Hello,
I am rebuilding 2 systems (out of 4 old ones). It took me 2 days to finally get one running. I must be jinxed because during this process I killed 2 working old pcs (both pentium 2s), after trying to revive them i gave up and bought an old cpu/mobo p4 to use with my old parts (mem/hd/psu/vc/casing etc) That was Rebuilt PC#1.
Now I'm on Rebuilt PC#2. Actually i wasnt even rebuilding it.. it was my old PC before I upgraded to a newer PC.
Specs:
Sempron 1.5 mhz
512 (256x2) mb mem
256 mb Nvidia geforce card
40 gig hd
OS: Windows XP
I havent used it in a while till i bought a 2nd hand monitor to use it with, so i can give it for my daughter to use. It was working fine for DAYS for casual use/testing. Had to take it apart to "borrow" the dvdrom drive for use to install OS on PC#1.
So everything was ok until the following happened:
I decided to do a clean install of XP. So i booted from the install disc.. setup runs..it loads the files.. till I reach the "Press Enter to Setup" option, the PC shuts down on its own. I did this several times, same thing happens.
I did some research and it says CPU cooling might be a prob. Checked the PC HEALTH STATUS in the bios and i see temp rising to 70. I rested the PC for hours and tried again. Same thing. I booted the PC in its current XP OS and ran speedfan. It shows 60+ range never rising to 70. (BIOS shows higher temp than Speedfan). I put a deskfan beside the open casing to help cool it and speedfan shows it lowers to 50+ temp. btw the CPU fan is working ok.
Despite this seemingly lower temp, i tried the install again and same thing happens. Then I even tried disabling the CPU temp warning in BIOS, then later setting the warning to 80 deg (i thought it was this warning that was causing the PC to shutdown) Still no luck.
Then I tried to check the heatsink to see if it was loose and if there is thermal paste still there (my first time to know what thermal paste is for). I cant tell for sure, but i said to myself i will go out to buy thermal paste later. In the meantime i replaced the heatsink and tested one more time. This time, in bios, i was surprised to see CPU suddenly 80, then almost immediately jumped to 100 deg! I turned off the PC at once, and thats the last time i can get it to boot.
Booting afterwards show CPU fan, lights on, USB mouse on, but keyboard lights not on. No pOST, No video, No beeps.
I checked the sticky here and did the following:
Disconnected everthing
Took out the memory
Took out CMOS battery
Tried 3 different PSUs
all same thing.
Im guessing its either a dead mobo or dead cpu or both?
Can i find out what so i know what used part to buy? (mobo or cpu)
and I am just curious, what do you think caused this sudden "death" of my PC? Overheated CPU? But I hear 100 deg temp is not fatal yet, and how could it jump to that high in a matter of seconds? Did my fiddling around (checking) the heatsink and cpu do it in?
In the end, I had a perfectly fine working PC, all i wanted was a clean install of an OS.. i didnt think it will lead to my PC dying as a result . :-(
And as i mentioned in the beginning, I must be jinxed bec its not the first time i killed a pc while trying to upgrade/rebuild it. All in all i killed 3 PCS out of 4. (the 4the one was already dead to begin with, I just harvested them for parts). what a bummer... :-(
I am rebuilding 2 systems (out of 4 old ones). It took me 2 days to finally get one running. I must be jinxed because during this process I killed 2 working old pcs (both pentium 2s), after trying to revive them i gave up and bought an old cpu/mobo p4 to use with my old parts (mem/hd/psu/vc/casing etc) That was Rebuilt PC#1.
Now I'm on Rebuilt PC#2. Actually i wasnt even rebuilding it.. it was my old PC before I upgraded to a newer PC.
Specs:
Sempron 1.5 mhz
512 (256x2) mb mem
256 mb Nvidia geforce card
40 gig hd
OS: Windows XP
I havent used it in a while till i bought a 2nd hand monitor to use it with, so i can give it for my daughter to use. It was working fine for DAYS for casual use/testing. Had to take it apart to "borrow" the dvdrom drive for use to install OS on PC#1.
So everything was ok until the following happened:
I decided to do a clean install of XP. So i booted from the install disc.. setup runs..it loads the files.. till I reach the "Press Enter to Setup" option, the PC shuts down on its own. I did this several times, same thing happens.
I did some research and it says CPU cooling might be a prob. Checked the PC HEALTH STATUS in the bios and i see temp rising to 70. I rested the PC for hours and tried again. Same thing. I booted the PC in its current XP OS and ran speedfan. It shows 60+ range never rising to 70. (BIOS shows higher temp than Speedfan). I put a deskfan beside the open casing to help cool it and speedfan shows it lowers to 50+ temp. btw the CPU fan is working ok.
Despite this seemingly lower temp, i tried the install again and same thing happens. Then I even tried disabling the CPU temp warning in BIOS, then later setting the warning to 80 deg (i thought it was this warning that was causing the PC to shutdown) Still no luck.
Then I tried to check the heatsink to see if it was loose and if there is thermal paste still there (my first time to know what thermal paste is for). I cant tell for sure, but i said to myself i will go out to buy thermal paste later. In the meantime i replaced the heatsink and tested one more time. This time, in bios, i was surprised to see CPU suddenly 80, then almost immediately jumped to 100 deg! I turned off the PC at once, and thats the last time i can get it to boot.
Booting afterwards show CPU fan, lights on, USB mouse on, but keyboard lights not on. No pOST, No video, No beeps.
I checked the sticky here and did the following:
Disconnected everthing
Took out the memory
Took out CMOS battery
Tried 3 different PSUs
all same thing.
Im guessing its either a dead mobo or dead cpu or both?
Can i find out what so i know what used part to buy? (mobo or cpu)
and I am just curious, what do you think caused this sudden "death" of my PC? Overheated CPU? But I hear 100 deg temp is not fatal yet, and how could it jump to that high in a matter of seconds? Did my fiddling around (checking) the heatsink and cpu do it in?
In the end, I had a perfectly fine working PC, all i wanted was a clean install of an OS.. i didnt think it will lead to my PC dying as a result . :-(
And as i mentioned in the beginning, I must be jinxed bec its not the first time i killed a pc while trying to upgrade/rebuild it. All in all i killed 3 PCS out of 4. (the 4the one was already dead to begin with, I just harvested them for parts). what a bummer... :-(