a Coolermaster, not sure of the exact product number, but it is rather small, with a small fan on top.

 

[Poof]

I may be wrong, but I recall posts saying that retail T-birds came with a Taisol HSF. If you have a Coolermaster, you may want to take it off and see if there's any thermal compound or thermal pad there...

[EDIT: Fix the name of the HSF... ]

 

[PLow]

Yeah, It came with that bubble gum like compound.

 

[Poof]

Okay - at this point, since the pad material is used, you probably should scrape it off and replace with some good HS grease - arctic silver would be best for that 1.1Ghz. You need that HS to make good contact with that CPU die at this point (seems like it isn't right now).

 

[Nerdwannabe]

For 1.1Ghz T-Bird, you will need Cooler Master's DP5-6H51 or DP5-6H11. Both model will come with 60x60mm fan.

Also, go into bios and read the CPU temp. Add 15C to what bio says. The corrected number will be much closer to acutal die temp. Maximum is 95C for 1.1Ghz.

This problem could be much more than overheating issue. Defect motherboard can be causing problems as well.

BTW, Cooler Maser now makes most (not 100%)of the retail box AMD fan.