Pretty sure i fried my mobo, help please :/

[odin8yoshi]

My computer was running so great, i had just lapped my heatink and had a 12C drop in temps, so i was playing around with fsb/multiplier voltages etc for an hour or so before i went to bed, when i then set everything back to the previous state of 2.2ghz 200fsb with 1.65vcore and 1.77 vdimm. The next day i decided to flip my HSF fan around to see how it effected the temps, after i put it back in and booted up...i had no video, so i opened up the case and checked to make sure my pci video card hadnt popped out again (same thing happened the day before when the pci card somehow popped out). It hadn't, so i made sure the monitor was working and plugged in and it was, i then proceeded to reset the CMOS with the jumper setting (figured this would fix it, as i had flashed the bios to the most recent official bios)...and it doesnt, then i popped out the battery for a while and put it back in, still nothing. I get post code FF imediately when i turn it on, and this does not change no matter what, no matter what components i remove. I've searched for information about this FF post code and couldnt really find much, except that my epox manual says it means the bios is corrupted. If anyone here has found a way to resolve this problem i would appreciate any suggestions and if not ,anyone who is happening to be selling there NF7-S mobo please message me. This has been one helluva bad day :bang head :bang head


P.S Forgot to mention this is all with the computer in my sig.

[termin@tor]

Actually no, FF means everything is working fine. You might have read FFh as the corrupted BIOS. But FF means that it works fine. My EpoX always gives me FF when it works fine. (wonder what that stands for, lol)

Anyway, how did you lap the heatsink? Did you use water and soap as suggested in one of the guides? Maybe a drop of water (believe me, water is very hard to get out of the fins) was left between the fins of the heatsink and as the fan blew over it, it moved down until it touched the motherboard or CPU.
Did you clean your heatsink with alcohol after you finished lapping? Maybe an aluminium or copper shaving fell off and it's shortening something out?

What I would do is I would reasemble the PC, clean each component thoroughly. Maybe even give your mobo and cpu an alcohol bath? Make sure they're both dry before you put them back in though. Make sure everything is connected properly and try it again.
If it doesn't work, you could try a different CPU or motherboard.
Or no, wait, I just read this part of your post (well, I did write all the things above before realizing that, so I'll just leave them up there as possibilities) but you mentioned that you have a PCI card that just "popped out?" Sounds like a video problem to me. Maybe a drop of water fell on the pci card as the fan blew over the CPU heatsink and fried the card? Now that sounds like a reasonable explanation.
Or maybe the card just crapped out on you... it's PCI.. must be ancient.
Plus, you're getting the FF code which means everything is working fine (and yes, that doesn't include the video card.)

So if you can boot up, but you get no video, that MUST be the video card problem. Maybe you could try another PCI slot, inspect the card/slot for damage. Or just get another card.

I know my post is confusing, but hey, I'm just considering the millions of possibilities and trying to help out :)

[Sentential]

Most likely FF would mean "fully functional"

[termin@tor]

Most likely FF would mean "fully functional"

Yeah, most likely.

I have a dirty mind :D

[odin8yoshi]

I've tested the video card in another computer, its still just fine. Yes, i used water and soap when i lapped the heatsink, but i also used rubing compound to finish up the polishing, and i used a high pressure air compressor to blow out the water, there was NO water left in this thing. One thing i just noticed is that the lights on my keyboard (numlock scroll lock and caps lock) blink infinately when i turn it on. Will try re-assemblying / deep cleaning everything, if FF means 'fully functional' then i guess its the cpu thats gone bad but.. the computer was running excellent after i lapped it? (used for ATLEAST 4-5 hours after lapping). Really appreciate the responses.

[termin@tor]

Hmmm... the lights on the keyboard usually mean there's something wrong with the BIOS. Like an unsuccessful flash or something. Sounds kind of like this:
http://64.233.167.104/search?q=cache:kTwf15gUy6kJ:forums.devhardware.com/t30401/s.html+no+boot+lights+on+keyboard&hl=en

[odin8yoshi]

Forgot to mention i flashed my bios yesterday(via the epox magicflash program and WinFlash), but i rebooted afterwards and was running fine

[termin@tor]

Forgot to mention i flashed my bios yesterday(via the epox magicflash program and WinFlash), but i rebooted afterwards and was running fine

Hmmm... that adds to the complexity of the problem. If you couldn't boot afterwords, it would have been obvious that the BIOS didn't flash successfully, but it did boot... I'm kind of running out of ideas.
I've heard of problems people ran into after flashing with the WinFlash program. I'm not very familiar with it however. I suppose it somehow flashes your BIOS while you're still in Windows? I really don't know how that's possible and I've heard of other people who couldn't boot afterwards, but you did boot fine... that's strange. I don't know maybe the problem isn't in the BIOS after all...

[odin8yoshi]

This is sounding more and more like a cpu problem rather then a motherboard problem, i havnt decided wich one im going to replace. I dont want to replace the wrong piece, and i have no way of testing either one.

[odin8yoshi]

This guy: http://www.aoaforums.com/forum/archive/index.php/t-27332.html seems to be having the same problem i am, with the same FF of death post code. Perhaps it is the motherboard afterall? -.- I need to figure out wich part it is soon.