Problems putting together my new computer, please help!

[Ju1cyJ]

So today i started building my system that i am bringing to college. It is one of those SNG41 shuttle's that are small, have an AGP slot, and look cool... what more can one ask for?

So I loaded it up with a 2500+, 2 sticks of 256 corsair XMS (2700), 120 gig seagate, 9600 pro, santa cruz sound card, and a lite on cd/rw... oh and some floppy drive.

When I first booted the thing up the screen had a bunch of white spots and soon after it shutdown due to over heat (red LED). So I pulled off the hsf, and lo and behold I put the damn shim on backwards. Anyways, i re-did it and everything POSTed fine. So before I OC'd it, I checked out the temp and it was at 41C... I thought that was a bit high, and I had just found my artic silver 2, so i popped the sucker off and put on some of the good stuff.

As soon as I turned the comp on the red LED came on. So i popped it off and tried re applying, no luck wouldnt turn on. So then i cleaned the thing up and applied the thermal grease it came with, and bingo it POSTed (musta shorted somethin with the artic).

BUT! it was stuck at 100 FSB (making it a 1100mhz =[ ) so I mess around with the BIOS a bit and I can get it to 133 mhz, but if I try 166mhz (what it is supposed to run) everytime it restarts it just doesnt POST and I get the red LED.

Flash foward a few hours where I got fed up and just left the damn thing alone.

I go and I turn the comp on, and amazingly enough it comes up as a 2500+! So I assemble the whole thing and go have a victory ciggarette while leaving it on the PC HEALTH screen in the BIOS. It was at 50C when I left it (i was just happy it was working now!!). When I came back it was off with the red LED lit up. AARRRGGHHHHH wth is wrong with this stupid piece lol.

So then.. (i know, you can't believe there could be more...) I messed with the memory timings etc soooo much, and found out I can run it at 142 mhz and it will boot/reboot whatever, it POST's. So after i figured that out I stepped it down to 133mhz, and restart it... The POST says it is a 1900+ (what it is supposed to be at 133mhz) but it says the FSB is 333?!?!?!

So I am like whatever, and I pop in my win xp disk to do a install. I just looked over as I was typing this and it is off with the red LED lit =(.

BTW, when it was at 133mhz, it was 40C (roughly).

All these temps are, of course, at idle.


Questions: Are these temps within normal operating range of the 2500+? Could it be just the memory doing this too me? Did I mess up the chip with all my applying and reapplying of thermal compound + hsf?


I may not have HUGE amount of experience with trouble shooting... but I have assembled and fixed atleast a dozen computers.

Please help Anandtech!

Thanks in advance!!!

 

[Unforgiven]

your temp of around 40 C is just fine. i highly recommend NEVER using a copper shim. these things are the biggest farces of all time. ive seen more people get air pockets by not applying the shim correctly and toasting their cpu's than have seen them operate correctly. by taking off and remounting the hsf over and over you run the risk of cracking the die on the cpu and rendering it useless. your cpu may already be toasted due to the improper seating of the shim to begin with. if the cpu wont post the proper speeds at the settings that are factory default i think there is something definately wrong with the chip. for future reference, ditch the shim and just use the arctic silver or some other thermal compound to avoid that situation altoghter.

 

[amdskip]

What condition is your chip in, the actual chip in the middle of the processor? Did it get chipped or anything? What heatsink are you using and why the hell are you using a shim? Shim's are stupid IMHO and you shouldn't have to use one. It sounds like something got fried during your trials here and it could be the chip or the motherboard which would make your system junk for the most part. What heatsink are you using?

Memory will not cause a system to overheat. Leave your case cover off while you are messing with this to keep the temps down. Most people operate their AMD pcs in the 40-59 range. 60 and up is alright according to AMD but thats just too warm really and you are doing something incorrectly.

 

[Ju1cyJ]

The hsf is what came stock with this barebones system. The chip physically looks fine, and now i have even installed windows although it is at a severly underclocked speed. I installed the shim because it came with it, and the heat sink is fasrtened by screws and i didnt want to crack the chips by over tightening.

So how can I tell if its the mobo or chip, still hoping its memory though. And if I did fry the mobo or chip, is an RMA to newegg out of the question?

 

[amdskip]

That memory should be fine. Try using just one stick at a time and test them both this way to see if there is any difference. I would not use that heatsink at all. Spend some money and get at least a slk800 from http://www.svc.com or something better. Make sure it will fit before ordering it though.

 

[Unforgiven]

well the chip may look fine but if you mounted the shim wrong and let any pockets of air in there, its gonna probably toast the cpu. if you have indeed fried the chip or the motherboard perhaps, i dont know what neweggs policy is on rma'ing something like that but i know most local places here wont replace a fried cpu due to incorrectly mounting a heatsink.... btw, if you suspect its the ram run memtest86 and check that out.

 

[Ju1cyJ]

So why is it that when I leave the CPU alone for awhile it will boot up at 2500+?

 

[amdskip]

Originally posted by: Ju1cyJ
So why is it that when I leave the CPU alone for awhile it will boot up at 2500+?

It's flakey and something is broke or not working correctly. It's a matter of elimination now and do a freakin huge favor and take that shim off of there.

 

[Ju1cyJ]

Thanks guys, I really appreciate this help. Tommrow I will dedicate some more time to it.

 

[Ju1cyJ]

BUMP for today.

Also, will memtest86 tell me if my memory can run at the speed its supposed to? Could some give me some linkage?

 

[gcy]

Get it HERE

 

[Ju1cyJ]

Well, here's an update.

This morning I opened up my box and popped off the hsf. I wiped off the thermal grease, took off the shim, and re-applied artic silver 2, then I booted it up and crossed my fingers.





IT WORKS!!! It works just fine now, making partitions now... although previously I had windows installed and everything was just fine. It is running at a cool 40C, and I think everything is going to be ok.

Thanks for telling me to take the shim off, amdskip.

 

[Unforgiven]

Originally posted by: plankton
your temp of around 40 C is just fine. i highly recommend NEVER using a copper shim. .......... for future reference, ditch the shim and just use the arctic silver or some other thermal compound to avoid that situation altoghter.

give a brotha some luv here too man!

 

[Ju1cyJ]

haha, i musta missed that one.

a big thanks to you as well
plankton.

 

[Unforgiven]

any more issues or does it seem like you are out of the woods now?