computer won't boot, please help me

[forbin]

my computer wont boot up, actually, when i press the power button, the fans will only stay on for about .5-1 second, then shuts down.

this problem just started when i was trying to put a new heatsink/fan on my CPU. Took the computer apart, put the new Zalman fan on the chip, hooked everything back up again, and now it wont work.

I did try disconnecting all drives and RAM, still wont post the BIOS.

Interestingly, when i remove the CPU chip, the fans will stay on, but once i set the chip back in place and restart, it shuts down again immediately after powering up.

i tried another power supply with no help, so that isnt the problem.

any way to test if i fubared the CPU or motherboard?

please help me

 

[insename2]

reseat the heatsink

 

[forbin]

i've tried reseating the heatsink a couple times now, hasn't helped

 

[Green Man]

Is the CPU fan plugged back into the same fan header on the system board? Usually marked CPU.

 

[forbin]

yes, the cpu fan is hooked up correctly to the MOBO. as i said before, the fans (cpu fan, vid card fan, and case fans) will stay powered up when i have the CPU removed, once i reseat the CPU, everything shuts down .5 seconds after i press power.

 

[insename2]

i doubt u killed the mobo/cpu by just changing a heatsink... sounds like a safety feature kicking in...

one question, do u have a case speaker, if u do plug it in and see it u can get any beeps

 

[forbin]

i was worried that I might have zapped it with static, although i didnt notice any shocks or anything and i kept grounding myself on the case.

im not sure if my case has a speaker (im lookin up the specs now and will connect it if i do) but i dont even know if it would have time to beep, everything shuts down RIGHT after i press power, fans spin for less than a second.

 

[insename2]

well it sounds as if u already took apart ur computer pretty well, so try taking the mobo out the case and powering up...

 

[forbin]

yea my computer is gutted all over the living room. this sucks

 

[Green Man]

Does it work if you put the old fan back on?

 

[forbin]

insename, im gonna try taking out mobo and booting up super bare bones.


green, havent tried, will here in a second, though i figure it wouldnt make adifference.. let us see

 

[FeuerFrei]

Maybe it's sensing low rpms on the CPU fan and is refusing to boot. Aren't some motherboards picky about that?

 

[insename2]

i dont know, i think thats a little extreme... (asus q-fan will sometimes kill the fan all together)

 

[forbin]

the zalman fan runs like a beauty when the chip is removed...


also to make it clear, it only runs for 1/2 a second before shutting down.


i just noticed the decimal in the .5 above is hard to notice.

 

[forbin]

i know its friday night, but dont go out drinking, stay in and HELP ME !!! lol

 

[forbin]

i just realized i might not have given all pertinent information relating to the problem:

actually, after i had put the heat sink on for the first time, the computer would turn on and not shut off immediately, but it didnt post the BIOS, there was no video output coming from it.

after that I tried reseating the sink and now it wont stay on at all

 

[insename2]

how long was it on the 1st time? if it was on for a long enough time with a improperly seated heatsink (did u mount it correctly?), it could have burned itself out by then...

otherwise the only other problems i can think of are that the mobo's safety feature kicked in cause 1) excessive ESD 2) short circuit somehow?

 

[forbin]

first time it was on i ran it for about a minute or two. i think the sink was properly seated though at the time.

when i tried removing the stock cooler, it was hard to get off. when i did get it off, instead of the heat sink coming off of the chip, it actually pulled the chip out of its little housing thing. is it possible that this caused damage to chip/board ?

btw i really appreciate all your help

 

[insename2]

u mean the cpu came out of the zif socket before u relieved the lever? i am not sure weather it will cause that type of damage, it might have caused that problem... but then it's not like u lost any pins right? for future reference, wedge the heatsink slowly and twist it a little to break the adhesion. i guess that ypur best bet is to ake sure that the contacts are still working and hope for the best... sorry wasn't very helpful...

 

[Rike]

Originally posted by: forbin
when i tried removing the stock cooler, it was hard to get off. when i did get it off, instead of the heat sink coming off of the chip, it actually pulled the chip out of its little housing thing. is it possible that this caused damage to chip/board ?

More than possible. Check the CPU for any bent/missing pins. If everything is still intact on the cpu there could still be issues with the ZIF socket. Hard to tell which it might be without another CPU or motherboard to test with. Good luck!

 

[Lord Evermore]

Try each step one by one. Reset the CMOS. Pull out expansion cards including video. Unplug the fans (it'll run well enough with just the heatsink long enough for you to get the normal beep if it does decide to boot). Also try plugging the old fan in since you know it was able to crank up and wouldn't have any issues with RPM sensing limits.

Unless you broke or severely bent some pins when you pulled the CPU out, it should not cause any problems. I've done that many times with machines I was servicing (before our people realized it was happening to them all).

 

[forbin]

i checked the pins, everything seemed fine. no physical damage. im gonna monkey with it some more in a bit.

should the mobo boot to a bios screen even with no cpu attached ? im really confused why taking the cpu out allows the fans to keep running...

 

[Lord Evermore]

There's power flowing to the fans without the CPU in it, and that's all (although most machines won't even get that far without a CPU). Without the CPU, nothing is able to load and crash.

No, it won't load the BIOS screens without the CPU. You can't even get error beeps without a CPU; the CPU is what processes the code contained within the BIOS, which is actually just a really tiny operating system used to configure the addressing and hardware and then locate the main operating system and start loading it.

 

[forbin]

lord, any iinsight into what might be causing the fans to cut off when the cpu is placed in the socket ? all the fans shut down so fast after i short the power switch that i think something is immediately telling everything to shut down.

really need help, i dont want to have to buy another mobo and cpu to trouble shoot this.


diamond member.... whoohoo. help a brotha out

 

[konakona]

i doubt this would help you out, but I had something similar happen to me, when I finally came to realize I didnt have my FDD power connected properly

Something you could try is leaving the PSU cord plugged in and disconnecting the 24pin connector to the PSU, let it discharge and plug it back in. Who knows, my dell was revived through that.