GC68 murdered my 1600+?

[beatle]

I picked up a 1600+ and NV7-133R from another forum member for a decent price. He also threw in a seemingly unused GC68 which was nice, especially since I'm not overclocking. Everything looked ok with the exception of the thermal grease previously applied with a spatula. I cleaned up and applied the standard paper-thin layer. I also made sure to fasten the heatsink securely, taking care to slide the stepped edge away from the plastic "ledge" of the socket before clamping down. Everything looked ok:

pic 1
pic 2

I start it up and go into bios to verify the temp... 72.. 75C... I power off and check everything. I don't smell anything, but successive times to boot the computer fail. This InWin A500 case is getting close to its 5th birthday, so one of the speaker wires has become desoldered from the driver. I hear no beep codes. Everything still powers on including the CPU fan, but I get no POST. I remove the heatsink and check for signs of contact. I see a small square of AS2 on the heatsink that matches up with the processor

I'm clueless as to what is wrong here. Does anyone else see a problem with my install? Is the heatsink faulty? Is the CPU suspect?

UPDATE: I get no beeps from the speaker after installing the setup into another case. All fans still power on. Could the mb also be shot? I could try the tbird out of my server on the board, but would rather not if I can help it.

UPDATE 2: Added pictures of the heatsink underside and the chip itself. They look ok to me...

 

[beatle]

bump

 

[tw1164]

I had a similar situation, after alot of hair pulling MSI & I decided it was the memory banks. I had to RMA the board. Good luck

 

[GtPrOjEcTX]

question. what this 1600+ run with this motherboard? if not it may need a bios update to be able to run the 1600+. do this by running the t-bird in this motherboard to get it to boot, then flashing then bios. replace cpu with the 1600+. but if the 1600+ was running fine with this board previously then jump to step 1. of course insure that there isn't anything touching the motherboard that make be shorting it out (like a stray power cord)

PRESTEPS: clean off the heatsink with rubbing alcohol or the sort. same with the CPU. don't soak it.dry with compressed air. then treat the heatsink by rubbing in a thin layer of the artic silver. then wipe off with lint free cloth. I noticed on this picture that there is AS around the top right pad. why? its also to the bottom left of where the CPU touched. why?

step 1) reseat video card and ram. if successful post, check temps, let run for 2-3 minutes checking temps.
if step 1 doesn't fix proceed to step 2

step 2) try this 1600+ in your other pc. (use a different heatsink as well. if posts, then CPU is not at fault. check temps. if temps are extremely high again, cpu may be faulty.
if step 3 was successful proceed to step 3, if unsuccessful, CPU is at fault

step 3) take CPU out of other PC and try it on the NV7-133R, with alternate heatsink. if posts then motherboard is not at fault.

 

[beatle]

The CPU I received had silver compound applied with what appeared to be a spatula. I should have taken a picture of the original. It was on the "feet" and I removed as much as I could with 91% alcohol and several q-tips. If there is any showing on the heatsink, it is probably residue from wiping AS on and then off with a coffee filter (no lint).

I guess I have to go about uninstalling the mb on my other comp to try swapping things around, since I can't get the fvcking SK7 off thanks to the case design. Looks like a long night. :|

 

[Engineer]

Sorry about your misfortune beatle!

I've got 4 XP1600's running in my garage (hot in there) and all are using GC68 HS/Fan's. None go over 50C under full load 24/7 while running SETI. I did lap them to a mirror finish, but I don't think it would have matter much. Also, running an XP2000 with the same HS/Fan and it hangs around 50-51C under full load. All fans are 3,200 RPM 80mm SVC clear fans.

Hmmmm?

Good Luck!

 

[beatle]

The chip is dead. I plugged my tbird into the board, fastened its SK7 down and it boots just fine.

Now, I assume I have killed the chip myself, though I don't know how if the HS actually made good contact. This isn't something that would happen from a faulty chip, would it?

 

[redhatlinux]

If that cpu had AS as far as the rubber feet, my bet is the cpu was bad when you got it. If AS gets on the bridges it will screw up the cpu.

 

[beatle]

I had not considered that when cleaning... I just saw that thermal grease was everywhere and could have possibly been on the bridges as well. Any other opinions? This chip posted ONCE before an emergency shutdown @ 75C. I do not want to accuse someone wrongly of selling me bad hardware, but I'm not one to be a sucker either.

 

[mechBgon]

I see two problems here:

1) The clip is in the heatsink backwards. The end with the screwdriver-tip catch should be at the end of the heatsink that has the step cut into the base. Since it's reversed, the pressure point of the clip isn't over the location of the CPU's core. D'oh! :Q

2) From your photo, it looks very much as if the step in the base is not cut deep enough to accomodate the raised end of the CPU socket. For comparison, here's a photo of my SK-7 with gobs of clearance: photo The arrow is actually pointing out that the "lower deck" of the base doesn't ride up on the CPU socket, but you can see that there's loads of clearance over the solid end of the CPU socket there whereas there appears to be zero clearance between the GC-68 and the socket on your setup.


It's also worth noting that the NV7-133R is known for being calibrated higher than any other SocketA motherboard I've heard of, with routine readings in the 70C area.

Anyway, sorry to hear of your troubles, and I hope something comes to light

 

[GtPrOjEcTX]

Originally posted by: mechBgon
The clip is in the heatsink backwards.

I thought it looked a bit different but I couldn't put my finger on it.

 

[beatle]

That must have been it. This hasn't been a problem with any other heatsink I've used, as none of them have had removable clips. I'm surprised I haven't read about this before, as it looks like it could happen somewhat easily.

 

[TheCorm]

Originally posted by: beatle
That must have been it. This hasn't been a problem with any other heatsink I've used, as none of them have had removable clips. I'm surprised I haven't read about this before, as it looks like it could happen somewhat easily.

I didn't recognise it at first either....the bottom of the heatsink looks a bit deceiving, i'm sure many of us could have made the same mistake....sorry it had to happen though man