Custom PC created World of Problems

I've currently assembled a custom bundle based pc from a tiger direct bundle

AMD Athlon 64 3200+ ClawHammer Socket 939 CPU OEM
Mach Speed Viper MK8-939A Socket 939 Motherboard
Masscool AMD K8 Cooler Fan
1 Gb Wintec AMPO DDR400 RAM
Gigabyte Geforce 7300 GT
Seagate Barracuda 7200.10 ST3250820AS 250GB 7200 RPM 8MB Cache SATA 3.0Gb/s Hard Drive OEM
Ultra 350w V-Series PSU Black
Power Up Silver ATX Mid-Tower Case

Ive been working on this since wednesday the 26th. At first the mobo gave me the overheat wail when i fired it up. The heatsink appeared to be on correctly but a slight adjustment of the scews on the fan allowed me to POST. I have not had that problem since.

I checked the CPU temp reading in the BIOS. 12 Celcius, something must be wrong there, but with the case fully open and a 120mm fan right next to the heatsink i hoped for the best. I fired up the windows xp set up. The first couple times the system would hang up after windows loaded all the files and entered the screen where the user chooses either to install a new windows, repair an existing one, or F3 to quit. The keyboard would just stop working, plugged into the usb port, any and all of them, and the green power light would dim on and off. Eventually i tried the F5 command where it asks the user to install spefic RAID drivers with F6, and told windows that it was a standard pc, rather than other. It finally allowed me past the windows setup screen.

I installed windows fine and everything worked. But as time went and i began to update my chipset drivers and such the cpu would begin to stutter. As in the mouse wouldnt work fluidly and neither would loading programs, eventually to the point where I would get a delayed write error on the hard disk, and then a windows disk drive error. I would get chckdisk errors from now on but the computer would always hang at step 4 of 5, verifying. Also windows now read my HD at being 161Gb instead of the 232Gb it truly was.

The computer stuttering also accelerated, as to sometimes windows would finish booting up, and then the computer would restart on its own, again and again. I found that if i clipped the heatsink fully onto the cpu, with the level parallel to the heatsink, the computer would not even power up, id get a green reset button but no blue power. Id have to leave the lever perpindicular to the heatsink, which seemed to put less pressure on the cpu, but would allow the cpu to boot, but eventually stutter. I tried reapplying the thermal grease, in hope that was it, but no change.

I have no idea what the problem is here. Im assuming its the heatsink on the cpu, or maybe the cpus falty, or the mobos defective, especially with a reading of 12C. And now it seems my HDD is corrupt. Any help would be much appreciated, as i havent a clue as to do what next, short of paying $100 for someone to put it on a bench for five minutes and telling me to return the OEM proccessor...

Thanks guys

 

I had the exact same problem with a brand new power supply, worked for two hours on this same thing, found that the power supply switch on the rear of the pack was in 220 mode, switch to 115 if yours was like mine. ed

 

The voltage is already set at 115v, that didnt seem to be the problem, but maybe it is a defective PSU. I still havent isolated the component causing such problems.

 

Now as i try to boot windows i get a BSOD. "IRQL_NOT_LESS_OR_EQUAL". I looked it up online and it said something about overheating issues.

 

Just a couple of thoughts:

Since the heatsink doesn't seem to be as firmly attached as it probably should be, maybe you should take it off the cpu and then remove the cpu to see if any of the pins are bent. You may need to use the hairdryer to warm up the bond between the thermal paste and the heatsink to get them apart without pulling the cpu out before you unlock the socket lever.

Is the extra 12v socket for the cpu plugged into the motherboard?

Seems like the heatsink should be firmly attached no matter what.

 

No pins are bent. Ive looked at it several times. There arent any scorch marks or burning smells either. The 12v power line is also directly connected to the Mobo as well as the 24 pin connector.

 

There may be a chance that the processer is not seated properly in the socket, moving the heat sink around shouldnt do nothing for it. The heatsink has to be seated on the cpu with firm contact for heat to transfer, if you ran the pc without the heatsink or loosely attached im sure your processer is toast. ed

 

But the proccesor still works. The computer boots and POSTS fine. Just the temperature readings are off the wall and the system stutters.

 

A couple thoughts:

Do you think the RAM might be bad? If you have two sticks, are they in slots 1&2 or 3&4? The slots are laid out from left to right 2,4,1,3.
I would go with 1gb x 2 to take advantage of the dual channel capability of the mb.

Does your sata work ok with the 150MB transfer rate of the mb as is or do you need to jumper something on the drive (just wondering)?

I am sure the heatsink is a problem. It needs to be locked down tight. If locking it down tight is causing the problem
then you may need to look at the mb and see what is happening to it.

Maybe think about sending it back or calling Tiger.

Sounds like a good system and it shouldn't have any problems.

 

I tried the Ram in single configurations, and neither gave me a problem on their own so im assuming it isnt the RAM.

The sata drive needs to run at 1.5gb/s instead of 3gb/s, so i have the jumper on to limit.

Do you think buying a new heatsink, from say CompUSA, may resolve this problem. I really dont wanna RMA to tigerdirect if i dont have to, theyll charge to look at it if it isnt defective, and i gotta pay shipping and wait for parts and everything all over again. I also have rebates i gotta send out ASAP and i need the product UPCs for both the rebates and the RMA, so i can only do one or the other and im on a real tight budget now.

Thanks for the help. Pleaseeeeee keep it coming.

 

So when you tried the RAM in single configurations, no trouble was experienced?

 

nope. on either stick, worked the same as before. Which is barely working but i doubt both sticks of RAM would give that problem. If i needed to i could use a friends ram to test, but i dont really think thats whats wrong, but then again what do i know.

 

actually, I agree with you. Got a spare power supply?

 

unfortunately the only spare i have is only 235 watts and does not have sata power connection.

 

I might be way off base here and I know practically nothing about hardware, but I just bought myself a barebones that I'm going to put together. I've been speaking with someone here about RAM. I received one 512Mb stick with the kit but it's a dual processor. I was going to buy another 512Mb stick but the advice that I was given:

 

My RAM came as a 2 X 512MB pair. THe BIOS reads them as running in dual channel. When I install one at a time, the BIOS also correctly reads them as being single channel and running at a lower frequency.

Also i dont believe that RAM truly needs to be that specific in order to run in dual channel. Im pretty sure just the type, ie 3200pc, and frequency, ie DDR 400, need to match.

 

I think the power supply is still the problem, you can get a adapter for the sata, i would beg, borrow, a psu or an adapter somewhere just to figure it out. you said in your first post that the power light dimmed when you plugged a usb device in, that can only mean low power, will your bios give you the read out on your voltages?

 

If not, try bumming a PS/2 Keyboard off of a friend, and see if that helps. As for the CPU, make sure it's properly aligned and seated before placing the heat sink. If the connection is loose when it's seated, it might be getting pulled back when the case is standing up.

 

DENISE_M - Why would you buy a barebones system when you know practically nothing about hardware? I am just curious....

 

I agree with the previous posters that the power should have never caused any leds to dim. Is the heatsink lever interfering with any of the capacitors around the socket? I don't know exactly what your mb looks like, but mine had some caps real close to the heatsink on one side and I avoided any contact with them and was able to lock down the heatsink. As I recall, I was able to mount the heatsink in two positions. I chose the position that left the locking lever on the side of the socket that was opposite the capacitors.

I've read that the ARCTIC COOLING Freezer 64 Pro Cooling Fan with Heatsink is an excellent one to get if your case will accomodate it (I would think it would).

I believe CompUSA has a power supply tester that is inexpensive and maybe that would be worth having. I haven't used one but it might be a nice thing to have around.

Just curious, when you put the single stick of ram in, did you put in DIMM 1, the third from the left?

Maybe take everything out of the case and put the mb on a non-conductive surface and hook up the minimum to get it going and see how that works.

 

When you first went swimming, did you already know how to swim?

 

hey hey this forum isnt for fighting. Its for solving my problems. pleaaaaaaaaaaase.

With the temperature reading jumping back and forth between - Celcius readings to extremely high Celcius readings, I'm assuming theres an error with the mobo sensors.

 

No but i knew i would drown if i wasnt careful, and help nearby. But all jokes aside, you are going to have to try some different things to fix this, all the help in the world wont fix anything if the part is not changed. ed

 

yea i get what you mean. thanks. im thinking about RMAing the mobo.

 

in reply to stardis, i did put the ram stick in the third slot, and ive disassembled the computer and laid it out on the anti static bag it came with and reassembled the bare minimum to test, and alas am still experiencing problems.