Via P4MA Pro

[Chris Lobdell]

I recently purchased the Via P4MA Pro mainboard and installed an Intel
2.0 Ghz Celeron processor in it. The mainboard comes with an
integrated ProSavage video card and also has a slot for an AGP video
card.

I installed the mainboard into a brand new chassis, attached the power
supply, the lines for the LEDs and the fans, the harddrive, the
floppy, etc. After I attached the monitor, I booted the machine up.
During the first boot, I did not have the heatsink attached properly.
The power supply engaged properly, the fan on the heat sink turned on
as did the other fans in the chassis. The LEDs on the front of the
panel lit up as well. However, the board did not appear to emit a
video signal. The monitor behaved as if it was not receiving any
signal. The machine did not perform a POST and the hard drive spun
once when its turned on and then idled. Suspecting that the BIOS was
configured to look for a card in the AGP slot and to not use the
onboard VGA card, I shut the machine down, reset the CMOS and booted
the machine again. This did not resolve the issue.

My question to the group: based on the information I have provided
above, is it possible that my new processor is hosed or is it more
likely to be a faulty mainboard?

I've scoured the newsgroups for others who share my symptoms but have
had little success. I called Via's tech support and was forwarded to
the general mailbox. I've tried calling them repeatedly and still
can't reach a human. Intel's tech support was a little more helpful
in that the technician discounted the possibility that I may have
fried my processor (remember, the heatsink was not on for the first
boot) since the thermal protection built in the chip should have shut
the chip down before I caused any damage.

Any suggestions anyone can provide will be greatly appreciated! I've
hit a wall as far as ideas are concerned.
Thanks,
Chris

 

[Stacey]

I recently purchased the Via P4MA Pro mainboard

I'm sorry..

Intel's tech support was a little more helpful
in that the technician discounted the possibility that I may have
fried my processor (remember, the heatsink was not on for the first
boot) since the thermal protection built in the chip should have shut
the chip down before I caused any damage.

Yep they have temp throttling which will keep them from roasting..

 

[#Webmaster#]

I m sorry but your CPU is DEAD because newer startup your system without
heatsink, do not trust de overhead protect of your mobo becaouse he isnt
made for cpu s without heatsink , so buy a new cpu (i m sure about this
beacuse i made the same stupid mistake)

 

[Stacey]

I m sorry but your CPU is DEAD because newer startup your system without
heatsink, do not trust de overhead protect of your mobo becaouse he isnt
made for cpu s without heatsink , so buy a new cpu (i m sure about this
beacuse i made the same stupid mistake)

He's talking about a P4 NOT an AMD..

 

[kony]

He's talking about a P4 NOT an AMD..

The P4 thermal diode is not intended, can't be relied upon, to save a
processor that's powered up without a heatsink. The P4 is less likey
to instantly fry because of the heat spreader, but this isn't always
good enough, and the rapid thermal change may actually pop-off that
spreader in the middle, leaving a gap between it and the core.


Dave