*Problem Resolved* Thanks to GtPrOjEcTX & Lord Evermore

[TechKnight]

Comet 603 350watt Full Tower Case
Biostar M7VIG Pro
Athlon XP 1700 TBred B
128MB PC2100 DDR
32X CDROM Drive
Floppy Drive
30GB Quantum / 60GB IBM Deathstar 60GXP 7200RPM IDE Hard Drive
Generic PCI 56K Modem

I boot from the Windows XP CD and it loads up a bunch of drivers and whatnot. Right before it asks the user "Press Enter to install Windows XP" the whole system shuts down and the system speaker makes a siren kind of sound.

Sometimes it would get as far as "Press F8 to confirm deletion of partition" before the system shuts down.

I have checked the CPU temp and it's in the 60s and I have my finger on the HSF and it's nice and cool.

 

[GtPrOjEcTX]

the siren sound is usually the temperature warning going off.

if it is in the 60s I'd say the temp is too high anyways but if you're comfortable with that theres a setting in the bios that automatically shuts down the comp when the comp reaches a certain temp, this could be why your pc is shutting down. just either turn this off (not advised b/c you DO have a high temp) or up it.

suggested temps for a 1700 max would be 40-55 C.

 

[GtPrOjEcTX]

Originally posted by: TechKnight
I have checked the CPU temp and it's in the 60s and I have my finger on the HSF and it's nice and cool.

I should have addressed this first. If your CPU says it at 60C and the heatsink is cool to the touch, you have a problem. Definately first thing to do is to reseat the heatsink and make sure you have a thin layer of some thermal goo between them OR the themal pad.

Hint for the dead giveaway: your heatsink temp and CPU temp should usually be within 2-5 degrees C of each other. That means your heatsink should be at the lowest mid 50s-low 60s which DEFINATELY should not be cool to the touch (130-140degrees F)

 

[Lord Evermore]

A "nice and cool" heatsink is often an indicator that the heatsink isn't actually drawing off enough heat from the processor, especially with retail heatsinks that are relatively small and densely packed; the fan can't push enough air to make the heatsink cool to the touch. Make sure it's properly levelled on the core (and not on backward). Did you use the thermal pad that comes on the retail heatsink, or apply some other compound, or use another type of heatsink? Is the fan actually turning when the power is on? It is consistent with the description that it might not be; the system will take awhile to warm up to the 60 degree point each time you boot.

The alarm setting probably is around 60 in the BIOS, as that is a relatively high temperature for a lower-speed XP to be reaching. It can usually be changed in the "Health Monitor" or "PC Monitor" section of the CMOS setup, whatever it's named on that board.

Good luck using WinXP with 128MB of memory.

Keep in mind, if you remove the heatsink after it's been "used" by touching the core with enough pressure to squeeze the thermal pad material out, you will need to clean that pad off and apply either another thermal pad, or another type of thermal compound.

 

[TechKnight]

Damn, you guys are so $#&@ing smart!! I remember hearing the siren before on my Dad's PC when I enabled the CPU Temp warnings. Anyways, I installed the HSF backwards and I guess it just wasn't distributing heat properly. It's running fine now <knock on wood>. Thanks ya'll!

 

[Lord Evermore]

I'm afraid you'll have to serve penance by browsing the Net only with Lynx on an amber monochrome 4-inch screen dumb terminal connected to a 386 minicomputer, to reconcile your soul for having put a heatsink on backward.