Possible motherboard problem?

TheGman_GL

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Jan 25, 2010
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I don't even know where to post this thread but, well... here it goes. My mobo is and old Intel LGA 775 with a Celeron D 2.9GHz, it has 1.5 GB DDR, one 80GB 5400rpm SATA drive and another 320GB 7200rpm SATA. An old Creative Audiogy Z3 I think, and a very old nvidia GeForce FX 5500 256MB VRAM.

All my problems started like six months ago when I cleaned my PC. Previously I only used a hairdryer to clean the insides and everything was fine, but for the last moths the PC started to have heating issues so I decided to do a more extensive cleaning job. Unfortunately when I dismounted the CPU fan I realized it was so old and deformed that I couldn't place it back. Then I had to buy a new fan and everything was "fine" again.

Like a month ago I made another mistake, I overclocked my old nvidia card from 200MHz/400MHZ to 225MHz/440MHz. Everything was fine, but this computer is not only mine... so when another one used it just went black. When you turned on the PC it was displayed a message saying that the Serial Presence Detect was missing or inconclusive, something like that I really don't remember. I had to reinstall Windows and it worked, but It was constantly shutting down.

The last error I made was like a week ago, when I kicked my PC very hard. It stopped working and showed that the CPU was overheated and that you could try to repair Windows. When I tried to do that the computer just freezed. I bought a new Pentium 4 HT processor with a more efficient fan. The first time everything was fine but I only had connected the monitor, mouse and keyboard. When I plugged everything else it just stopped working (again!), it freezed in the loading screen.

It didn’t let me reinstall any OS and even a live CD wouldn’t work. Then now I turn on my PC and everything mysteriously just works normally... what a hell is wrong with this PC?!
 
Read over a 'benchtest' guide like this one. Breaking the system down to the miniumum hardware required to POST would be the logical troubleshooting sequence. One DIMM RAM in slot 1, video card, CPU/HSF and PSU to start with. Unplug everything else including optical drives, hard drives, fans, PCI cards sound etc. Start there with a bench test of the system to eliminate any problem hardware.

Tom's sticky homebuilt section.

http://www.tomshardware.com/forum/261145-31-read-posting-boot-video-problems

Benchtest guide.

http://www.pctechbytes.com/troubleshooting/detail.php?How-to-Bench-Test-Your-Computer-9

If this is all foreign to you, kicking the computer will solve any hardware issue you have for sure.