Need help with my dead PC

Ok ... this is kind of long ... so will put my questions up front ..

So, my ideas are :
1) PSU died and took the MB with it ?
2) The CPU fried (according to AMD, they fry easily) ?
3) If it is 1 and/or 2, I thinking of moving to a Gigabyte K8NSU-939 + Athlon64 3000+ ... does anyone have any comments ?



My PC started out as an e-machines T2825(AMD AthlonXP 2800 + FCI AU31 M-B), I added an extra 512MB PC2700 (taking it to 1GB) + 2nd harddisk (120Gb 7200rpm) + an IEEE1394 card , with WinXP Pro... has run fine for ~2yrs ... then the other day powered on ..blank screen, i gave it a 2nd chance ..but just got some scary grinding sounds and the blank screen.

After taking stock and reliasing the orignal PS was only 250W, I guessed the PS had just had enough .... so I 've replaced it with a Zalman 400W ... being cautious I removed all other connectors + the IEEE card, and just powered the MB ... the CPU fan kicked in straight away but nothing else happened ( I did notice that the Nforce Chip was at frying egg temperatures within a few seconds) ... I was expecting at least a BIOS prompt ... so powered down ... did the BIOS clear link for a few mins, then replaced it to the norm .. powered up ...same blankness .... it was at this point i noticed that the CPU Heatsink/fan wobbled a bit , it wasn't falling off ...but it wasnt tight either.

 

hsfs shouldn't wobble like that ... they should be firmly attached to the mobo ... and yes athlons fry easy because they don't have much in the way of thermal protection(like P4s do)

 

2 years with an xp 2800,2 hds and a 250w psu you did well!Im guessing it was a cheap psu as well.It could be fried.What you need to do is plug in the bare minimum of components to get into bios mobo,cpu,1 stick of memory in slot 1,gfx card,new psu,"no hardrives"It could be a blown hd and remove all add in cards modem.ect.Reset the cmos jumper then try and boot.The heatsink is supposed to wobble its on small rubber pads.

 

Cheers .... it is possible the PC got knocked a bit in the past few months, the hsfs is just a regular Ali + Fan ....the skt A doesn't look too good as a mount point. Im just nervous of buying a new CPU and killing it .... is there anyting I can do with the mobo without the CPU to check its okay ?

 

What makes you think its the cpu?what have you got plugged in at the moment?The wiggle on the heatsink should be a wiggle as in you can see it move but not a rock or rattle like its loose.

 

Right now I have just the mobo & 1 stick of 512MB ... the AU31 has intergrated VGA/LAN/Sound/USB ... I dont even get a flicker of hope on the monitor (I did check the monitor works, it does). I've tried resetting the BIOS .... didn't make a difference.

The wobble i saw on the CPU heatsink, was a good 5mm ... after pushing the latches it seemed much tighter. I've just measured the V rails on the old PS, they do seem ok ... the 12V was at 11.8V no load (a new PS was well needed anyway). Im really leaning to the CPU ... I just dont have anyway to test it !

 

Theres no way to test it really without swapping out the cpu for a good one you could take the heatsink off and check for heat damage it will look like a pale discolouration in the parts that have overheated but thats only in extreme circumstaces,but change the ram first if you have some spare sticks to play with and reseat it a few times.

 

hmm ... I have a socket 370 w/ a stock athlon cooler on it and the HSF doesn't budge ... I haven't forced it as I don't want to break it

on the other hand my microcool nb hsf on my current rig wobbles if I put any preasure on it (although I don't touch it, obviously) ... I'm thinking it depends on how the cooler is attached

 

on the socket A naked chips without a heatspreader just bare core they have 4 rubber pads around the outside so the spring clip doesnt crush the core but is still tight,I dont know what clips were tightened up though I thought the only way to do that was to bend the clip.

 

Sorry "pushing the latches".LOL.

 

the grinding noise you heard is possibly your hard disk.

On the PSU is there a voltage switch?

Personally i wouldn't tink the heatsink and fan was a problem, they often are a bit loose, tight is better, but i doubt this is your problem.

double check all of your connectors, power, ide, everything, things can easily get knocked, and try booting with just your old memory.

 

Well its official ... the CPU is kaput.

I managed to get a used CPU and popped it in, the system booted to BIOS okay, even managed to get windows running when I attached the main hard disk.... retried the original with the minimum config, just to get to BIOS ...and no joy.

Thanks to all for your responses !