OS Doesn't Boot After Move

[mweidman]

I recently relocated and my computer didn't make the trip. I knew I should have brought the machine in the car with me.

Computer Specifications
ASUS A7N8X-E Deluxe
Athlon XP-M 2300+ overclocked to 2300Mhz
2x512 Corsair XMS DDR400
9800 XT A.I.W.

After unpacking the computer, I saw that the heatsink (a screw on, not a clip on) had become loose during the trip, and at first I worried that it had cracked my processor. I checked the processor and it looked fine, re-applied some arctic silver, and tightened the heatsink. When I turned on the computer it would POST and then go into GRUB (I dual boot XP and Linux). After selecting either OS, the computer hangs with a blank screen. I tried booting with an Ubuntu Live CD but get a 'CRC Error' at the same point during the boot.

At first I thought the shaking had wrecked my MBR and tried to boot with a bootdisk and run fdisk /mbr. The bootdisk brought me to the command prompt, but anytime I ran a utility, the computer would hang. So I swapped the hard drive into another machine and ran fdisk /mbr. The problem persisted. While in the other machine, I switched the 'bad' hard drive to slave and installed a 'good' hard drive as master so that I could recover my files. I also scandisked and defragged it. I then installed the 'good' hard drive in the 'bad' computer and had the same problem, which led me to believe it is not an issue with the hard drive.

So, I downloaded a copy of Memtest86 and tested my memory. It failed test 2 and hung on test 4. Thinking I had the problem solved, I doublechecked and put some memory I knew was good into the computer, and had the same results. I then put the original memory into a 'good' computer, tested it and it passed. (i know that is hard to follow, basically i ruled out the memory as being the faulty hardware)

So now I am thinking that it is the motherboard which was damaged in the move. The problem is that I don't know of a good way verify that. I have a multimeter, but have no idea what I should do with it. Any suggestions/questions?

 

[Atheus]

Don't discount processor damage just yet. It is possible a bad processor could cause memory errors, especially since you have an A64, which has the memory controller on the chip.

It probably is the mobo though... if it was damaged by a loose HS it would be scratched or missing components, you should check it visually.

 

[mweidman]

The processor is an Athlon XP-M not a 64, but that doesn't mean the processor isn't bad. I was under the assumption that if the processor gets damaged, the computer won't even post.

Also, the HS is a large aftermarket copper one (I don't recall the make/model) and it screws into the motherboard. During the move, the screws loosened, but the HS never came completely off, although it was loose enough that it could have hit something located close to the processor. Visually, the mobo looks fine, no visible damage.

 

[helpmeout]

Did you clean off the processor and heatsink before you applied the Arctic Silver?