[augustwest]

After a move (50 miles of highway, a little bumpy) my 1999 OC'd rig that is in my sig worked for a few days and then started failing to post (no video, no nothing). It has an Award BIOS and was giving 1 long then 2 or 3 short beeps, then it goes into an endless string of fast high pitched beeps.

In trying to diagnose the problem, first I swapped out the video card with one that I knew was working. This changed nothing.

I had originally thought that the CPU might have burnt up since I hadn't had the AX7 heatsink (remember those badboys?) off since 1999 that was applied with Arctic Silver 3. I assume that stuff should probably be reapplied every so often, especially after a move, but I'm not sure.

I also set all voltages and frequencies back to stock settings. Not the default for the mobo, but what they should be for the setup. Also cleared the CMOS

Anyway, the next thing I tried was removing the CPU and taking a look. After cleaning off the AS3 with alcohol, the core appears to be undamaged. The only thing that seems odd to me is that all of the lettering from the core is imprinted to the copper base of my heatsink. I tried like hell to rub it off. Is this normal?

While having the CPU removed, I tried booting the thing. It doesn't post, no video, but know beeps either.

I'm stumped. I'm leaning toward the CPU being the culprit, but I don't know whether I can rule out the AGP slot being burnt up or something.

Any ideas? Mobo or CPU?

Thank you in advance if anyone has any helpful input.

[MadMan007]

Did you check on and reseat everything? I've known all sorts of things to come unseated from a mvoe, from power plugs to Ram. Also try to figure out what the oringial beep codes mean.

[augustwest]

Everything has been removed, cleaned with air and reseated. As far as I can find out the 1 long and 2 or 3 short is a problem with the video adapter: http://www.amptron.com/html/bios.beepcodes.html but then the continuous beeping seems to be related to a bad CPU. Maybe they are both toast.

The AGP video card has been tested in other systems, but I don't have anyway of testing a Socket A processor.

[augustwest]

On another note, now when I put the CPU back in and power up, the power to the entire mother board rapidly revs up and down. WTF?

[Wathnix]

well you almost fried your processor with that stunt of booting without a heatsink on, I fried a duron 1.2ghz in less that a minute because a wire was caught in the fan preventing it from spinning on boot (yes it was a brand new rig) I doubt the processor is bad, sounds more like a power supply. The imprint on the bottom of your heat sink is normal, the lettering on the CPU die is slightly raised and it put a dent in the heatsink in the same pattern

[augustwest]

No worry, the heatsink and fan were on as well. I just didn't mention that. A couple years ago I put a computer up without the heatsink on and touched the core after about a minute, that was all I needed to know about that.

Power supply eh? Everything else seems to work fine though. I mean everything powers seems to have power.

[HeavyD]

Mobo might be grounding out, should pull it out and inspect for bad rub spots or even a fine crack. Then, reassemble outside of case (on something non-conductive) and see if anything changes.

Could be a cold solder joint on the mobe too, especially the large power connectors.

[Drew@PSU]

I agree with Wathnix, the more I look at this, it could possibly be your PSU failing after a long time ( relatively ). What model is it?

Def. agree with Heavy D, mobos are fragile. You don't even need to see a crack to have a broken board ( rip A8n-SLI v1 ).

[JimmyG]

The fact that the mobo doesn't beep with the cpu removed points to the mobo or psu. Try borrowing a psu to see if it makes any difference. If not, then it is the mobo.

[augustwest]

I tried it with an alternate PSU and got the same results. I'm going to do what HeavyD suggested and see what happens. I'm leaning towards the motherboard being down and out.

Oh well, she had a good long run. I have another brand new system, but this rig was my first build, so it has that sentimental value. Gotta let 'em go sometimes. I'll miss that purple Soltek motherboard though.