System restarts randomly after lapping CPU/HSF

Hey everyone,

So I wasnt getting the temps I was hoping for with the OC in my sig. So I decided today to lap the CPU and HSF and spent a good 3-4 hours doing so. Everything turned out as expected as far as the lapping process goes. After I setup the system again, everything posts just fine except that a few minutes after I get into windows at random intervals, the system shuts down and reboots itself. Now normally this would mean heat issues however after a couple times of this occurring I set my BIOS to defaults (stock clock/vcore) and watched the temps closely in the BIOS as well as in Core Temp (when I was able to login to windows) and the temps are around ~31C. So now I'm stuck, what could possibly be causing these symptoms if temps aren't an issue?

Thanks!
Alec

did you blow out "under the hat" on the processor with some forced air? Did you do this near your mobo.. micro metal dust sucks with electrical equipment

OTher than that I'd go around and recheck every connection everywhere.. could you get into windows long enough to check the event log to see if theres any trails in there to follow?

I guessing that it was working fine till you lapped the CPU and HS. I would try removing and reinstalling the HS and CPU since thats the only thing you changed.

Well I actually took the machine mostly apart to clean everything in the process. I made sure the CPU and HS were thoroughly cleaned before reinstalling them into the PC. I will give it another once over to see if I find anything and I am sometimes in windows long enough to do some things so I can check the event log next, didn't think of that.

[Edit]
Also this process was done at the far other side of the room.

So I just spent the last two hours or so trying to work out whats going on and it seems that things have degraded since I started. Now the system wont even post, it either restarts itself at postcode 25 or 26, or it just get stuck and sits there at postcode 4E. I downloaded the manual for my mobo and looked up the post codes:

25: Shadow system/video BIOS
26: Init onboard clock generator and sensor
4E: Init APIC and set MTRR

Before this started happening I tried a couple of things. I tried reseating all the cables and power connectors to make sure everything was properly connected. I went into the BIOS and played around with the CPU settings and some other things to see if the system would become stable then. I also figured that maybe it was a weird windows thing that was going so I tried booting my ArchLinux install CD (latest version) but that either got stuck on "Triggering UDev Events" or the system just restarted itself during boot. I really am out of ideas. Any thoughts on this so far?

Depending on how you handled the chip before, during, and after you were lapping it, you could have generated some ESD and fried some internal silicon gates and ruined it.

You don't even have to be able to feel the ESD. It takes very little voltage to do the damage and it can take some time before it manifests itself.

I have another Q6600 G0 CPU by chance right behind me that I will try in this mobo probably which was left at completely stock everything for its entire life span. The CPU was kept in a left over plastic CPU container when not being handled and when it was handled it was held at the very edges of the PCB. The lapping was done entirely on a glass surface as recommended. There isnt anything to my knowledge besides possibly clothing which is capable of generating ESD. In addition my fingers never made contact with the "pins" during the lapping process.

You don't even need to touch something to induce ESD in it. The electrical field can generate ESD in near by objects of a different potential. I used to work at an assembly house where we built digital circuits for many electronics manufacturers and we were required to wear conductive carbon fiber smocks, hand and ankle/shoe ESD ground straps and the floor was coated with special paint that bled off ESD to ground and our wrist straps had to be plugged into grounded sockets at our work benches.

We can blow off ESD and often get away with it, but occasionally it will bite us. Just sayin' ...

Try basic boot. No harddrive one stick of memory try it in different locations. Just what you need to post, nothing more. If you get it to post go into thr BIOS and set it to the default settings.