Computer starts then shuts down on its own

[mikecold]

I just put together my new computer, it starts up, shows the information about the video card, then it shuts down.

HELP!?!? please....

 

[mechBgon]

Welcome to the Forums If you have a Socket A processor (AMD AthlonXP, Duron, most Semprons) then the third and fourth photos on this page show one common issue that causes an instant CPU overheat and auto-shutdown. If that happens to be the right guess, great If not, post more information about your computer's hardware.

Also, if you're going to be installing WindowsXP, here are some security issues to know about. A computer with a fresh WinXP installation and no firewall is easy prey for worm attacks without you doing anything to bring it upon yourself, other than simply plugging in the network cable from your modem to your computer. So have your plan in place

 

[mikecold]

I do have a Sempron, and I checked the fan, it's installed correctly.

CPU : AMD Sempron 2600+
MB : ECS KT600-A
PSU : MGE 400W Vigor 400
HD : WD 80GB
Video Card : BFG GeForce 5500 AGP 128MB
DVD-ROM
Floppy Drive

Thanks.

 

[mechBgon]

Good deal And you have thermal grease or a thermal patch between the CPU core and the heatsink base, right? One other oversight people sometimes make: they forget to mount the motherboard on standoffs and then it short-circuits to the case. Usually not fatal

I've seen a couple people here who've found that their MGE power supplies are complete poser trash. Can I suggest running out and buying your system a nice Enermax, Fortron or Antec in the 400W area just for some future-proofing? Quality is the name of the game a lot of times when it comes to power supplies.

One other thing: the WD hard drive has a jumper setting for Single Drive, to be used when it has its cable to itself. That's done by simply pulling the jumper off the pins and leaving it off.

I'm going to look into that mobo's Sempron support too. Back in a while...

 

[mikecold]

Thermal grease? Where can I get that? Is that the piece of grey wax-like thing on the bottom of the CPU fan?

I did set the HD to single/master, and the DVD-ROM to slave.

I'll try to use the PSU that came with the case and see what happens.

Thanks.

 

[mechBgon]

You can get thermal grease at online stores like http://www.svc.com or http://www.newegg.com or you can get it locally at a computer store. Try to get good-quality stuff like Coolermaster/Shin-Etsu or an Arctic Silver-branded one, so you know it will hold up over time. It's essential to have some suitable thermal-transfer stuff to bridge that micro-gap between the surfaces of the CPU and the heatsink; I would hold off on running the system any more if you don't have any yet.

 

[mechBgon]

Is that the piece of grey wax-like thing on the bottom of the CPU fan?

Yeah, something like in this photo, right? Then you are OK, just remember that this type is strictly a one-shot item. If you know your heatsink is on the right way around, then leave it on, because once the grey pad has melted to fit the gap, you would have to replace it if you took the heatsink off after that (with thermal grease).

 

[mikecold]

Replaced the PSU w/ the 300W that came with the case, but still no luck.

I did take the heatsink off to check the orientation, but the grease is not really melted yet.

 

[mechBgon]

I was looking at ECS's BIOS revisions here and I notice one that says

1.Fixed boot fail when IDE channel1 has device set to master and channel 1 be disabled.

I don't know if that describes your setup or not, but as a fact-finding step, try unplugging all of the drives completely and see if it gets further than it has so far.

 

[mikecold]

Unplugged HD, DVD, and Floppy, still does the same thing.

 

[mechBgon]

I just remembered something regarding ECS: they may ship the boards with the JP1 jumper (for clearing the CMOS) in the Clear position rather than the Normal position. Check that real quick, its location is shown on page 9 of the manual that I downloaded.

Heh, and looking again, I also see they control the CPU's bus speed with jumpers. Set it for 166MHz.

 

[mikecold]

I did notice that, but I don't know what clear CMOS meant.

after I switch the JP1 to normal, it wont even start up.....


Yes I did set the jumper for CPU frequency to 166MHz

 

[mechBgon]

Originally posted by: mikecold
I did notice that, but I don't know what clear CMOS meant.

after I switch the JP1 to normal, it wont even start up.....

So it was on Clear, then? A pox on ECS. :| Ok, try this:

1. unplug the power from the wall
2. take out the CMOS battery from its holder
3. move the JP1 jumper to the Clear position for 20 seconds or so, then move it back to Normal
4. put the CMOS battery back in
5. plug in the power
6. make sure those CPU FSB jumpers are at 166MHz (oops, I see you got that)
7. see if it runs now?

And if it still gives you trouble, next put it outside the case on cardboard and benchtest it with just the essential items like shown here. By the way, if the keyboard is in the mouse jack or vice versa, that can stall them sometimes too... purple for keyboard, green for mouse.

Hang in there!

 

[mikecold]

errr....my bad, it WAS on normal, i was working upside down and the numbering was weird too.

 

[mechBgon]

I hate it when they do that to ya I'm running out of ideas, other than the barebones test setup on cardboard. If you want some other motherboard, I have warm fuzzies for my Shuttle AN35N Ultra :heart: and they're not too outrageous at $55-ish. Seems to be a proven budget board with fairly-good overclocking capabilities, and being nForce2 it will perform better MHz-for-MHz than KT600.

 

[mikecold]

I took the MB out, and set the JP1 back to normal like you said, still no luck.

Could it be a bad MB?

 

[mikecold]

I guess i'll either exchange or buy a new one.....

Anyways, thank you so much for you time and effort.

 

[mechBgon]

Originally posted by: mikecold
I took the MB out, and set the JP1 back to normal like you said, still no luck.

Could it be a bad MB?

My guesses are either it's a bad motherboard, or your power supplies are both not very good, or maybe the motherboard doesn't support Semprons (or needs a BIOS update in order to do so).

What brand/model is that 300W power supply, by the way?

 

[mikecold]

Just a crappy PSU that came with a cheap case.
ATX model : LPJ2-20

*Linkworld case

 

[mechBgon]

If you plan to get a major-name power supply anyway, you could do that before the mobo swap if you thought it might be flaky power supplies contributing to this problem. If it doesn't fix the problem, you still end up with a good power supply and can go ahead and exchange the motherboard with increased confidence that it's not a PSU problem.

Anyway, I hope it all comes out in the wash for you

 

[mikecold]

Thanks a lot!
I guess there are some corners that can't be cut when it comes to buying parts.

 

[JRez]

Mike,

What brand of RAM did you buy? I worked on an ECS system that exhibited the issue you're having. Moving the memory to the next slot allowed it to start to load windows, but it would crap out before finishing. Replacing the Kingston ValueRAM with a stick of Crucial resolved the issue. Additionally, mech's suggestion of a solid PS is definitely something to do.

 

[bstanton010]

ECS KT600 motherboards power down after a few seconds when there is not a CPU fan on the MAROON connector. I had it on the white one and had the same problem you have. Hope this helps.