# Computer died for no reason...?

## getchoo

My brand new computer died yesterday.. for no apparent reason.

After leaving the thing for a few minutes, I came back to a blank screen, with the fan running. Rebooted. After a short bit, it showed a a bios screen displaying the CPU clock - but none of the other details - and wouldn't post. Now, all that I get is a superfast fan with a blank screen when the power is turned on. When I swap graphics cards (8800GT for ATI 2400) the fan runs at its normal speed, but the screen is still blank. Taking the battery out from the motherboard for thirty seconds does nothing, either.

Any ideas on what the problem could be? From what I've tested, it's not the gfx card or CPU. All the parts are top notch:

Asus P5E vanilla motherboard

Q6600@3.4ghz stable

OCZ stealth extreme 600watts

4x1gb crucial ballistix RAM 800 (running at a high voltage, but not above the rating)

-Thanks in advance for any help

----------

## John R. Graham

Yeah.  You might want to do a little mechanical manipulation.  With the power cord unplugged and one hand on a metal part of the the chassis (so that your body is at the same electrical potential as the motherboard ground), push gently on various portions of the motherboard, wiggle the DIMMs, CPU, etc.  Remove the CPU heat sync and see what the contact area of the thermal grease between the CPU and heat sync looks like (although Intel is relatively tolerant of bad cooling).  Unlatch and relatch the CPU socket.  You may get lucky and cure a bad connection.

You might also want to invest in a POST code card, which will tell you at what point the POST failed and may provide additional clues.  I got mine from eBay for less than $20US.

- John

----------

## getchoo

Thanks a lot, john_r_graham, the post code card looks like a good thing to have on hand.

One thing about the CPU-heatsink connection is that I lapped both and secured it on very tightly, and was monitoring the temperature shortly before it died (below 40c).. so that seems unlikely but I'll definitely give it a shot.

----------

## pappy_mcfae

You may get lucky, but to me, the problems you list sound a lot like the motherboard just decided to say good-bye. 

You can test it thusly. Pull the memory, and see if the computer beeps. If it beeps on and off, continuously,  or beeps out SOS, then you have memory problem. If no beep, it could be a video problem. Next pull the video card with the memory still out. Does it beep? If yes, then it's a video problem, if no, then it's either the motherboard or the chip. 

As has already been said, Intel chips can handle an overheat or twenty without succumbing. So, if you come to the last step and you remain beep-free, you can pretty much count the motherboard out.

Blessed be!

Pappy

----------

## getchoo

Thanks pappy_mcfae,

Tried the beep test. No beep on the ati 2400 or on the memory, but when I put the 8800GT in there, and take out the supplemental power supply to the card, it lets out a high pitched squeel. When the supplemental power is in, only PSU fan goes super fast (this doesn't happen with the other card.) That's the only situation where the fan goes fast.

I replaced the motherboard today with an asus P5K, and no change in the problem, so it can't be the motherboard. I'm guessing it's either the CPU or the PSU. Is there any way to figure out which? I  have no tools to test for voltage.

----------

## pappy_mcfae

 *getchoo wrote:*   

> I replaced the motherboard today with an asus P5K, and no change in the problem, so it can't be the motherboard. I'm guessing it's either the CPU or the PSU. Is there any way to figure out which? I  have no tools to test for voltage.

 What about the memory? Did you use different RAM, or the same as in the old mobo? Had I known you were running anything out of spec, I'd have told you to start there. Set the memory voltage for nominal and retest. If you have more than one memory module, try them one at a time. 

CPU failures are rare, especially if they are made by Intel. I'd vote for memory or a PSU before the CPU.

Blessed be!

Pappy

----------

## jcat

Could well be your PSU.  Have you got another you can test with?

Cheers,

jcat

----------

## getchoo

Thanks for the responses.

So.. new mobo - no change

Today.. new PSU - no change

The only noise I get is a squeel when the PCI-E supplemental power is taken out from the gfx card and a fast fan when it is plugged in. The screen is blank and gives zero text, although the computer sounds as if it is running.

The CPU is lapped and OCed, and the memory was running at a higher voltage (but within the specs.) Should I replace the CPU or memory next?   :Confused: 

-Thanks

----------

## pappy_mcfae

Pull the video card and pull the memory. If the system doesn't beep at you, CPU. If it does, memory.

Blessed be!

Pappy

----------

## jcat

 *getchoo wrote:*   

> 
> 
> The CPU is lapped and OCed, and the memory was running at a higher voltage (but within the specs.) Should I replace the CPU or memory next?  
> 
> 

 

If you mean over clocked, then you should consider running the CPU and Memory at normal speeds until you get it working.  You can reset the BIOS by shorting the "reset pins" on the Mobo using a jumper.

Cheers,

jcat

----------

## Mad Merlin

One thing that I'll suggest is to try removing as much of the RAM as possible, just use one stick, try each stick on it's own, in each slot if possible.

I recently had a PSU blow on me, seemingly taking the rest of the computer with it. I looked away for a moment, and when I looked back, it had frozen completely solid (mouse cursor didn't move, magic SysRq keys did nothing), something I'd never seen before. Upon reboot, I'd be presented with "Bad BIOS Checksum", I was able to reflash the BIOS a few times, but that didn't help at all. What did help was removing one of the sticks of RAM (I had 2 to start), this allowed it to boot normally. It turns out that when the PSU died, it killed one of the sticks of memory, as booting with the bad stick of memory would cause a kernel panic very early on, while booting with the good stick of memory, everything was fine. I was able to RMA the memory with minimal fuss (Corsair, lifetime warranty), and the replacement memory works perfectly in the original configuration (2x1G sticks).

----------

## getchoo

Well.. I took it into the shop and it turned out to be the memory!   :Laughing: 

Thanks for all the help

----------

