[QUOTE="Paul said:
I believe the substantial finning on the Video chip indicates
a big power need. And I've read that PCI express is hungry.
So my guess was/is that the MoBo needs 'more' wattage.
I think the first thing I want you to do is:
1) Go outside on a sunny day. Take the side off the PC.
Now, you have light so you can see what you're doing.
The sun can be your source of light.
2) Try to connect the 20 pin connector, using the offset-by-one-pin
that you propose happened. Do the connectors mate (easily)
when pin 1 is not lined up with pin 1 ? If the alignment
feature is working, maybe there is a chance you didn't
blow up the motherboard.
You can use what are known as "beep tests", to test a subset
of the hardware.
As previously explained the new PSU that I bought [before I
realised that wattage requirement vary greatly on new PCs]
'warmed' the cpu [which has so far got no cooling facilities],
and 'starts' the PSU fan, without <CPU reset>.
Which we both suspect could indicate serious problems.
The measured the 5V, 12V were perfect, underload, so I was confused;
but I'd forgotten about the <3.xV> which didn't exist in my days.
In fact the start without cpu-reset is not the MoBo's problem,
with a bettter PSU. So I gave the new/flimsy PSU away.
After the MoBo seller failed to sell me a 400W PSU as promised, I
went on to my alternate location to find a beeper. [strange that a
non-polarised 2-terminal devices is designed to use a 4-pin header].
And on the PC that I use there, I noticed the 4-wire-socket hanging
from the PSU, which I'd never had connect to any [old] PC, and used
to assume was for some new-kiddy-external-device.
Although that is a 20 pins PSU, as you know the extra 4 pins seem
only for spreading the PCB-track-current, and I had brought the
MoBo, to test with the intended, but failed, new PSU purchase;
so I tried the MoBo with this PSU.
It beeped and worked and reset-power-down correctly![/QUOTE]
A couple observations.
There are now 20 pin and 24 pin ATX power supplies. The
24 pin ones, a four pin section unhooks, allowing the
connector to also work with 20 pin motherboards. So the
24 pin power supplies, are actually 20+4 pin connectors.
The four pin section, has four different colors wires on it.
That four pin section, should not be confused with the
CPU power cable. The CPU power cable is square, has two
yellow wires and two black wires, and is called ATX12V.
It is a 12V source for the CPU to use. The regulator located
next to the CPU socket, converts that 12V, into the voltage
the CPU needs.
For most all modern motherboards, you need to connect the
CPU power cable, for it to work. And connecting a four pin
cable, with all different color wires, would be a deadly
mistake. The CPU uses the connector with only yellow and
black wires on it.
So I made a flat-bottomed aluminum water cup, for CPU-cooling
and managed to boot a spare IDE. I shows <Nvidia..> in 'graphic
mode' without loading a graphic driver from disk.
When I got back to my normal location, the tests <powered down>
before completion, although I had increased the cpu-cooling.
Perhaps because the ambient had increased. It's mid summer in
S. hemisphere. My mate, who I gave the flimsy PSU to, thinks the
cpu is shutting-off the PSU due to over temperature, but I think
the PSU is shutting off due to overload.
The MoBo's got a chip with substantial finning, which gets hot,
which I guess is an advanced video processor, using much more
wattage that the old video daughter-boards.
So far, I've not been able to confirm if the MoBo can r/w
IDE <-> SATA, which was the whole reason for buying it.
I suspect that this 2nd-hand BoMo has some functionality broken.
Like I expected it to automatically 'use' a USB-keyboard.
Perhaps that needs to be set in the BIOS?
Before I spend more to buy a 'bigger' PSU, how would I test
if the present power-down after 3 minutes is caused by the PSU?
== TIA.
Modern computer motherboards, have thermal protection for the
CPU. If the CPU gets too hot, there is a hardware signal that
shuts off the power. It causes the PS_ON# signal on the main
ATX cable, to go to the "off" state. In many ways, what
happens is similar to the user pressing the power button on
the front of the computer.
Your CPU cooling solution described above is non-standard.
You need a cooler, capable of removing the heat rating
of the CPU you bought. A flat-bottomed aluminum water cup,
if filled with cold water, might keep the thing cool for
five to ten minutes. But for long term cooling, the cooler
needs "lots of square inches of aluminum" and "lots of
airflow over that surface area of aluminum". That helps
transfer the heat, into the air stream. Convection cooling
with a too-small surface area, will result in the CPU overheating
in a relatively short period of time.
So you need to shop for a CPU cooler with an attached fan.
The best way to do this, is to identify the socket type
on the motherboard (S478, LGA775, LGA1155, LGA1156, LGA1355,
LGA2011, S754, S939, AM2, AM3, G34, and so on). Then, shop for
a cooler designed for the particular CPU socket. Some
coolers support as many has half a dozen different sockets.
The kit may come with several different clamps to hold
the cooler in place.
The person who sold you the CPU, might also have the
cooler in hand. When you buy a brand new retail CPU,
many (but not all) of those, come with a cooler and
fan. It's right in the box. Someone selling a used CPU,
could keep the cooler and attempt to sell it separately,
but that's being a bit silly. It should be sold with
the CPU.
*******
I don't know of a reliable way to identify if your
power supply is switching itself off. But based on
your description of the flat-bottomed aluminum water cup,
my guess is your CPU was overheating, and it switched
off the power supply to protect itself. The function
is built right into the CPU, and requires no software
to work. The signal comes from the CPU, saying the
CPU is too hot, and that logic signal goes into the
same chip as the one that listens to the front power
button.
*******
For the LGA775 socket, Intel has a video about installing
the CPU (16MB download). It takes a few moments, before
the sound track starts. You can see the cooler in this
case, is a simple aluminum cooler without a heatpipe.
The cooler they show, is adequate for the job.
Your CPU socket might not be LGA775, but I'm not
aware of any movies for the other sockets. This movie
was provided, because LGA775 was the first land grid
array processor, and people were not familiar with the
lack of pins on the bottom of those.
http://web.archive.org/web/20070208...ww.intel.com/cd/00/00/24/12/241209_241209.wmv
The only thing I can add to that movie, is the need to
remove the old thermal paste, and add some fresh
paste. Thermal paste, placed between the cooler
and processor, helps aid heat transfer. This is
an example of a popular thermal paste. One
tube lasts a long time. I still have my original
purchased tube of paste and there is still some left.
A dot of paste, about the size of a grain of rice,
is roughly enough paste for the job. Don't get the
paste in the socket, or on the CPU pins.
http://www.arcticsilver.com/cmq2.html
They also make a cleaner, but I just use alcohol
when cleaning mine. And while a fluid like
gasoline might seem like a good idea, it
can attack plastics, and is not recommended.
Isopropyl alcohol is pretty safe, by comparison.
It doesn't clean that well, but here at least,
is readily available.
http://www.arcticsilver.com/arcticlean.htm
Paul
WR_OK works?