did I fry it???

[bigballz187]

Hi, I just got an ECS motherboard and I had a 1.1ghz Athlon processor. I'm running pc133 ram w/ it. I just put it all together last night. The proc runs at a 200FSB and the board will support up to 266. The board has the possibility of being shotty, as my friend I got it from had some problems at first, but he thinks he didn't have the heatsink seated properly. Anyways, I turned it on and it had me go into the bios of course, so I went in and my roommate was there. He had me go into the part for the clockspeeds and such. it was set on 100/100 by default. He had me put it up to 133/133 w/o changing anything else. I saved changes and exited, and it locked and then the board/power supply wouldn't even attempt to come on. I cleared cmos, same thing. Basically now the board and the proc appear to be dead, as we test known good procs and boards and anything involving my equipment didn't work. Also, I had an excellent heatsink/fan unit on it, rated above the orb's if I'm not mistaken. Also, when my friend who sold me the board put the thermal goo stuff onthe proc, it appears to have run off the part in the middle and come into contact w/ some of the contacts right by the AMD logo. Would that have messed anything up? Or did the overclocking killed my proc, do ya think? Or was the board just shotty and should be sent to Hell for crapping out my Athlon lol??? Sorry for rambling on, just interested in what fried my stuff so it doesn't happen again. Thanks in advance.

[NeoMoses]

try sleeping tonight, then come back tomorrow. clear the CMOS, then try again. Every once in a while, CMOS doesn't clear after the standard few seconds, but when left for a while it usually works as it's supposed to.

In my experience, if the heatsink is installed correctly and you've made no (or very minimal) voltage adjustments, you shouldn't burn up you processor or motherboard.

[Tiger]

Sorry if I appear to be having a go at you but what you did is really dumb. If you have new equipment and you are doing something that is foreign to you then the logical thing is to set the system up as standard just to check that all is well. You need to check that the system cooling is working correctly. If and when you get going again. When you POST go into the BIOS and have a look at the readings in your health monitor and check that the temps and voltages are alright. Because you set the FSB to 133 it probably won't POST at the default multiplier because it is very overclocked. (11x133 =1463). As Neo says clear the CMOS and boot at default and see how things go. If you want to run at 133 then you'll have to set the multiplier to 8 (8x133=1064). You can then start working from there by slowly increasing the FSB. etc.

[Sir-Epix]

Originally posted by Tiger
Sorry if I appear to be having a go at you but what you did is really dumb. If you have new equipment and you are doing something that is foreign to you then the logical thing is to set the system up as standard just to check that all is well. You need to check that the system cooling is working correctly. If and when you get going again. When you POST go into the BIOS and have a look at the readings in your health monitor and check that the temps and voltages are alright. Because you set the FSB to 133 it probably won't POST at the default multiplier because it is very overclocked. (11x133 =1463). As Neo says clear the CMOS and boot at default and see how things go. If you want to run at 133 then you'll have to set the multiplier to 8 (8x133=1064). You can then start working from there by slowly increasing the FSB. etc.

The point of the forum is not to rip on people but to help, and I personally feel that you are picking on ones misforutes. We all have to learn some how. You did not fry your CPU it is fine. I can say that for sure. The standard FSB for that processor is 100MHz. Not 133. The system locked and you have to clear the CMOS. You can do this several ways depending on the computer you have. Try setting the jumper to clear turn it on, then let it run for 30 seconds. Move the jumper back, and then boot up. You should be running at stock speed. Then if you want you can overclock. But before you do you can ask around the forums, read, or pm me if you want. I will be glad to help.

[Tiger]

Originally posted by Sir-Epix


Try setting the jumper to clear turn it on, then let it run for 30 seconds. Move the jumper back, and then boot up.
I think that's a dangerous procedure. In every manual I have ever read there is a warning about never powering a mobo up with the jumper in its clear CMOS position.
If the CMOS won't clear or doesn't seem to clear remove the battery for a minute or so.

[Kendan]

You always want to unplug the computer from the power before you clear the cmos with the jumper.

[bigballz187]

Maybe its different w/ having the cmos jumpers being the only way to clear cmos, but I got ahold of a nasty memory-resident virus a while back and I did the format and such w/ the battery pulled out. Would that really be different than setting the jumpers to clear? If not, then its safe to do so, as I'm still running the same system as when I did it.

I'll try powering on the system again. I tried the proc in a board that was working fine and the board wouldn't even power up though. I would guess that its fried, but I'll give it a go tomorrow during the playoffs, let football be my inspiration. Then if it still doesn't work I'll form tackle my friends who will be at my place!!

Cheers

[SteenkyBastage]

hey bigballz187, welcome to the forums, btw.

i would normally say that what you did sounds like nothing should have been permanently damaged (heat, trying to oc too much). but if you're saying that processor isn't working in another system that is verifyably functional....maybe something did happen.

the only question i have, is when you said that your thermal paste dripped off onto the contacts. do you mean the bridges? and what kind of thermal goop did he use? there could be a problem with shorting the bridges out, but most thermal goop shouldn't be electricaly conductive.

if i were in that particular situation, here's what i'd attempt.

first, clean off any thermal goop that isn't on the actual core of the processor (the core is the rectangular inner part). make sure you do, however have a good coat of thermal goop on the core, and that your HSF is seated properly when you reseat it.

next, only hook up the essentials to get the cpu into bios (cpu, memory, video card, keyboard). dont hook up anything that isn't necessary... in general, for troubleshooting this helps narrow down problem areas.

with the cpu cleaned, hsf reseated, and all extra items unhooked that aren't necessary... attempt to turn on the computer. note if any fans (power supply fan) comes on, even if the computer doesn't appear to be working.

if that fails, attempt to clear cmos jumper. if that still fails, try removing battery for 15 or more minutes then re-inserting.

if none of this works, i would then start swapping parts out with known good ones (hopefully you have the luxury of spare stuff to test out).

it seems strange to me that the power wouldn't even come on... the one time i had a bad chip, the psu and fans still turned on, just got nothing on screen. if you're using an ATX case/psu, make sure the power leads are plugged in from the button to your motherboard (sometimes easy to knock those off).

anyohw, hope this helps somewhat

good luck!
...............

just a suggestion:

in the future, try to first enter your bios and watch your temperatures for a minute or so. especially after you change HSF or re-seat it. this can be a chip-saver!

[bigballz187]

Bastage, thanks for the long post and the welcome. I'm not real sure on the actual parts of the proc, but the best way to describe where the thermal paste dripped on to is if you hold the proc up so that AMD is straight and not upside down or anything, there are 5 little silver things both above and below the core. I'm not sure on the type of the paste, but my friend who put it on (who also does hardware repair, installation, etc. for a job, so he knows quite a bit about that stuff) said its some of the best stuff.

Well, all the paste is cleaned off now. I will try some stuff tomorrow. As part of our troubleshooting, yea we tried it in another board that my roommate was actually using to put a system together for a friend of his, and the system didn't even attempt to turn on, nothing, just like the power supply was dead. When we put the other (working) proc in it fired right up. Its been a day or 2 so maybe the proc got an *attitude adjustment!*, but it seems as if it somehow fried.

I will try clearing cmos for an extended amount of time, although I can't remove the battery, seems to be saudered in there (i hate that).

Well thanks for all the tips and such folks, I'll post back probably Sunday sometime after I try it one more time. I also just ordered a new board/proc combo (same board, but w/ xp1600 proc) and I'll leave this one be, because for what I use (some gaming, and regular internet stuff) 1.4 ghz is overkill, no need for more power!

[David]

Originally posted by Tiger

I think that's a dangerous procedure. In every manual I have ever read there is a warning about never powering a mobo up with the jumper in its clear CMOS position.
If the CMOS won't clear or doesn't seem to clear remove the battery for a minute or so.

If you power on my mobo with the jumper set to clear - it just doesn't boot. Never harmed my pc.

[David]

I once had an ECS K7S5A. It booted one in 100 times. I sent oit back and it turnd out the BIOS wouldn't sav settings. Maybe your board is faulty?

[Sir-Epix]

Originally posted by Tiger

I think that's a dangerous procedure. In every manual I have ever read there is a warning about never powering a mobo up with the jumper in its clear CMOS position.
If the CMOS won't clear or doesn't seem to clear remove the battery for a minute or so.

It is not dangerous at all. It just forces the CMOS to clear. It will never boot up when the jumper is set to clear instead of normal.

[Tiger]

So my motherboard manufacturer put the following in my manual to fill the page? Interesting.

[bigballz187]

Tiger, I think that just means don't switch the jumper pins WHILE the system is on. That's how I perceived that warning at least.

Oh, my board is the ECS K7S5A, it was possibly faulty to start w/ so yea its getting sent back so its all good. Does your new one work OK???

[Caffinehog]

Thermal paste.... If it's arctic silver, it has capacitance. If it's something else, it could conduct. In any case, it is VERY likely to be the problem. Wipe it off. Maybe use acetone or paint thinner to get it all off. Then reapply it.

P.S. If it oozed that much, you used way too much thermal paste. The thinner the layer, the better.