need immediate help

[cam]

a friend built this system and used it for over a year before giving it to me, so im pretty sure there is a thermal compound in there

 

[LoctOut]

BTW CAM,

my CPU that just died was a AMD T-bird 1.0 gig too

 

[toric19]

CAM, if i were you i'd borrow the processor from the other pc that you have and test it in the broken machine, that would determine whether it was the processor or the board, and that way you would not have to spend any unneeded money.......

 

[cam]

if i had an extra athlon/duron socket a chip laying around i wouldnt ask questions, id just put the new chip in and be done with it.

 

[LoctOut]

It's the chip, it's the board, it's the chip, it's the board.

well, you could always go eenie, meenie, miney moe

pull petals from a daisy?

buy a new board and cpu and tell all of us to go to?

hope ya get it straightened out soon, Best of luck

 

[cam]

yeah.. well all signs seem to point towards the processor so thats what im going with. its a crapshoot regardless, but ive gotta pick one.

cam

 

[Dublex]

So, Bytes back and possibly Cam from your experience what would you say the symptons are of the processor / motherboard going? as my computer seems to have developed a temporary loudish fan noise on startup but it usually seems to settle down after a couple of minutes running when everything seems to go back to normal.

In the experience I have it could be a loose bearing, but then I tend to be paranoid about these things

Nothing seems to be too worn in the innards, I've checked there

Thankfully, I do not think its a faulty power supply. That effected my computer while I was at university until I worked out what was wrong. It tended to do nasty things like reformat the hard drive at irregualar intervals during power on (ouch)

 

[WildOptic]

I had a Athlon 1ghz go out on me out of the blue. But that was due to too much thermal grease cooking the chip. Store wouldn't replace it. Just my two cents. Which reminds me I need to mail that to AMD.

 

[Bytes Back]

Symptons of a faulty motherboard include, frequent crashes, hardware dissapearing and reappearing, random lockups etc.

If you've developed a loud noise on startup, then it has to be fan bearings as theres nothing on the motherboard to make a noise !

Mind you, could be any of the fans

 

[Dublex]

Thanks Bytes back, thats what I thought, as there have been no crashes, lock-ups, etc etc at any time in Windows XP.

Can the bearings be replaced or is it safe to leave them?

 

[Bootsy]

I had a 1ght chip fry on me and I didn't quite know if it was the mobo or what...so I took it to a little rinky dink computer shop (NOT COMPUSA or any of those...they charge up the a$$) and they were VERY helpful. First thing we did was try a 1.2 tbird chip and bingo that was it, my processor was fried (sniff sniff) (damn o/c). Anyway, try to call the LITTLE comp shops in your area, they are usually more helpful. Needless to say, I gave them some business and bought some more ram too just cause they were cool about helping me for free. Good luck

 

[Bytes Back]

Dublex

You cant really repair a fan properyl and no, its not safe its heading for failure, far better to replace it. The trick with fans is not to be tight with the money !! I have a Volcano 7 on my XP1500, built like a russian battle tank, but very quiet. The best bit is that it adjust its speeds to the relevant temperture.

If your'e one of these people that worrys about the temperture of your chip, have a look at my temps and then at the fan speed.

The fan goes all the way up to 6000 Rpm.

 

[LoctOut]

Dublex

just curious, but is your MB by any chance an ASUS about a year old? They had a short run with a chipset fan that would become noisy at startup but eventually quiet down once things warmed up. This was particularly a problem on the A7M266 boards. They switched fan makers shortly after the initial release of these boards.

 

[cam]

update

well, i managed to get the heatsink off (you'd be surprised how difficult it was) and my friend happens to have an athlon socket a from an old box his grandfather had no use for sitting around. i will try it tommorow and let you guys know how it turned out.

- cam

 

[LoctOut]

cam,

we are waiting

 

[xsivforce]

*drums fingers on desk*...*whistles*

 

[Bytes Back]

Cam,

Come on mate !!, this is vgetting very expensive in cigarettes, all this waiting

 

[cam]

lol, oops. forgot about you guys for a few days it seems.

heres what happened:

friend's chip wasnt a socket a, so that was screwed from the get-go.

ordered a 1300mhz/200fsb athlon socket a chip last night and a packet of thermal compound. total with shipping was 120 or so.

another friend tipped me off to wash off the heatsink well.. so i used water and got all the dust and crap off, then with some rubbing alcohol got rid of the old thermal compound and i assume it's good to go now? when i get the new stuff in the mail.. use a razor and apply a thin coating of the thermal compound, attach and boot.

correct me if im wrong.

- cam

 

[Bytes Back]

If you've got rid of all the old crap on the heatsink, why do you want the razor ? ( apart from slitting your wrists if it still doesn't work )

 

[LoctOut]

cam,

apply a little of your compound to the heatsink and rub it in in a circular motion, then just wipe the excess off. This helps to seal some of the pores on the heat sink.

Here's a good set of instructions for it all...........