Need help ?!?! Also funny story aboot baked goods :D

Wolf

Right first off I hope Iv put this in the right forum, but, here goes anyway. If not I apoligise and please move at your leisure.

I should also add at the start here that I'v been using PCs for a very long time and work with them alot. However due to different reasons (backpacking and other stuff) I'v been out of the loop for about 2/3 years now and my knowledge has fallen well behind as you will see. Also, my hardward expertise were never that great anyway again this will become all too clear.

First things first. My Specs....

Asus A8V motherboard
1 Gig 1024 Nv Ram
Amd 64 3500+
Standard Sony DVD drive
A Qtech 550W Power Supply
160 Gig IDE
Apogee Nvidia Geforce 6800GT
Ntech 5.1 sound card

All the Bios setting haven't really been fiddled with baring the normal.

Also, extra USB ports, extrctor fan and a Wireless card are pluged in, but, none of these are really used.

Now the PC has been running well for about 7/8 months now and has never fallen over before. I run XSI and visual studio C++. I don't have any anti-virus/spyware stuff installed, but, have its setup in such a way I don't really need to and I tend to do a rebuild every couple of months.

Now my first problem is this. I was playing some counter-strike:source when the sound went a bit funny. Then within a few seconds... blue screen!

So I turn it off i.e. yank out the power cable. Just then my girl friend calls round so I decide Ill leave it till later. When I get back in I turn it on and it powers up for a few seconds as in the bios and Ram check then dies again. So naturally I crap myself. I try checking power cables and that kind of thing.

Heres the odd part. It will boot up to windows, but, it seem I have to take out the power cable and put it back in a few times till it boots up. Its been up and running now all night. However, Im pretty certain if I turn it off again Ill have the same problem (I tested this yesterday). So it seems once its up and running its fine, but, on boot it will fail a couple of times, before actaully booting up.

So first off I.d like to know what might this be. I only built this PC back in November/October and like I said its been very soild up till now. Everything in it is brand new as well.

So as for this problem could it be a virus? I know many people will say its the PSU but I kinda doubt that as now its running fine. I.v heard the AMDs will knock themselves off if there is a problem on boot so could this be maybe a memory problem?

Anyway, I promised a funny story..... :rolleyes:

Well as I said I got in last night and im not really in the mood for arsing around with my PC espcially as I have so much work to do between now and the end of term. So i turn on the PC and like I said its fails.

I panic slightly.

So eventually I manage to get it to boot, but, Im thinking this isn't good. My room is a wee touch of a pig sty so im wondering could it be dust sitting inside causing a fault when its checking the RAM or something?

So I take the side off and get the hover out. I noticed a big clump of dust on the DIMM slots. So I take out the stick and clean that. All is going fine up to this point. Then I notice a hugh amount of muck on the heat sink and the chip fan. So I reckon seen as im here I may as well clean that. I take off the chip fan and clean that, fine. I can see the sink itself is filthly. Now like I said I haven't really touched the inside of a PC for maybe 3 years. I remembered puting it together, chip goes in sink goes ontop and the badgers your uncle, so I reckon I can just pull out the heat sink to clean it

Of course what I didn't realise that as the PC runs its has a paste that sort of sticks the CPU to the heat sink and everything else from here goes wrong. Very wrong!!!

I know Im a moron!

So in my paniced haste I manage to bend the pins on the chip. So I get the entire thing out (sink and chip) and manage as far as I hoped to get the pins correctly aglined again. I hope.

However, to get it back in Im beginning to realise I need the chip free from the sink as all you lot probably allready know to do so the the paste needs to be heated. So I google it on my mates PC. I find the metod for doing this involves running something proccessor intensive to heat it up then taking it out and kinda waggling it off.

Although im sitting there with a cold CPU and heat sink as one, that I can't get back in the board with pins that are probably half buggered :rolleyes:

So now the I have a problem. Im a retruning student with no cash and due to my lazyness I NEED my computers lots over the next while so I can hopfully scrape through this year and I'v just winkered my CPU.

So the question is how do I get the paste up to a heat that I can get the CPU off. Well I fire up the oven and pop the cpu and sink in. Leave it bake for 10/15 minutes. Take it out using oven mits, use a knife to scrape the CPU off. Now Im just hoping that Iv got the pins back in line......

Joy! The chip pops straight back in. I get the sink back on leave to to stand so that the lot can cool. Put the thing back together. Boot it...... and while I still had the same boot problem as before its running and I nearly cry with joy.

Well I thought a few of you might get a giggle out that episode.

As for the overall problem if anyone has any ideas I'd be really greatfull.

Thanks Wolf.

PS I know I'm a gobsh!t3.

KdjaCL

hahhahahhaha

Best thread ever.

/Edit Q tech is pos try another one may not be fully powering all of your hardware. Either get a diff one or test it with a voltometer.

kdjac

neokenzo

Thats a good story mate

Firstly, I think it part of your problem is your PSU. Qtec has a reputation of having one of the worse out there. It may be working fine before, but doesnt mean that it is working fine now. I agree with Kdjac regarding either test another psu or test the rails on your psu.

Secondly, are you NUTS putting your cpu in the oven??? That cpu must have been toasting in there which definitely aint good for it. You are lucky that it is still working though. Even if you did put it in the over, 1-2 minutes would be more than sufficient. Not 10-15 minutes Next time, use a hair dryer

KdjaCL

Should have microwaved it tbh , story only lacked a small explosion.

kdjac

po0k

I assume you're using thermal cement rather than thermal paste?
That's going to be a bitch to get off.
If it's just thermal paste, then a bit of WD40 squirted between them (with the cpu/HSF inverted, sitting on the table on the Heatsink fins, cpu pins pointing up) and a bit of gentle twisting left and right should free it.
If it's thermal cement, then you should've known better ;), but the only thing I can think of off the top of my head would be nail-polish remover or a light acetone mix, though this may well cause more harm than good if your chip has an organic-based packaging.

Wolf

Well I reckon it was thermal cement. I didn't have the oven up that high and when I said baked for 10/15 mins that was kinda creative license for the sake of the story. I mean the way I was looking at it was your comp is designed to run at high temps and at the end of the day and there wasn't anything in there that could be damaged by a bit of heat. After all the silicone won't bake unless very high temp and the rest is all metal.

But yeah I know I well, well lucky tbh.

Again Im a programmer not a techie so how do I test the rails and voltage on it?

I have a mate used to do techie stuff for Kanos so when he gets back Ill give him a shout to take a look at it. But I wouldn't mind nailing down what the problem might be for him when he gets back. Can anyone suggest any diagnostic software I might use?

Lump

Ha ha... I thought I had problems with computers.

John