Dead motherboard?

[joshwa]

I have a quad core pc - it was 2.4ghz o/c to 3ghz. It was getting too hot in this weather, so I went into the bios and lowered the FSB from 333 to 266...

After this it wouldn't post anything on the screen
I tried reseting the bios (by using the jumper nr the battery)
Still nothing - just all the fans whirring when I switched it on
Tried without the GFX card and used the onboard gfx...
Still the same
Then I thought I'd reseat the CPU...
NOW all of a sudden the CPU heatsink fan doesn't work
but it does work when I plug the CPU fan into the SYS fan header...
So I think I may now have a dodgy motherboard?

Man I hate these Intel retail heatsinks (with a passion)

Any thoughts?

[joshwa]

If I need a new mATX motherboard - what do people recommend for quad core, with onboard VGA and good overclocking options?

My currently (dead) board is a Gigabyte G33M
and I was thinking of going for a Asus P5K-VM iG33 as a replacement

And what heatsink/fan combo would you recommend?
the Arctic Cooling Freezer 7 Pro looks pretty good for <&#163;15

[Agent]

The fan header not working is a worry, but it could just be that your BIOS is corrupt and needs reflashing

[Clunk]

The broken fan might be why the board isn't booting, (some boards will error if the CPU fan isn't spinning or is disconnected) and also the cause of it getting too hot in the first place.

If you have a standard 3 pin fan, just stick that on and see if it'll post.

If not, looks like you have a board problem.

[Noxvayl]

The broken fan might be why the board isn't booting, (some boards will error if the CPU fan isn't spinning or is disconnected) and also the cause of it getting too hot in the first place.

If you have a standard 3 pin fan, just stick that on and see if it'll post.

If not, looks like you have a board problem.

Yeah mine did that when I tried to go fan less on my Gigabyte motherboard... Ended up just putting a fan on my heatsink anyway.

I'd also suggest testing a different fan because I think its more likely to be the Intel reference fan that is broken rather than the motherboard.

If it does turn out to be the fan invest in a better heatsink Something like this or maybe this if that's too big.

[joshwa]

The board has the 4-pin fan headers - which is why I can't test an alternative fan - but the fan does work when plugged into the 4pin system fan header on the motherboard. I'll get a replacement motherboard and heatsink/fan then I can test and see what's going on.

[s_kinton]

The board has the 4-pin fan headers - which is why I can't test an alternative fan

You can still use 3 pin fans on a 4 pin header.

[peterb]

When you reset the CMOS (you can't reset the bios!) did that affect any preset fan cooling? (It shouldn't be possible to disable it completely though)

Otherwise, the BIOSmay have become corrupted (as agent says) although I can't really see any credible circumstances - but these things do happen - so it might be worth downloading an image of the bios and reflashing it.

However - as this happened after you changed the bus speed, it might also be worth running memtest on the memory - if you have been overclocking/overvolting it, you have been stressing it the components, and they may be showing a fault - although again, I can't see why that would affect the fan operation.

[joshwa]

You can still use 3 pin fans on a 4 pin header.

Thanks for the heads up - I didn't know that

A 3pin fan works on the CPU fan header, but the 4pin heatsink fan will not.
However the same 4pin heatsink fan will work when plugged into the SYS fan header.

I should get the new motherboard tomorrow so will test all the stuff with a new motherboard and see what happens. Personally it's looking like a faulty motherboard to me.

[professorx]

if it now posts but the only thing not working is the fan header your lucky!
At least the cpu/ram are working.
Gigabyte have good boards when it comes to preventing the bios becoming corrupt.

[joshwa]

Okay...

bought new motherboard, case, and heatsink, rebuilt PC in new case with new motherboard... guess what... ALL the fans spin full power... but still the system wont post anything on screen...

could it be a dead CPU?

The ram is crucial bollistix and all the flashy lights light up so that looks ok.

... took one of the sticks of ram out and guess what...

it's only started working again!!!! so faulty / dead crucial memory!!!!! ARGH!!
Do they have a lifetime warranty? do I just send it back to crucial?

[Noxvayl]

Okay...

bought new motherboard, case, and heatsink, rebuilt PC in new case with new motherboard... guess what... ALL the fans spin full power... but still the system wont post anything on screen...

could it be a dead CPU?

The ram is crucial bollistix and all the flashy lights light up so that looks ok.

... took one of the sticks of ram out and guess what...

it's only started working again!!!! so faulty / dead crucial memory!!!!! ARGH!!
Do they have a lifetime warranty? do I just send it back to crucial?

Yes they have lifetime warranty and yes you just send them back to crucial

http://www.crucial.com/uk/support/returns.aspx

Thought it wasn't your motherboard... still weird that the CPU fan doesn't work on the old motherboard, maybe its the forth pin not working which the CPU fan needs which would explain why a normal 3 pin fan worked and the CPU one didn't. Hopefully Crucial sort this out out quickly for you.

[joshwa]

Sending back the crucial ram.

I've re-setup the Gigabyte motherboard system with the original Intel cooler - and it's all working again - albeit with different (temporary) memory!

It's worked out okay, as I can get my dad to upgrade his PC to quadcore...

[Noxvayl]

Sending back the crucial ram.

I've re-setup the Gigabyte motherboard system with the original Intel cooler - and it's all working again - albeit with different (temporary) memory!

It's worked out okay, as I can get my dad to upgrade his PC to quadcore...

Glad to hear its all worked out ok in the end