too much thermal transfer grease?

[jeremymojo]

I have a new ABIT kV7 socket A M/B with an athalon xp1700 cpu. I am switching M/b's. The old system worked fine. Seating the CPU was fine. When installing the heatsink to the chip, and being a dumbie, I used a lot of thermal transfer grease. Still being a dummie, I applied the grease to a large portion of the entire surface of the chip (not just the small 1cm sq portion that is upraised off of the die). Will this cause damage to the processor? Reason I ask is because my system won't POST. I get a long beep followed by 2 short beeps when I power up. Then the system keeps the fans running, but no video signal and no POST. I have power through the M/B, all system fans run, no PCi cards attached, and only my HDD. Also both ATX power cords are attached to the M/B.

Additionally, when I changed to a new heatsink, I had to take the old one apart to get the clip that goes through the center of the heatsink (my new one, a thermaltake volcano 7+, had an incompatible clip). So, I put the clip from my old one, into the new. The clip is supposed to be bent, but not symettrically. Could it be that I put the clip into my sink backwards and it is now not applying correct/even pressure to the heatsink/contact portion of my processor? I watched a video from AMD on installation and it said that the offset bend is meant to apply pressure directly over the contact portion of the chip. Could a lack of proper contact be the reason I can't boot or POST? Thanks. I should have follwed those IMPORTANT directions more closely. Read a lot of comments and nothing matched my problem exactely so I posted this....

 

[Me__2001]

look in your Mobo manual, what do the beeps mean ?

Edit : scratch that, found them, pull your graphics card and reseat it

 

[jeremymojo]

tried to reseat the graphics card already, there's only one way it goes and its all the way in! the fan is spinning on the card...
One thing I've noticed:
on my old board (SOYO KT400 dragon) and setup, I didn't have a power connection to the video card set-up. I just noticed that there is a power connector on the video card (ATI Radeon 8000 all in wonder). It ran fine on the other board w/o a power connection to the video card. The fan for the video card spins w/o the power connector (it takes a smaller type of power connector like that which plugs into the back of the floppy A:\ drive). Should I plug this in? Didn't want to 'cuz the little AGP fan on the card is spinning and I don't want to plug power into things which might not want it...) It doesn't seem like this is it b/c of the wierd beeps. My manual says nothing about beeps. What sort of a code is this? Thanks for the help, mang.

 

[Me__2001]

plug the thing in, AGP slots cant supply the cards with enough power thats what the plug is for, dont know why it worked before but plug it in

 

[jeremymojo]

I will plug the power cord to the video card and fire it up when I get home from work tonight...I'll post the result tomorrow...
As long as no one thinks I fried the CPU from putting too much termal grease on it or something horrible like that. Do you know if that pattern of beeps (1long, 2 short) means a problem with the video card (or lack thereof b/c of not enough power)? Hmmm......thanks again.....

 

[Me__2001]

after a quick search on google, i found that that beep code means a problem with the graphics card, if your worried about the amount of grease take the heatsink of and reapply it

 

[jeremymojo]

thanks for the input Me_2001 ! I will try the power connector to the vid card or maybe I just zapped it when switching out...I've appreciated your help

 

[floppybootstomp]

When I forget to connect extra power to vid cards, I usually get a long series of beeps, but it could be different for each card.

Do plug the extra power connector to the card, it needs the extra current.

Take out your CPU and using cotton buds and/or clean rag and meths, clean off every last trace of thermal compound.

When you reinstall cooler, apply just a little to CPU core, spread it as evenly as you can with the aid of an old credit card or even the nozzle of the compound dispenser, you don't need much of the stuff.

As for whether the compound can damage your CPU, some can and some will not.

Arctic Silver heat transfer compound can damage a chip as it's capacitive and can cause shorts between exposed surface mounted components.

Most other types, typically coloured white, won't do any harm.

If the cooler wasn't making good contact with the CPU, it's likely it won't POST as it will overheat rapidly, but usually this initiates a shutdown, which yours isn't doing, so that's puzzling.

Look in your BIOS and check every setting carefully, something may leap out at you as obviously wrong, it's worth looking.

Good luck.

Edit/PS: Just realised, if it ain't POST-ing, you're not going to be able to access the BIOS are you? Oops So, er, forget that for now....

 

[floppybootstomp]

I just had another thought.

How are the fsb/multiplier settings fixed on that Abit board?

XP1700 runs at 133 x 11, if the board has jumpers to set that, check you have them correct.

If settings are done in BIOS, reset CMOS (see manual), reboot and set within there.

 

[jeremymojo]

There are no multiplier jumpers on the MB, just in the BIOS. Tried to reseat Video card again and connected the power, with the same result, just a series of beeps and nothing shuts down, but no picture either. I removed all the grease from my cpu with a cotton swab and alcohol and reapplied sparingly. I fixed the clip on the fan so that it looks like it should and reseated the HSF. And I got the same result. I removed the RAM stick and the MB at startup gave me a different series of beep codes, so I am guessing that my MB works, and something else doesn't. I know a guy with a similar make/model MB and I will test the video card on that MB. Its got to be something that makes it not work...Oh yeah, I used the silver thermal compound and got it all over the chip. Maybe I fried out the chip. Never rebuild your computer hungover.