dead computer

[neilgriffs]

hi all built my first computer a couple of weeks ago,worked great,then nothing.took it apart with nothing connected get loads of beeps put ram in and no beeps ,just fans working.ram is fairly new,so dont think its that,think i was heavy with the thermal paste so have cleaned that and reaplyed.also have reset cmos, any one got any ideas. dont have spare cpu or motherboard to swap.

[dodgybob]

Could you list the components you've got including the power supply and have you got access to a spare graphics card to see if yours has died?

[ultim8um]

Assemble the motherboard with CPU + RAM + Videocard and plug it into your PSU. Nothing else connected, test it and see if it POSTS. If not then either your cmos settings are incorrect for the hardware you are using or one or more of those components are faulty...

[neilgriffs]

computer is asrock K8NF4G-sata2
AMD 3700 skt754
400 psu
512 ram
nvidia geforce 7300le pci-e 512mb grapics card

[neilgriffs]

computer goes through its checks when it starts but then screen goes blank with just a flashing white line in the very top left hand courner . dont have a spare grfx card but have tried using the onbouard grfx same result

[ultim8um]

When does it go blank though exactly? After it completes a successful POST?
Does it show a screen full of text before going blank? Does it look for a hard drive etc...?

If it keeps doing this then connect your hard drive back to it and then disconnect the PC from the mains. Remove the cmos battery off the mainboard and leave the system completely disconnected from everything over night.

Try it again in the morning after putting the battery back...

[neilgriffs]

hi will try that but in the meantime i have borrowed a pc anilizer that plugs in a pci slot and this is telling me it is not posting compleatly it is stoping on 61
which is (display memory verification over. about to go for DMA# 1 base register test.) dont know if that means anythig to you

[ultim8um]

Presumably by display memory it means the memory allocated to the graphics card in the bios (the onboard graphics of course). Not sure from that error if it means its successfully checked the graphics memory and is then failing on the #1 DMA base register test...! If you have more than one stick of memory I would try swapping them around or try just one stick at a time... Alternatively alter the memory timings if you can get into the bios as it could be the defaults aren't liked by your memory.

[neilgriffs]

hi again have tried swaping the memory to other slot still not finishing post, have orderd more memory on e-bay but it is taking forever to arrive.so cant test it with a differant stick.from what i have tried so far is it possible to rule out the cpu,as if its the cpu i will find a reasonable mobo/cpu bundle.

[ultim8um]

I wouldn't think its the CPU to be fair. Its far more likely to be ram or motherboard normally. Having said that I have seen some weird things happen with dodgy CPU's before now but it does seem unlikely that this is the problem (at least to me anyway).

[neilgriffs]

well i hope its ram or mobo as the 3700 on a 754 seems to be very dear. the only thing that worrys me is that i put to much thermal paste on to start.would this take 3 weeks to show.

[GoNz0]

it may if its blead across some cpu contacts.
take the heatsink off, clean it up 7 reapply a small amount. a grain of rice or 2 is all you need paste wise.

[ultim8um]

If you put to much on then in theory the cpu would get hotter than it should. Depending on the extra amount, it may increase temps by a few degrees or by tens of degrees. Also as gonzo points out... Getting it on the cpu contacts is not a good idea either especially if you are using a silver based paste!

Socket 754 3700+ CPU's are going to be expensive purely because they are rare (the 3400+ is the same physical speed but with the more common 512kb cache and not 1mb) and they were the fastest chip produced for this socket.

[neilgriffs]

thanks every one have tried cleaning cpu. have ordered a new mobo. have ordered the asrock one that will take 939 chips with a cpu card then if it still wont work with the new memory i will have a better chance of picking up a reasonable cpu at a good price

[chriscom]

Any news on your ram arriving yet?

My guess would have been the ram, but I'm a bit confused by the white line you get on your monitor. This seems decidely odd.

[neilgriffs]

still waiting for the ram so im stuck at the moment ,the white line i am talking about is right in the top left corner ,like a flashing cursor when the computer is waiting for you to type something in command prompt