WTH could be doing this?

[festerovic]

So, long story short, I think I hosed something in my system while doing a recent upgrade. Due to the cooler I use, and the video, and the case, they conspired to be very difficult to remove, and I was a little rough on things. Everything has been ultra stable and perfect for over a year, until I did this, so there is no problem with the parts and how they interact with each other, even when overclocked. These issues are seen at stock speeds though.

Real quick heres the rig:
Biostar p965 mobo
q6600 or e4400
4870
700w PS
Gemini II cooler or stock intel cooler
2 gigs Crucial ballistix ddr 800
ALL other hardware is not connected (like HDDs, optical, etc.)
**mildly crappy Cooler Master thermal paste (its like oatmeal)

I am seeing video corruption in my BIOS screens after 1-2 minutes of being booted from sitting overnight. Once the machine warms up, if I reboot it, it will not get to the BIOS. If I let it cool for an hour or two, it will repeat this process.

So, obviously something is not being cooled properly. I am thinking the cpu and video card are NOT to blame, as they have been working previously, with no heat problems. BIOS reports 29* system and CPU temps.

What I do think may be the issue is the heatsinks for the northbridge and southbridge. I kinda jostled them, maybe breaking the thermal paste under them.

I guess I'm asking, What part causes corruption like that which i described? Any help would be awesome, I know there are lots of smart people here.

Thanks

 

[erocker]

Usually the video card is the culprit in such situations. However, since you said you jolted the NB heatsink, it would be a good idea to remove the heatsink, look for damage, and reapply some thermal paste.

 

[bf2gameplaya]

Any type of video corruption, suspect video ram. If it were the CPU or chipsets overheating you would get a bluescreen, spontaneous reboot or hang.

Of course, you're not going to get the right remote diagnosis, only pulling it apart again will get to the bottom of it.

 

[jlannon]

both very possible, but also if ur upgrade included the hd 4870 then u could also be overdrawing ur psu which would cause the same thing

if ur cpu is 500 watt or more this shouldnt be the case though

 

[pip_seeker]

additionally from all the above, reinstall your video card drivers. they may have become corrupt.

definately sounds like video card problem to me.

 

[kubes]

check to make sure that the fans on your vidoe card are turning. I'm not sure its software related due to if you wait for a little while after it cools it boots for a little while, and doesn't boot right after.

What was your original setup, and what were the upgrade peices?

Do the old peices still work together or are those broke now too?

 

[dokk2]

Really now !! ,,there is only one method that will guarantee that everything is kosher and,that is to take the mobo out of the case and reapply new TIM AC Silver 5 [wherever needed] is my choice,anything less would be half arsed and you could never be certain,that is unless you want to spend the next who knows how long,, chasing down whatever bug in your system...
Those of us who are ,a sort of impatient,to put it mildly,,have had to learn to take it easy on our electronics,otherwise we won't have any.
I can't tell how many kbd's and cheap cases that I have trashed,hdd's destroyed,,,whew,, the list goes on,and,, I suppose that there are many others who have also had a moment or two during which their common sense/restraint, went out the window for a moment or two....

Make an interesting thread or what,??!!,,some of the stories,very interesting..

 

[festerovic]

Thanks for the replies so far.

the video card has been running fine for 3-4 months.

The only thing I changed was adding the q6600 chip, and using the stock intel heat sink, The cooler I used with the original e4400 chip is large, and I wanted to see if everything was OK before I put it all back on.

Also, no hard drives = no windows, not drivers.

All the fans are the same, and work fine.

If it matters, I've seen corruption from OCing video cards, it tends to look like yellow snow all twinkly on the screen. This corruption looks like whole sections of the bios text are highlited in a off color, and fields that I select are unreadable or scrambled. When I switch to a new page and then switch back, the text will sometimes look OK until I select it again.

Anyone tried Antec silver formula 5? I got a tube for 1.99 at Frys. Gotta be better than cooler master oatmeal blend.

 

[festerovic]

oh yeah, when I replaced the old cpu back in, it still showed the same symptoms. The chip works fine in a different board, so I know its not the chip, but could be related to the cooling of the chip.

 

[festerovic]

I guess it's resolved after new thermal paste to NB, SB, and CPU. Thanks for the advice.

 

[kubes]

Great!! Glad we could be of services.