Tom's Hardware > Forum > Homebuilt Systems > General Homebuilt > [Solved] Boot Problems

[Solved] Boot Problems

Forum Homebuilt Systems : General Homebuilt - [Solved] Boot Problems

Tom's Hardware: Over 1.4 million members in 6 different countries available to answer all your high-tech questions. Sign up now! Its free!
Ask the community Add a reply

Best answer from Griffolion.

Word :    Username :           
 
POST   10-21-2009 at 11:17:42 AM

I recently replaced my heatsink, and in doing so had to temporarily remove my motherboard from the case to put a clip underneath. Everything seemed to have gone fine, but upon getting everything connected again the system won't boot.

At first I assumed it was the powersupply, so I ensured that the cables were tightly plugged in to the ATX & ATX_12V ports - they were. Then I figured it must be something to do with the front panel connectors, and maybe I just hadn't plugged in the power switch. I fiddled around with them for a while, and then when I tried to boot up I saw an LED light up for what must have been no more than a fifth of a second. Still no fans or anything, and it was so fast that I couldn't even tell where it was coming from.

The reason I'm making this thread is because I was cut short last night and had to stop before I was finished troubleshooting - now I'm not at home and just thinking things through. I'm gonna have another go when I get back later today, but is it likely I've shorted the motherboard somehow and it's beyond hope? Could the problem still be with the front panel, even though I did get some sort of LED activity when I pressed the power switch?

Also, powering up again straight away after the initial light up yielded no results- the light didn't come on again, but after about 10 minutes it happened once more, which sort of gives me hope since it means it's not completely dead. (maybe)

Add a reply
Best answer from Griffolion
The first thing you need to do is thoroughly check if the heat sink has been properly attached. This means going right down to the thermal paste, checking if it spread properly on the CPU and checking if the sink itself is being held under a lot of tension as it's purpose is to literally squash itself onto the CPU to ensure maximum heat transfer. If this cures it then ignore below, if not then read.

The second thing you need to do is remove your motherboard from the case (taking with you RAM, CPU, heatsink, PSU, graphics card and your monitor with all relevant cables).

This may sound tricky but place the motherboard on a wooden or plastic board of some kind (a bread board does the trick nicely). Hook up your PSU etc etc so a basic set up is ready to go on the bread board (make sure all components are plugged in and ready to as they would be in your case).

Next, if your MB has an on-board 'on' button then press that, if not you will need to short the power-on connection on your motherboard (basically a 5v connection and a ground going from your MB to the on switch on your case).

If your MB works fine (as in it POSTs) then there was some static or a metal piece shorting the MB's circuitry somewhere in your case since the wooden or plastic bread board would have no electrical conductance at all to short the board.

If this doesn't cure it then you need to trial and error with different parts until you find a culprit. Start with the MB obviously, move onto the CPU then RAM etc. I will be long and annoying but its sure fire at least.

Hope this helps.
Sponsored Links
Register or log in to remove.
Griffolion   10-21-2009 at 01:51:57 PM
Best answer

The first thing you need to do is thoroughly check if the heat sink has been properly attached. This means going right down to the thermal paste, checking if it spread properly on the CPU and checking if the sink itself is being held under a lot of tension as it's purpose is to literally squash itself onto the CPU to ensure maximum heat transfer. If this cures it then ignore below, if not then read.

The second thing you need to do is remove your motherboard from the case (taking with you RAM, CPU, heatsink, PSU, graphics card and your monitor with all relevant cables).

This may sound tricky but place the motherboard on a wooden or plastic board of some kind (a bread board does the trick nicely). Hook up your PSU etc etc so a basic set up is ready to go on the bread board (make sure all components are plugged in and ready to as they would be in your case).

Next, if your MB has an on-board 'on' button then press that, if not you will need to short the power-on connection on your motherboard (basically a 5v connection and a ground going from your MB to the on switch on your case).

If your MB works fine (as in it POSTs) then there was some static or a metal piece shorting the MB's circuitry somewhere in your case since the wooden or plastic bread board would have no electrical conductance at all to short the board.

If this doesn't cure it then you need to trial and error with different parts until you find a culprit. Start with the MB obviously, move onto the CPU then RAM etc. I will be long and annoying but its sure fire at least.

Hope this helps.

Reply to Griffolion
POST   10-21-2009 at 03:18:04 PM

Thanks a lot, got it working by reseating the heatsink. It's weird though because I would have thought the cpu would need more than half a second to shut down before it realised it was overheating.

Turns out the optimal way to position my cooler actually protrudes a RAM slot, but that problem is for another day!

Reply to POST
Griffolion   11-01-2009 at 12:11:21 PM

Glad you got it sorted, CPU's are funny things, its unbelievable how quickly those things can heat up, especially powerful ones you get these days. Not only that but the sensors inside the CPU will be calculating Delta T temperature changes and if they rise too quickly they will shut it down without question.

And tough luck about the ram slot, some of the larger coolers do have this problem. I know a friend who has a Freezer 64 Pro on his AM2+ Phenom which caused the same problem. He just cut into the fan cage to free up the slot without causing the fan any harm. See if you can do something similar.

Reply to Griffolion
Ask the community Add a reply
Tom's Hardware > Forum > Homebuilt Systems > General Homebuilt > [Solved] Boot Problems
Go to:

There are 1259 identified and unidentified users. To see the list of identified users, Click here.

Forum map
Bestofmedia Forum ©
2000-2009 Bestofmedia Group
Page generated in 0.310 seconds
Sponsored links
  • Ask the community now
  • Publish
Ad
Related Topics
See all relatives topics
They won a badge
Join us in greeting them