Replace Motherboard?, Need some advice about beeping problem

[Dan Mabbutt]

I built a new Gigabyte K7 Triton / AMD Athlon XP / Corsair Twinx
system about six months ago. But I've had intermittant problems
recently. Here's what happens:

The system has started beeping. It doesn't beep all the time (in fact,
it's not beeping at all right now). When it does start, it usually
starts gradually and then the beeping builds up until it's a constant
beep every ten seconds or so. At that point, crashes are likely.

I can solve the problem temporarily by powering down and reseating the
memory. I have two 512 sticks of memory, so I have been running them
one at a time, swapping one out for the other when the beeping gets
too bad. Obviously, I can't tell any difference between the two.

I've decided that there is probably just some fault in the MB and the
solution is to swap out the MB.

My main question:

I've never actually "swapped out" a MB before. I've installed a lot of
new CPU's in new MB's but once the little lever goes down, I never
lift it up again. Are there any issues (well ... other than the
obvious compatibility issues) in removing a CPU from one MB and
installing it in another?

Thanks!!

 

[JAD]

What are your temperatures. it sounds like a heat warning beep.

 

[Harry]

I built a new Gigabyte K7 Triton / AMD Athlon XP / Corsair Twinx
system about six months ago. But I've had intermittant problems
recently. Here's what happens:

The system has started beeping. It doesn't beep all the time (in fact,
it's not beeping at all right now). When it does start, it usually
starts gradually and then the beeping builds up until it's a constant
beep every ten seconds or so. At that point, crashes are likely.

I can solve the problem temporarily by powering down and reseating the
memory. I have two 512 sticks of memory, so I have been running them
one at a time, swapping one out for the other when the beeping gets
too bad. Obviously, I can't tell any difference between the two.

I've decided that there is probably just some fault in the MB and the
solution is to swap out the MB.

Yes, sounds very much like a MB problem.

My main question:

I've never actually "swapped out" a MB before. I've installed a lot of
new CPU's in new MB's but once the little lever goes down, I never
lift it up again. Are there any issues (well ... other than the
obvious compatibility issues) in removing a CPU from one MB and
installing it in another?

No, just do the reversal of the original install.
Disconnect cables
unscrew MB from case
Carefully lift out MB
Place on flat surface and remove HSF
Lift level on socket and remove CPU

You will want to clean the HSF and CPU of the thermal pad/paste before
reinstalling though.

If the new MB is very different from the original then you may need to
consider reinstalling XP. If its the same MB then you should get away
with plugging it all back in.

 

[Adam S]

Yes, sounds very much like a MB problem.

No, just do the reversal of the original install.
Disconnect cables
unscrew MB from case
Carefully lift out MB
Place on flat surface and remove HSF

Depending upon what sort of paste/pad is fitted to the heatsink you may find
the HSF is stuck on solid and will require some effort to remove. Just
before attempting the swap run the PC normally for 15 mins to heat up the
CPU this will help soften the bond.

Adam S

 

[Harry]

Depending upon what sort of paste/pad is fitted to the heatsink you may find
the HSF is stuck on solid and will require some effort to remove. Just
before attempting the swap run the PC normally for 15 mins to heat up the
CPU this will help soften the bond.

Good call. I have always used paste (Artic Silver) so I hadnt thought
of that.

Cheers

 

[Dan Mabbutt]

This is the original poster!

The thing that is wrong with newsgroups is that you get a lot of
problem statements and some very good advice sometimes, but you seldom
get the "bottom line". People do whatever they do and never update the
original message thread with what they learned. I wage a one-person
struggle to change that.

Here's the deal:

It was the motherboard. After living with this problem for several
months, I finally decided that the MB was the most likely source and
ordered a new MB ... same brand and model ... and did a
motherboard-endectomy. Problem fixed! No beeps! I can use both sticks
of memory now with no problems.

About the thermal paste issue. I use Arctic Silver too. The thing
about thermal paste is that it should be as thin as possible while
still providing a complete, unbroken interface between the heat sink
and the chip. When I took the heat sink off, virtually all of the
residual paste adhered the the heat sink, not the chip. I decided that
I might accidentally mess something up if I mucked about on the chip
and there was really no point in cleaning it anyway since the residual
on the chip surface was the material I wanted there. So I cleaned the
heat sink surface carefully with alchohol just so there wouldn't be
excess paste and reapplied a "rice grain" sized glob of Arctic Silver
to the chip with a credit card just like the web page instructions
suggest. BIOS readings of the chip temperature are perfectly normal.

My system wouldn't quite boot when I turned it on again. (It's
interesting that it would very briefly display the Windows splash
screen before crashing into a reboot loop. I'm guessing that this
indicates that something in the registry was broken by the motherboard
swap.) I rebooted with the Windows XP CD and used the "R" ("R"epair?
"R"ecover?) option. This proceeded through a complete re-install of
Windows, but it preserved ALL of my options and configurations. I
still have all of my shortcuts, Quick Launch icons, and so forth. My
virus scan software was broken and had to be reinstalled and, of
course, I had about fifty updates that needed to be re-applied to
Windows. But other than that, no problems! And NO BEEPS!

So ... that's the bottom line for anyone who needs it in the future.

 

[Mac Cool]

(e-mail address removed) (Dan Mabbutt) said:

People do whatever they do and never update the
original message thread with what they learned.

Many times I've given advice and wondered the outcome. It's good when
someone lets you know.