Proceesor or Motherboard failure?

[Peter]

Hello Everyone,

On Friday night I powered down my system before as usual. It has been
running since last October with no problems.
On Saturday morning when I switched on, the fans all work and the lights
come on, but I get nothing else. Nothing on screen, no BIOS beeps at all -
just dead.

I have tried all the normal stuff like unplugging everything and trying the
system just with the graphics card in, but stll nothing. All the fans (CPU,
side of case, Northbridge and graphics card inbuilt fan) are running.

I have tried a power supply unit I know works (from a friend's PC), but
still the same.

So - How do I know if it's the processor or the motherboard that is dead?
I have taken the processor out to have a look, but I have never seen one
that is burnt out. It doesn't smell burnt and the socket is clean. There was
still a residue of grease on there and before reinserting it I cleaned all
this off and applied a new thermal pad.

System:
Gigabyte GA-8lk1100 series 2
Pentium 4 800mhz FSB hyperthreading
MSI FX5600 TD256 graphics card
2 x 512mb of PC3200DDR RAM
2 x SATA HDD

As I say - it's been flawless since I built it last year but I have never
had this before so any help or advice would be appreciated.
Has anyone here ever tried to return a processor under the terms of the
warranty and is so what problems can I expect?

Thanks,

Peter

 

[John]

System:
Gigabyte GA-8lk1100 series 2
Pentium 4 800mhz FSB hyperthreading
MSI FX5600 TD256 graphics card
2 x 512mb of PC3200DDR RAM
2 x SATA HDD

As I say - it's been flawless since I built it last year but I have never
had this before so any help or advice would be appreciated.
Has anyone here ever tried to return a processor under the terms of the
warranty and is so what problems can I expect?

Ive never heard of a processor just dying but anything is possible.
Sure as long as it wasnt abused physically Im sure they would take it
back unless they suspected you did something dumb like run it with
improper cooling.

I have my doubts though that the processor just went out but anything
is possible.

Try clearing your CMOS first. Ive had sooooo many problems with
boards. And recently my neighbors abit also went bonkers again.

Clear the Cmos and then make sure the CPU settings are correct in the
bios when you bootup.

If that doesnt work the best thing you can do is try your video in
another board to tule that out and then try another processor in your
board or your processor in another board to narrow it down.

 

[John]

So - How do I know if it's the processor or the motherboard that is dead?
I have taken the processor out to have a look, but I have never seen one
that is burnt out. It doesn't smell burnt and the socket is clean. There was
still a residue of grease on there and before reinserting it I cleaned all
this off and applied a new thermal pad.

Oh yeah when I say its really rare in fact Ive never seen a processor
just fail - thats assuming the fan didnt die , or the heatsink didnt
flyoff because the clips came loose or the wires in your PC case didnt
fall into the fan blades keeping them from turning etc.
Sometime type of cooling problerm.

Actually all the MBs Ive seen have something that senses the fan
rotation and will turn off the board if the fans rotation falls below
the min rpm.

And if it did burn up , unless it really fried there isnt any smell or
burned marks. A neighbor put on a heatsink poorly the clips came off
the plastic base and the chip burned up , died and it looked perfectly
fine. It was totally dead though.

However you would notice Im sure if your CPU fan wasnt turning and
your MB isnt ancient so it would have turned off Im sure if the fan
wasnt turning.

 

[kony]

Hello Everyone,

On Friday night I powered down my system before as usual. It has been
running since last October with no problems.
On Saturday morning when I switched on, the fans all work and the lights
come on, but I get nothing else. Nothing on screen, no BIOS beeps at all -
just dead.

I have tried all the normal stuff like unplugging everything and trying the
system just with the graphics card in, but stll nothing. All the fans (CPU,
side of case, Northbridge and graphics card inbuilt fan) are running.

I have tried a power supply unit I know works (from a friend's PC), but
still the same.

So you know your friend's system has similar or lower power usage on every
voltage rail, to eliminate the possibility that it's just not adequate for
your system, even though it may be for the friend's.

So - How do I know if it's the processor or the motherboard that is dead?
I have taken the processor out to have a look, but I have never seen one
that is burnt out. It doesn't smell burnt and the socket is clean. There was
still a residue of grease on there and before reinserting it I cleaned all
this off and applied a new thermal pad.

To look at one, unless it is physically cracked, the burn would look like
a discoloration or even bubbling of the surface, if bad enough. However a
sudden voltage spike can easily kill a CPU with no visable evidence.

CPUs generally don't "just die". A motherboard power circuit problem
could cause it, or a heatsink falling off, or an extreme/prolonged
condition of running with fan stopped, and still keeping power on even
after system had crashed, AND if motherboard temp shutdown isn't present
or buggy. In other words, beyond an unusual situation, CPUs rarely ever
die, the odds of an untraceaable failure being the CPU are very low
compared to motherboard, power, or even video card.

System:
Gigabyte GA-8lk1100 series 2
Pentium 4 800mhz FSB hyperthreading
MSI FX5600 TD256 graphics card
2 x 512mb of PC3200DDR RAM
2 x SATA HDD

As I say - it's been flawless since I built it last year but I have never
had this before so any help or advice would be appreciated.
Has anyone here ever tried to return a processor under the terms of the
warranty and is so what problems can I expect?

You can expect that it's not the CPU. It "could" be, but assume it isn't
unless you have a very specific reason to believe otherwise.

You have the typical, common, "system won't POST problem. A Google search
should find plenty of troubleshooting tips like taking voltage readings,
checking cables and cards, clearing CMOS, stripping system down to only
memory, CPU/fan, video, and retrying it.

Inspect motherboard and video card for failed capacitors. Unplug old
power supply for a few minutes and inspect it as well.

 

[Peter]

Thanks both of you - that's given me a few other things to think about.

I shall let you know in the end what it was once I get to the bottom of it.

Thanks again,

Peter

 

[ElJerid]

Thanks both of you - that's given me a few other things to think about.

I shall let you know in the end what it was once I get to the bottom of it.

Thanks again,

Peter

In contradiction with the messages above, I had a CPU that suddenly went
down. The symptoms were just the same as in your case: fans and lights ok,
but nothing else. Fortunately, I had another identical PIII 1 GHz cpu, and
could easily make the replacement.
When looking to the dead cpu however, I could notice that the green cpu base
had slightly turned light brown around the chip. For your info, on top of
this, the cpu failure also caused the first memory bank to be destroyed. Cpu
cooling was 100% ok and 2 days before the accident, the cpu temp was only 32
°C in idle and 39 °C in stressed mode. This was measured wit Asus Probe on
an Asus CUSL2-C motherboard.

 

[kony]

In contradiction with the messages above, I had a CPU that suddenly went
down. The symptoms were just the same as in your case: fans and lights ok,
but nothing else. Fortunately, I had another identical PIII 1 GHz cpu, and
could easily make the replacement.
When looking to the dead cpu however, I could notice that the green cpu base
had slightly turned light brown around the chip. For your info, on top of
this, the cpu failure also caused the first memory bank to be destroyed. Cpu
cooling was 100% ok and 2 days before the accident, the cpu temp was only 32
°C in idle and 39 °C in stressed mode. This was measured wit Asus Probe on
an Asus CUSL2-C motherboard.

Are you sure the CPU destroyed the memory, that it wasn't the other way
around? I have heard of gross memory damage and/or insertion backwards,
etc, to then cause CPU failure, but not the other way around until now.

 

[ElJerid]

Are you sure the CPU destroyed the memory, that it wasn't the other way
around? I have heard of gross memory damage and/or insertion backwards,
etc, to then cause CPU failure, but not the other way around until now.

Yes, I'm sure. Because my first tought was a memory failure and I tried
another expensive identical Corsair PC150 module, which has also been
killed...

 

[Graeme]

Yes, I'm sure. Because my first tought was a memory failure and I tried
another expensive identical Corsair PC150 module, which has also been
killed...

I didn't think that memory was connected directly to the processor, so
neither should be directly responsible for the death of the other.
but what do I know?!

 

[ElJerid]

I didn't think that memory was connected directly to the processor, so
neither should be directly responsible for the death of the other.
but what do I know?!

Same for me...

 

[pheasant]

Hello Everyone,

On Friday night I powered down my system before as usual. It has been
running since last October with no problems.
On Saturday morning when I switched on, the fans all work and the lights
come on, but I get nothing else. Nothing on screen, no BIOS beeps at all -
just dead.

I have tried all the normal stuff like unplugging everything and trying the
system just with the graphics card in, but stll nothing. All the fans (CPU,
side of case, Northbridge and graphics card inbuilt fan) are running.

I have tried a power supply unit I know works (from a friend's PC), but
still the same.

So - How do I know if it's the processor or the motherboard that is dead?
I have taken the processor out to have a look, but I have never seen one
that is burnt out. It doesn't smell burnt and the socket is clean. There was
still a residue of grease on there and before reinserting it I cleaned all
this off and applied a new thermal pad.

System:
Gigabyte GA-8lk1100 series 2
Pentium 4 800mhz FSB hyperthreading
MSI FX5600 TD256 graphics card
2 x 512mb of PC3200DDR RAM
2 x SATA HDD

As I say - it's been flawless since I built it last year but I have never
had this before so any help or advice would be appreciated.
Has anyone here ever tried to return a processor under the terms of the
warranty and is so what problems can I expect?

Thanks,

Peter

Just replaced the mobo in my play system. Same symptoms.
It's where I'd start if I ever have to do it again. (after the usual
things like clearing CMOS, adding cards back one at a time)
Mine was a Soltek 75FRN2-RL.
Mark

 

[Peter]

You can expect that it's not the CPU. It "could" be, but assume it isn't

unless you have a very specific reason to believe otherwise.

You have the typical, common, "system won't POST problem. A Google search
should find plenty of troubleshooting tips like taking voltage readings,
checking cables and cards, clearing CMOS, stripping system down to only
memory, CPU/fan, video, and retrying it.

Inspect motherboard and video card for failed capacitors. Unplug old
power supply for a few minutes and inspect it as well.

Well it's been a while but I said I would let you all know so here goes.

It was a faulty motherboard in the end. I have just finally got the
replacement and fitted it today and all is fine. No-one could tell me what
exactly was wrong with it or what caused the failure though.

Anyway - thanks once again to all who replied.

Peter