No post after installing a new cpu cooler (Tuniq tower 120)

[Rascal1]

Wasn't too sure where to post this...anyway, the problem occured after I installed the new cooler on my q6600. It did boot up a few times while I was testing vcore voltages and stable overclocks.

However, after one regular reboot it simply stopped booting. The leds on my mbo (gigabyte ep-43-s3l) did indicate it was booting but it never went past that point.

After that I disassembled the whole rig, took out the cmos battery and left for 2 hrs. Then I reinstalled the cooler, put back the battery and hooked it all up to the psu and to my surprise the pc booted up just fine.

The weird part is that the core clock showed 2400mhz (stock) on every boot regardless of the bios settings. At this stage it didn't last long either. After an hour it stopped booting again.

24h later I tried it all over again but to no avail. That's when I decided to put the stock cooler on. Atm it's still runing just fine with the stock cooler.
I should mention that I didn't reseat the cpu while switching coolers nor did I apply any extra thermal compound since it was just for testing purposes.

At first I thought that the psu was finally gone for good but as it turns out that's not the case. It's currently running 3 7200rpm hdd's, 1 dvd rw drive, 2 case fans, the cpu fan AND the Tuniq tower fan which is placed outside of the case atm. I think that's a pretty good indication that the psu is not the issue.

I'm still puzzled why the Tuniq tower caused all that mess since it was thoroughly cleaned and there was just enough thermal compound applied. Aside from the fact that the installation of the cooler is nearly impossible for 1 person to handle, I think it was seated correctly.

Either way, if you guys have any suggestions feel free to share.

 

[coffeejunkee]

I had a similar problem once and it was caused by a too tightly mounted cpu cooler. Try reinstalling the cooler but don't tighten the screws all the way. You want good contact obviously so don't leave them too loose either.

 

[Rascal1]

Thaks for the tip, though I already tried that a while ago. It does seem to fix the problem but now when I try running prime95 the pc freezes almost immediately (doesn't shut down). But thenagain, if I tighten the screws any further it will not boot at all.

That aside, it's ironic how the idle temp with the stock cooler at 3,2ghz is equal to the stock temp with the Tuniq tower (51°C). Buying this cooler was pretty much pointless.

 

[PliotronX]

What are you measuring the temps with?

 

[Rascal1]

Everything was measured with Core temp

 

[PliotronX]

That's really odd, it sounds to me like the surfaces of the IHS and Tuniq are not making good contact or lack of pressure but then if there is sufficient pressure it won't POST. The Tuniq used to nip at the heels of the Thermalright Ultra 120 Extreme and my TRUE idled at 36-40 on a Q6600 @ 3.5GHz. Are you stuck with the Gigabyte? Is there some backplate that can help keep the board from flexing?

 

[Rascal1]

The only backplate I have at my disposal is the one that came with the tower.

Regardless, somethings off about the bios settings since I've pulled the cmos out. The core clock keeps changing constantly from 2400mhz to 2999mhz or 3200mhz without any apparent reason. I've checked all the bios settings several times and everything seems to be the same as before mounting the new cooler.

The only difference now is the sudden temperature bump (about 4°C = idling at 54°C) while the room temperature stayed the same at about 17°C.
It seems to persist even if I lower the clock to stock settings and set vcore to auto lol.

 

[Tweakin]

The only backplate I have at my disposal is the one that came with the tower.

Regardless, somethings off about the bios settings since I've pulled the cmos out. The core clock keeps changing constantly from 2400mhz to 2999mhz or 3200mhz without any apparent reason. I've checked all the bios settings several times and everything seems to be the same as before mounting the new cooler.

The only difference now is the sudden temperature bump (about 4°C = idling at 54°C) while the room temperature stayed the same at about 17°C.
It seems to persist even if I lower the clock to stock settings and set vcore to auto lol.

I wonder if you have a cracked trace around the cpu in the MB?

 

[DigDog]

probably needs more TIM>

 

[PliotronX]

The only backplate I have at my disposal is the one that came with the tower.

Regardless, somethings off about the bios settings since I've pulled the cmos out. The core clock keeps changing constantly from 2400mhz to 2999mhz or 3200mhz without any apparent reason. I've checked all the bios settings several times and everything seems to be the same as before mounting the new cooler.

The only difference now is the sudden temperature bump (about 4°C = idling at 54°C) while the room temperature stayed the same at about 17°C.
It seems to persist even if I lower the clock to stock settings and set vcore to auto lol.

That sounds like Intel SpeedStep which will downclock the CPU under less demand, I was able to use that with stability up to about 3.4GHz because it merely adjusts the FSB so the higher you go with the FSB/internal clock, the higher the lowest clock will have to run on 1.3v or whatever the VID is of the CPU so for example I think mine would clock in at 2.67GHz at idle when overclocked to 3.2GHz, I can't recall exactly what is would idle at with 3.4GHz tops but it was in the vicinity of 2.8GHz which was the highest that it would run at the default VID and so any higher and with SpeedStep enabled it would crash in idle state but Prime all day long..

probably needs more TIM>

That's a good point especially if both the IHS and Tuniq are concave.

 

[Rascal1]

Checked the motherboard for cracks and couldn't find any.

Tuniq's surface is definitely flat, it lines up perfectly with glass surfaces. However, the IHS is in fact concave towards the edges.

 

[coffeejunkee]

The weird part is that the core clock showed 2400mhz (stock) on every boot regardless of the bios settings.

Not sure that's weird, my board also shows stock cpu freq on POST while overclocked. But I'd say you need to set everything back to stock speeds first. Check the cpu freq, it will fluctuate a bit for a while after booting but eventually should settle down.

When you're back at stock speeds, apply fresh tim and install the Tuniq. Then use your pc for a week or so to see if nothing weird happens. After that you can try overclocking again.

 

[Rascal1]

It is weird because prior to this whole mess cpu-z showed 3199mhz constantly.

Since I'm all out of thermal paste I'll have to leave the stock cooler on for now. Might even end up selling the tower meanwhile.

 

[Tristor]

Make sure the backplate is not shorting out anything on the back of the mobo. As a general precaution I usually use electrical tape and cover the back of the mobo around the CPU socket completely within the cut-out of the mobo tray before installing the backplate to a cooler. I've had numerous issues with shorting because of backplate configuration mismatches to board layout before.

 

[Rascal1]

My first thought was the backplate but it turned out not to be the cause of the problem.

However, I finally solved it. Tuniq's metal bracket was slightly pushing the gigabyte heatsink on the motherboard which caused it to lift diagonally. Eventually that resulted in blackouts whenever a certain temperature was reached. I applied some thermal paste under the heatsink and brushed off one of the K8 edges on Tuni'q metal bracket which seems to have solved the problem.

Prime95 reaches 63°C max which is alright I guess (considering the 84°C with the stock cooler at 3200mhz).

 

[darlasxm54]

Everything was measured with Core temp

 

[PliotronX]

Is there an echo in here? :whiste:

That's cool you got it sorted, often with mammoth HSF things get bumped or ususually somethings are just a hair in the way but nothing a dremel can't handle While it may not seem impressive, bear in mind the Q6600 was one of the first desktop quads by Intel and coming in at 65nm process this thing gets toasty north of 3GHz. I finally retired my Q6600 because I realized that by the way it heated up a room so quickly, I would save money by just migrating over to an i5 that would eventually pay for itself in energy savings

 

[Rascal1]

Didn't last too long lol. It appears that the motherboard died after 30 minutes of prime 95 at 3510mhz (1.47500v). Wasn't able to boot it up since, no fans no post.

I was looking for a i5 2500k recently but it was too much of a hassle to sell everything except the gpu and then build the rig from the ground up. By the looks of it I might just be doing that after all since the only motherboard I have left doesn't support ddr2 nor pci x16.