Is my CPU dying?

[imported_jfig24]

I have a custom built computer with an Intel D865PERL <NOBR>motherboad</NOBR>, 2.8GHz P4 processor, 512mb of Crucial DDR 400 ram, a 160GB SATA HD, and an ATI Radeon 9700 Pro video card. Recently my system has been hanging when I reboot it. The system will go from the diagnostic screen (where it shows how much RAM I have and the drives attached) to a blank screen and not do anything else. If I press the power button and try and reboot again, it will startup properly into Windows. However, recently I have had to turn the power off 3 or 4 times before it will boot properly. I upgraded to the most recent bios for my motherboard and that did not fix the problem. I installed a new 520W power supply and the problem still exist. Yesterday I completely reformatted my HD and reinstalled Windows XP. The problem still exist which leads me to believe that the problem is hardware related. I used another video card that I have lying around and the problem stilloccured so i'm sure it's not the video card. My computer was fine up until maybe 3 weeks ago. One day after rebooting, the picture on my <NOBR>monitor</NOBR> was severly distorted and several times, the monitor goes off as if it was going to sleep but I can't turn it back on without rebooting. Another thing I have noticed is that I have received about three blue screens of death in the past 3 weeks, but I didn't think to write down what the error was. Does anyone have any suggestions on what I should try? Someone on another forum that I belong to said that it appears to be one of the PCI cards or the AGP card in my computer is not re-initializing.....I have no idea what he meant by this or how I could fix it so they initialize. I'm wondering if something is wrong with my CPU...my brother-in-law put this computer together for me and he used cheap thermal paste and he scraped off the black stuff that came on the heatsink. I wonder if this may have messed up the CPU. I'm thinking of taking off the heat sink and removing the processor and reseating it. However, I plan on using good thermal compound if I do. Any help would be greatly appreciated.

 

[Margalus]

it's more likely that it is a hardware problem with the motherboard. Can you borrow another p4 to try in your system? maybe swap with a friend or brother in law for a little while to see what happens

 

[imported_jfig24]

no, i don't have anyone I can borrow a P4 from unfortunately. I'm thinking of disconnecting everything (CD drives, PCI cards) and booting up and seeing if it works....then adding things back one by one until it won't reboot. I have a spare IDE HD so I am going to try and install that one to see if the SATA drive might be the cause of my problems. I don't understand though because everything worked fine until a few weeks ago :-(

 

[MichaelZ]

hmm, sounds more like a motherboard problem but i wouldn't rule out the ram either. the only way to be sure is to get some other parts and try them out.

e.g. try new CPU 1st, then try new sticks of ram.

if problem still occurs then it's pretty obvious the board is at fault. unless there are some PCI cards we don't know about.

P.S. please use some paragraphs, that would make it heaps easier to read...

 

[Ronnie]

What do your temps show in the bios. Have you tried clearing the cmos. Have you tried different sticks of ram.

 

[imported_jfig24]

I'm at work so i'm not sure what my temps are but I will post them when I get home. How would I clear the CMOS and what would that do? As far as PCI cards, this is what I have installed:

SoundBlaster Live X Gamer soundcard

ATI TV Wonder

and my Video card is a Radeon 9700 Pro (AGP)...I have nothing in the PCI slot underneath the video card.

I don't have any spare parts so I might have to live with the problem for a while or until I can find someone who is willing to take their working CPU out of their computer for me to test.

 

[Ronnie]

Clearing the cmos will reset all your options in the bios. You clear the cmos by moving a jumper from pins 1-2 to 2-3 and wait for 5 seconds and back to 1-2 spot. In your motherboard manual there should be detailed instructions. If you can't find that you can also remove the battery from you system.

 

[MichaelZ]

there's an easier way. when ur computer is booting up, press the delete key until you get into the BIOS. from there you should be able to seleect load default settings. that might help.

also the temperatures might come in handy too but at the moment, my bet would be either the ram or the motherboard itself. i hope for your sake that it's the ram because that's much easier to change than a motherboard.

 

[imported_jfig24]

thank you so much for all your help guys! I really do appreciate it! Does anyone know if there is a way to test the RAM if you only have one stick like I do?

 

[Duvie]

This sounds like a warm boot issue, right??? Do you have ever have it fail to boot from a cold start after it has been off for say an hour to days???

It could be power issue but be directly related to the mobo....Try flashng to the latest bios as well as clearing it out...

It could definitely be a failure of the ram...grab a program like memtest and look for the memtest86.iso file that will make a bootable cd-rom...It needs to be ran in the dos environment so it will not go into windows. Just set the cdrom as first boot device and load the cd and hit restart.....Let it run a few passes. It will test as much memory as you have installed.

If you can't find the iso PM me and I think I can find it in my files for you....

 

[imported_jfig24]

when I get home, I will run the memory test. As much as it would suck, I can deal with it being a motherboard issue because I can always send it back to Newegg and get a working one sent back. I can also send my memory back to crucial and do the same. However, since I cleaned off the black stuff on the back of my processor heatsink and peeled off the silver thing, I voided the warranty so if that goes, I am tuck with a$200 piece of crap. If it is the motherboard, I might just buy another one, move all the stuff over and then send the defective one back. This way, I will have a spare motherboard in case something like this happens again. Thanks so much for all you help once again!

 

[Duvie]

It if is an OEM p4 chip then maybe so...However if it is a retail P4 chip that came in the box it comes with a 3 year warranty and you are well within your right to remove the black stuff...Intel knows that this may happen if someone let say changes mobo...that black goop is good only one time and if you take the hsf off the cpu it has to be removed and a new thermal paste needs to be applied.....


I can almost gaurantee this is not a cpu issue...This is board or ram issue and I am 99.9% sure it is not related to the cpu.....

1) make sure the vid card is seated very securely, pushed all the way into the slot....
2) same with ram
3) upgrade to latest bios
4) run memtest program

If the mobo has any options or jumpers to boost the AGP to 1.55v or greater try that as well....Some boards may undervolt slightly and the ATI cards of this level are power hogs...

 

[watdahel]

remove any pci cards you have installed

 

[imported_jfig24]

here is an update on my issue:

I went into the BIOS and enabled silent boot and this bypasses all the checks that the computer makes when it is starting up such as detecting mouse, drives, memory, etc. Now, all that I see on the screen is a big intel logo. To my surprise, my computer restarted fine after doing this. I rebooted 10 times in a row to make sure it was not a fluke and it rebooted. I even did a cold boot and it rebooted fine. So, I definately know that this is a hardware issue. The only problem is that I don't know which piece of hardware is causing my problem. I'm thinkging it might be a problem with either my memory. mouse or keyboard both of which are USB powered or my soundcard (Soundblaster Live X-Gamer). I hightly doubt now that it's a CPU or motherboard problem since it reboots fine if I set it to silent boot. Any suggestions on what I could try to figure out who the culprit is?