Boot problem with new board

[Wayne Morgan]

New Intel D865PERL motherboard. 2.8 GHz CPU with Hyperthreading. 2-512 MB
Crucial DDR 400 modules, one in slot 0 of each socket pair.

Sometime when doing a warm boot it will come up and sometimes it won't
(about 35/65). When it doesn't come up, it goes through post (picture screen
turned off) to the point that it enumerates the drives and appears it should
be passing control over to the boot device, then stops. No errors. It
doesn't matter if the boot device is the hard drive (PATA UDMA 100), CD-ROM,
or Floppy. If I power off and count slowly to 10 then power on, it works
fine.

I've swapped power supplies (the new one is 400w) and video cards. There are
no other cards in the computer. Yes, the 4-pin 12v connector is connected.

 

[Jim]

Sounds to me like the CPU is overheating. It may not be seated correctly,
and/or the HSF is not installed properly, perhaps not in full contact,
obstructed in some fashion. I had a guy the other day who had installed his
HSF *backwards* and had a similar problem. Installed backwards, there was
much less contact between the CPU surface and heat sink. So every time he
booted, it was only a matter of time before the CPU overheated. When it
does, the system quickly becomes unstable, and usually reboots
spontaneously, or just stops/hangs.

HTH

Jim

 

[Wayne Morgan]

The board is showing the CPU between 50 and 53 degrees Celcius. I checked my
other board (same model but with the 2.6 GHz CPU instead of the 2.8) and it
is running between 32 & 35 degrees Celcius (if the board thermistor is
accurate. I suspect it may not be. I unplugged the new machine over night
and picked up some Artic Silver 5. I removed the HSF and cleaned the old
compound off of it and the CPU then applied the Artic Silver and put it all
back together. The lever clips don't seem to be as tight as what I'm used to
when I slide them over to tighten the HSF onto the CPU as I'm used to, but
they do apply some pressure. The unit is seated properly (double checked)
before tightening with the levers. As soon as I turned the computer back on
I went to the BIOS setup's Hardware Monitor page and it immediately showed
51 degrees Celcius (it had been unplugged all night) and rose to 59 degrees
Celcius. With it starting at 51, I suspect that the thermistor may be
inaccurate. The voltages on this page all seem to be correct and the
computer runs beautifully (no hangs or anything) except for the reboot
problem. The CPU fan speed shows 2415 rpm. The Zone 1 and Zone 2
temperatures show 39 and 49 degrees, respectively. The room is good and cool
and there is plenty of ventilation in the case. When I pull the cover and
place my hand in the case or place my hand in the air stream coming out of
the back fan, it doesn't feel as hot as the board indicates.

The power supply I'm using is a P3 power supply with an adapter between one
of the drive power connectors and the square 12v connector on the board, but
as stated earlier, the voltages read ok when compared with the other board.