What have i done?!?

[pelien]

Hi folks,

I need some help and advice and would be greatful of any ideas.

I recommended Thermaltake's Bigwater SE to my boss at work as a good starter water cooling kit, been using one myself for the last 18 months, no problems, does exactly what it says on the box. So anyway it arrives, boss asks me to come round after work help him fit, no problem.

Been there 30 minutes, have to get axesaw out to cut the top of the radiator off (sounds worse than it really is) to be able to fit the radiator in. Now fits like a glove, but i can tell the boss is gettin a bit nervous. Next comes mounting the waterblock, have to get the MB out (Asus A8N sli deluxe), easy, while its out he asks me to put a new chipset fan that he got the other week, no problem i say.

OK waterblock on, new chipset fan, MB back in, set all the tubing up for the bigwater, reconnected every little wire back to the MB using the manual for all those anoying little ones that control the switches. Sorted, time to power up, check the pump is working.......................

Few air bubbles, no problem did what it said in the book, switched it back on, WOOT air bubbles gone. Jobs a good 1 i thinks, get all covers back on, everything plugged back in and back neatly under the desk. Power ON.....................Bugger.........................

Ok sorry for the rant, now the problem. It hangs, post boot. Get the little picture showing the MB, the screen that says Hit DEL to enter setup. Cant get any futher, press DEL just changes the message to Entering setup, so i cant boot the thing or get into the bios. I have since checked and doubled checked everything is plugged into the right thing, tried booting with all kinds of different combinations of having differnt parts unplugged. Still hangs at boot screen. Looking inside when its switched shows no red lights, everything is green.

Please remember this is my bosses computer, i was extremely careful with everything i did and everything i touched, i did not what to be there 4 hours believe me. The only thing i found slightly difficult was getting the old thermal compound off the chipset fan.

Is there something obvious im missing here? Do you think maybe i damaged something, would that cause it to hang like it is doing, is it just a case of checking every connection, giving each 1 a blow incase of dust?

Folks, Im stuck any advice would help me a ton. dreading going into work 2moro!!!

Thanks and sorry for the long post, if nothing else will make some of ya smile.

Neil

[ExceededGoku]

^^ lol, you should never help your boss away from work... it always goes wrong .
It is definitely a motherboard issue, that is for sure. I reckon it has something to do with the chipset fan, but I won't rule out bios overclocking options (in other words reset CMOS :S)... Anyway I would regrease the chipset fan and make sure it is securely on top of the chipset. It seems you followed the book for every other thing though and so I cannot see where else to look. Next plan is to RMA the board...

[-ChEM-]

well unless you didnt attach the block properly or you spilt water on his comp the water kit should be ok, hopefully you made certain both are covered as it was your boss

the likely things would be
a) screwing up the northbridge chip
b) frying something with static, might be worth swapping the ram as a grasp

if you didnt attach the block properly it could be overheating after a couple of seconds of use, id give that a thorough check first just to be sure as you're wearing out the chip each time you turn on the comp, it would explain it as you would expect POST failure to result in some kind of message or beep not a crash

btw as well as finding your situation fairly amusing, i also feel a small amount of pity and hope it works out

[Agent]

Check everything is seated correctly: Memory is a git for things like this somtimes.

Other than that, try plugging the fans back on (they dont have to be cooling anything). Some mobos will see that the fans have a 0RPM value and point blankly refuse to work (prevents over heating).
If this gets it working, there is probably a setting in the BIOs to disable it

Good luck !

[arthurleung]

Have you at least tried a CMOS reset?

Locking up before entering setup might suggest problems with SATA/IDE cables or drives.
See if you could get in without the HDDs connected.

Fan @ 0RPM should tell you an error with the fan but should not powerdown or hang unless the temperature exceeds like 70'C.

[this_is_gav]

Just out of interest, how long are you leaving it before giving up and switching it off? I find leaving in excess USB devices can slow my POST down a hell of a lot - from a few seconds normally, it can take up a minute (normally if I leave a 2nd keyboard in my monitors USB hub).

[herulach]

reset cmos, check all mounting screws, you might be shorting something somewhere.

[5lab]

sounds like it could be a short to me, or maybe a usb device playing up

[maverick77_uk]

Sounds very much like a short / overheat. As you changed the chipset fan, thats the first port of call. Are you sure:

A) the fan is spinning up when you first turn the comp on.
B) you didn't scratch / damage the chipset when getting the thermal paste off (you mentoned you had difficulties).

Don't think its a RAM problem, as I've had many, and if the RAM is bad either the computer completely fails to boot, or the RAM fails test, or it will try to load the OS and proceed to crash, or the computer is just unstable if the RAM is on the way out, not crashing in POST as you describe. Soooooo.............Take a long hard look at the chipset fan.......Good luck.

[djhworld]

Not sure if this has been mentioned, but is the watercooling system powered by the PSU?

Could potentially be an overloaded PSU problem, perhaps?

[Nox]

Another vote for reset CMOS, secondary vote for preparing cv

disconnect IDE drives and all USB devices too tho.

Nox

[Curly]

I would try Agent's sugguestion (sp), and plug a fan in the cpu fan header on the motherboard, could try to power up with the motherboard out of the case to see if it's shorting.

Curly

[pelien]

Hi folks,

Thanks a bunch for all your advice guys.

Well its not the chipset fan, all is dandy there. Think we have routed out the problem, Agent your the man. If we unplug the waterblock and plug back in the standard CPU fan eveything boots up fine.

Question is, how do we get round this?? Cant have the CPU fan plugged in with the new waterblock system in, and cant find a setting in the bios to disable it.

Still have not done a CMOS reset, coz the boss is sweating buckets about the very thought of it. Do you think that will solve the problem??

Thanks again guys, just a little more help required and i keep my job.

Neil

[ExceededGoku]

CMOS resets don't damage anything... just make sure you set the bios up correctly once it boots.

[MadduckUK]

Still have not done a CMOS reset, coz the boss is sweating buckets about the very thought of it. Do you think that will solve the problem??

you'v just introduced water into his comp and he's scared of you resetting his bios?

not constructive but hopefully with the help being posted you;ll pull through. then NEVER help anyone with there comp again. if i really need to now ill take it away and do it at my own place, at my own pace. with everything i need to check whats going on when something beeps at me.

if your doing THEM a favour its on your terms.

[Curly]

can you not power a case fan on the header or maybe if it can reach power the chipset fan from it.

Curly