Athlon 64 X2 AM2 Dual Core Failure URGENT HELP...

First remove the cooler. Then remove the cpu. Reseat the CPU after a carefull inspection of the pins. Then after a good cleaning apply some thermal paste and reseat the cooler. Other then it being a chemical pocket in your paste or your cooler shifted off the die or something there is little it could be. If a good reseating and pasting doesnt fix it I would look at your MB for hardware failure.

Thanks,

Is there no way to boot to the BIOS without a CPU present? I don't have any thermal paste and I only seated a new cooler today so there isn't much more I can do.

Regards

Gareth

double post...keep it to one, please..

and i still think your PSU is the culprit. it's far easier to try a different PSU on your system than to change your CPU and clean it up. try the PSU first.

first, there was no double post...anyway back to point. check to make sure that there are no screws behind the motherboard and that the board is seated properly in the case. i had this happen about a month ago, computer would just sit there with a black screen...no post. turned out there was two screws behind my motherboard. removed them and my computer works fine now. if reseating your cpu cooler doesnt work, i would rma the motherboard. good luck.

Processors very, very, very seldom just "go bad".
PSU's on the other hand do, it is not uncommon at all.

Before you do anything else, and truely mess something up, try another PSU.
Your PSU does not have to be burning, smelling, or making noises.
It may be suppling some power, but that is a long ways from meaning that it is working correctly. For the symtoms you are having, as a couple of people have pointed out, I would definetly check into the PSU.

Questions:

1.) How long have you had your setup, is it brand new?
2.) Are you sure you didn't bend any pins on the CPU?
3.) Have you tried using 1 stick of Ram instead of both?

You shouldn't try to do anymore trouble shooting till you get more thermal grease, and reapply it according to it's instructions.

Also, normally a MB will not boot up at all without the CPU and RAM. It should indicate problems with beeps if there is nothing on the screen. (you should have a PC speaker hooked up)

Since it's rebooting on power up, it could mean different things as well. When you get more thermal grease, take the MB out of the case and place it on a cardboard box (the one in came in) and hook up the PSU, but not the case wires. You should be able to turn it on by shorting the correct jumper with a screw driver (that is all the button is doing, is shorting the jumpers to single power up).

In doing this all out of the PC case, you can rule out other possibilities, like a faulty switch to where the system thinks the reset or power button is still pressed in.

The system is virtually brand new, it was purchased and built less than six months ago with all new components.

I forgot to mention above that the motherboard is out of the case. It will power on and stay on in all configurations (1 stick of ram, no ram, 2 sticks of ram, HDD, DVD, GPU) as long as the processor is NOT present. As soon as the processor is re-seated it powers off immediately.

I have applied more thermal paste, thinly and evenly and re-seated the CPU and heat sink. The problem still remains.

The motherboard is not being shorted at all as it is out of the case and in a cardboard box and powers on and stays on as long as the CPU is not present.

All fans are plugged in and spinning.

I believe it to be one of three possibilities:

1: The PSU is not supplying enough voltage to the processor indicating that the PSU is faulty (I am unsure as to whether this is actually the cause, I believe it not to be)

2: The CPU has been damaged (No obvious signs, thermal paste applied correctly and pins are all OK)

3: The motherboard is faulty (I believe this to be the most likely cause)

Thanks.

Regards

Gareth

so for the 6 months, it was working right?

hm. that's funny. the double of this thread has gone missing. i definitely posted to it, but whatever.

anyway..
speculating won't get you places..

change out the psu first. that's what i'm placing my bet on from this end of the table.
second, do you have another cpu or motherboard on hand you can trial-and-error this system with?




edit:
i found it
http://www.tomshardware.com/forum/248248-30-system-fail...

frozenlead...go away. hehe  

It sounds as bad ram to me, can you check it out?

Also, you mentioned shut off, the last time a machine of my own did that to me, was because I connected the 4pin (of the 20+4) connector of the PSU into the P4 connector (also available in AMDs, it feeds the CPU), that despite being geometrically different, it fit without a problem.

My advise is to get a good light, and put the pieces on a good table, do never work in the floor even if your dispair will want you to do so.

It happened to me that I also confused the PCIe connector as the P4   .

nothing happened, the anti-shortcut protection system of the antec PSU didn't allow it to turn itself on.

frozenlead my apologies, i didnt see the double thread. @op, i would rma the motherboard.

hmmm...did you overclock your CPU at any time? do you have a spare AM2 CPU you could try? did you flash your BIOS? Did you buy your CPU retail or a OEM version? retail you get a 3 year warrenty unless you overclocked your CPU or have different cooler which they don't know if you do any ways.

No question about it RMA the mobo and do it fast,get it to the pos [point of sale ????]
let them experience the same probs as you ,,, OR ,,,, find a solution,this seems to me
the cleanest because ..if mobo no go ,system no go..
In this situation you need to be absolutely sure of your diag,,,.
Seems highly unlikely that a 6mo ?? ,. old power supply is wonky,not impossible,just unlikely,,
,,,don't smell anything funky around the psu ,,ehhh ????..  

Try replacing your power supply and see if it runs longer than a few secs, also reseat your video/pci cards.

Make sure that your cpu fan is clear of dust.

Many times i get customers bring in there system and it looks like this:



And that is really not good for your system.........