Grim Tale (but happy ending)

jjmax

It all began 4-6 weeks ago....
I'd finally gotten tired of the noise of my machine and decided to get cracking on sorting it out.
Now, I'm not a modder/overclocker/enthusiast, I built a fairly high-send machine a year ago, and it does what I want nicely enough. But the noise of the thing (fans) was getting unbearable. It used to be in my bedroom, and if I left it on overnight to download something (like a linux package) the missus would be none too happy.
I ascertained that the source of most of the noise was the CPU fan. I was using the stock fan that came with the Athlon 64.
I ordered a Zalman fan from Komplett and waited.
and waited...
and waited....
and in two days voila!
Excellent delivery by Komplett and An Post, hats off.
I had a tube of Artic Silver that I'd been itching to use and couldn't wait to get the job done.
But as it happens, the job got put on the long finger and I only got around to replacing the fan two weeks ago.

Problem 1:
The board I have, MSI K8N Neo, has a heatshield preinstalled under the cpu.
I searched the web up and down, then searched it left to right, and found nothig about removing this thing.
After a great deal of noodle-scratching I decided to take a risk and attach the Zalman fan to the stock heatshield/bracket.
It all seemed to go well until I turned the PC on.
(I'd also followed artic-silver's instructions and used a dollop of thermal compound on the CPU, a grain and a half of rice or something like that)

Problem 2:
When I turned the PC on a loud screech noise (like a very annoying alarm) started and whined on and on.
"Oh oh, my fecking around and not using the correct bracket/heatshield has damaged the CPU or mother-board."
I tried replacing the old fan and regroup to give this thing a go another time.

Problem 3:
The Zalman fan is fairly big, heavy, and not too easy to hold.
This is mad - I managed to wrestle the thing out, but it slipped and hit the bracket that was holding it.
Not too bad you'd have thought but there was another small problem.
The CPU had "glued" itself to the heatsink of the Zalman fan, and it bore the brunt of the fall (half an inch).
Several pins had been bent in the fall, and after trying to straighten them, I gave up and resigned myself to ordering a new CPU.
Feck.
(Interestingly, I'd have thought the CPU would be secured in place, but apparently not very)

A Cool Solution: (to one of the problems)
I did a bit more searching online and found a great site with advise about my Motherboard.
They said to remove the heatshield(which is glued on), just heat it up with a hair-dryer, or use a tweezers to pry it off (carefully).
I love these types of fixes, and better yet - it worked.
Ten minutes with the hair-dryer and then easy on with the tweezers and the heatshield popped off allowing me to install the Zalman heatshield and bracket.

More problems:
After replacing the CPU and installing the Zalman heatsink/fan I gave turning on the PC another go.
Alarm! Alarm! Alarm!
Feck Feck FECK!
I tried to find the source of the alarm, the web had indicated the CPU, and it seemd to be coming from there.
Then I found it, it was the Graphics Card - A Gainward GeForce 6800.
I removed the graphics card and everything seemed to run - without any alarms.
I gave the graphics card another go and nothing.

The last problem:
The Power Supply had blown.
It was a 480W and gave up the ghost.
The alarm on the Graphics card must have been due top low power.
I wasn't sure at the time if it was the PSU, but an educated guess told me it probably was, so I ordered a 550W.

All's well that ends well:
The new powersupply has a 120mm fan and is doing the business nice and quietly.
The Zalman heat/sink fan is doing a great job at it's lowest setting. And is lovely and quiet.
I've replaced all the case fans with Antec Tricool fans, and they are virtually silent.
The Graphics card fan is making most of the noise now, but it's a massive improvement.

I fix/build/maintain PCs for a living and I would never have suspected the Graphics card/PSU problem.
But there you go, you learn something new everyday, it's remembering it is the biyatch.
An expensive lesson, hope it's useful to someone someday.

Question - Would disconnecting the Graphics Card fan be a bad idea?

SwampThing

jjmax wrote:

Question - Would disconnecting the Graphics Card fan be a bad idea?

Answer - YES!!!!!

Good save, by the way, on the rest of the machine - many a lesser mortal would have given up!

jjmax

Cheers,

I surprised myself a little too.
I don't know how it would have gone had the new PSU not sorted things today, but thankfully I didn't have to find out.
Even the wife suggested giving up and getting a new one, and she frowns on spending money on the PC

HungryJoey

Thats lousy.

About the CPU " glueing " its self to the heat sink. It happens, Its happened to me, Even if the CPU didnt have a band to bend the pins, Even if you pulled the heatsink and the CPU came with it, it will have bent pins. Anytime I get the heatsink off on my A64, the CPU comes off aswel and pins are always bent, Its the large surface on the flat CPU that creates a vacuum between it and the heatsink. So yeah, I guess either MSI or AMD need to work on that one. It happens to quite alot of people. Funnily enough, I have an MSI board aswel. Might be MSI's socket's are strong enough to hole the CPU in place.

Ah well, better luck next time. That'll teach ya not to feck with stuff. I have learned that aswel

Hj

EOA_Mushy

SwampThing wrote:

Answer - YES!!!!!

LMAO.... needs va few more "!'s"

Good job OP!

astrofool

thats not a heatshield, its there to add a bit of support to the motherboard. The older Zalmans used their own custom mounting, but the newer Zalman 9500 uses the standard mounting that comes with the motherboard. It usually comes off if you push the screw holes gently on the cpu side of the board, don't know if I'd use a hair dryer on a motherboard myself, but if it worked...

The ZIF sockets used are really not as secure as they should be, early p4's used to always come out with the heatsink, first time i've heard it happen with an athlon though. Socket 775 is alot better in that regard, and no chance of broken pins on the chip

jjmax

Bonus problem(s)

My DVD burner and player are both FUBAR!
Luckily had a spare one lying around so I'm alright for the time being.
At first the DVD burner was making noise on boot and when ejecting (it hadn't been before).
Then I tried burning a CD and nothing, just a skipping sound, and the activity light on.
I swapped this thing out, and then had the same problem with the player.

I suppose the rogue PSU took them out.
Mad.
What could have happened to them?
Anyway, all seems to be well again now.
The PSU was a Thermaltake Butterfly 480W, I was going to try and salvage it, because it looks nice but I think I'll be binning that item now.
Never came across anything like this.

On the GFX card, I removed the little Gainward sign over the fan and it seems to have quietened down.

angelofdeath

hope you backup, with your luck the harddrive(s) will be next:(

jjmax

jaysus!
funny though, I thought they'd go before the DVD