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Need help setting up system - fried processor, bad board?? (AMD, MSI)

I

imokruok

Junior Member
Hey guys, I just joined today, but I'm hoping you can help me out.

I've set up a few machines over the past few years, but I've never run into a problem, so right now I'm kind of freaking out. Here's my problem:

I installed my MB, power supply, CPU (and cooling), and graphics card. I quick threw on a monitor to see if everything worked. It did. BIOS fired up nicely, recognized the processor and RAM, and I thought I was good to go. So I unplugged the comp, and got to work putting the rest of the system together.

I got everything set up, hooked up to the MB, and thought I was good to go. I turned it on. To my disappointment, the D-Bracket on my computer (from the MSI motherboard) told me I had a bad processor. (All four red lights on the diagnostic bracket lit up.) So, I pulled the cables from everything I'd connected to get it back to the state when it had worked. No luck. Still "bad processor."

I cleared the bios, checked my power connections. What did I do? Is it possible when connecting the IDE cables I cracked something on the board? Did I bump the processor, crack something there? How about static frying just the processor?

My specs:
AMD 2100+ palomino, Volcano 7
MSI KT4 Ultra
Corsair 256mb DDR400
Radeon 8500
Antec TruePower 430 (I know procs get unhappy with low power, so I don't think this is the problem...)

If anyone has any suggestions, I would appreciate it. I'm at a loss for where to start on diagnosis. Unfortunately, I don't have a second processor on hand to see if it really is a "bad processor." I might have to go get one. Thanks--

J
 
Have you gooped thermal compound all over the CPU? Only a VERY VERY thin layer of compound should be applied to the CORE ONLY. Also, Arctic Silver recommends that you work some into the heatsink to fill in any valleys there, wipe it somewhat clean, then install the processor. I don't have the link to their instructions, but basically, if your heat sink has an almost mirror smooth finish you barely need any compound at all... AS says with a lapped heatsink, the layer of thermal compound on the CPU core should be so thin you can see through it.
 
No, I just have goop on the core. I did take the heatsink off to check whether -somehow- I'd gotten the stuff on one of the pins, but the rest of the CPU is clean. Just a tiny little bit of bleed over from pressing the heatsink on to the CPU, but that's it.

Regardless, wouldn't the CPU work for a few seconds anyhow, even if it didn't have a good sink? I'm getting a "bad processor" error the second I turn on the computer. It's highly frustrating...since it fired up last night and ran just fine before I started "populating" the case.

Since the board's diagnostic LEDs are working, I feel like it's more probable that something's happened to the processor. But then again, I have no idea why the processor would have just become "bad" overnight.

J
 
I hope you bought everything locally. Take the system down to bare essentials (CPU, HD, RAM and vid card) and try to boot up, including re-inserting the CPU in the socket, Double check everything. If it still doesn't boot, it sounds like RMA time.
 
Thanks for the help so far guys...I'm still working on it. I'm gonna clean and reseat the CPU and fan and see what happens. But here's something I wonder about.

The motherboard starts the CPU fan and the video card fan just fine, and then it gives me the "bad processor" warning lights. It really seems like a processor problem. But - I would have at least expected the video card to send a sync signal to the monitor when I turned on the computer. Is it normal that the motherboard won't get the video card running unless there's a processor?

The last time I built a computer, I could at least get the monitor to click on without a proc.

J
 
supposably, but for instance i've just had probs which turned out to be a bad stick of ram, and monitor acted like it was getting no signal sometimes, even though all fans etc spun.
 
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