Restart after overheating

[Robert]

Hello! I hope you can help me.

Last weekend I put together my new computer with water cooling using the
Zalman Reserator 1 Plus. I use it to cool the CPU, VGA and Northbridge.

Everything worked fine, however the next morning my girlfriend switched on
the computer without starting the watercooling!
After 20 minutes or so the computer switched off automatically. Probably due
to overheating I guess.

After that I am unable to switch on the computer again (after it has
been cooled
down). Nothing happens as if no electricity is present. The led on the
motherboard
is glowing to signal that the motherboard is having power to switch on.
However pressing the (soft-on) power switch has no effect. The power
supply is
functioning fine in my old system.

My guess is that something is broken now in the motherboard.
But how to know for sure? Or is nothing broken yet and I need to 'tell' the
motherboard that it is safe again to power up? I tried clearing the
CMOS, but
that did nothing.

Okay I hope someone can tell me the magic solution or tell me with some
confidence that I need to buy a new motherboard.

Hardware specification:
Asus A8N-E (Nforce4)
AMD64 X2 3800+ (CoolNQuiet enabled)
NVidia 6800 GT

 

[WebWalker]

Maybe the CPU was fried.
Try to test the CPU in another PC or take it to a computer shop to ask
them to test it. You might need to pay a small labour fee to test your
CPU.

 

[Robert]

Maybe the CPU was fried.
Try to test the CPU in another PC or take it to a computer shop to ask
them to test it. You might need to pay a small labour fee to test your
CPU.

But isn't a motherboard supposed to power up even without a CPU?

 

[WebWalker]

But isn't a motherboard supposed to power up even without a CPU?

You are joking right?
Can a human still alive if the brain is death?

 

[Robert]

You are joking right?
Can a human still alive if the brain is death?

Maybe I was not clear enough.
Of course I don't expect it to boot up windows. But I would expect for
the power to turn on, spin up my harddisks, and make soms beeps on the
speaks or audio to signal that the CPU is missing.
Something like this:
http://www.bioscentral.com/beepcodes/awardbeep.htm
Beeps: Repeating High/Low
Description: Either the CPU is not seated properly or the CPU is damaged.

 

[kony]

Maybe I was not clear enough.
Of course I don't expect it to boot up windows. But I would expect for
the power to turn on, spin up my harddisks, and make soms beeps on the
speaks or audio to signal that the CPU is missing.
Something like this:
http://www.bioscentral.com/beepcodes/awardbeep.htm
Beeps: Repeating High/Low
Description: Either the CPU is not seated properly or the CPU is damaged.

Your motherboad was overheating all along becaue you can't
just strap waterblocks on a system and then do away with
fans, or did you still have the fans installed and working?

With the water block removed, it overheated even more. I
recommend setting this system up so it always starts the
pump automatically with system power-on if you must use
water cooling.

At this point the CPU, video card, or motherboard may be
dead, and if one is dead, the others may be nearly dead from
heat stress, depending on how long it was running.

Unplug ac from it, use the clear cmos jumper then try to
start it again. If you have a spare video card, any old
thing, try installing that instead of the GF6800. Video
card is most likely suspect because CPU should have a
thermal control integrated on the board- unless that feature
was disabled. Open system and examine or did you already?
It seems obvious enough yet you make no mention of it.

 

[Robert]

Your motherboad was overheating all along becaue you can't
just strap waterblocks on a system and then do away with
fans, or did you still have the fans installed and working?

I use a Zalman reserator 1 plus, which does not require fans.
Of course the pump should be one too, which was the problem.

With the water block removed, it overheated even more. I
recommend setting this system up so it always starts the
pump automatically with system power-on if you must use
water cooling.

That was definitely my plan!

At this point the CPU, video card, or motherboard may be
dead, and if one is dead, the others may be nearly dead from
heat stress, depending on how long it was running.

20 minutes. No intensive applications.

Open system and examine or did you already?
It seems obvious enough yet you make no mention of it.

OK..... the computer starts without the Nvidia 6800 GT. With that I mean
that there is power and the harddisks spin up.
With the graphics card inserted I see the PSU fan spin for a short
moment and stop again.

I'll go to a shop tomorrow and ask if they can test the graphics card
for me.

BTW The graphics card chipset and CPU looked fine.

 

[kony]

I use a Zalman reserator 1 plus, which does not require fans.

Incorrect. It removed heat from the three hottest
components but the others are also designed to be cooling by
passive airflow, that is, actually fan-forced chassis
airflow. It does in fact get hot but it typically effects
lifespan rather than stability in the shorter term.

OK..... the computer starts without the Nvidia 6800 GT. With that I mean
that there is power and the harddisks spin up.
With the graphics card inserted I see the PSU fan spin for a short
moment and stop again.

Maybe good, though the chipset and CPU don't have to be in a
working state for the result you see, they could be dead and
the system would still do that. How are you cooling the hard
drive(s) if no chassis fans, or did you have one or more?

I'll go to a shop tomorrow and ask if they can test the graphics card
for me.

BTW The graphics card chipset and CPU looked fine.

Keep your fingers crossed, damage isnt' always visible.