Possible CPU issue?

[hmorphone]

About 1 1/2 years ago I built the rig in my sig. For around a year life was good. Then my original DFI Ultra D's chipset fan started to die. When I got an Evercool VC-RE to replace it I decided to do the SLI mod while I was at it and apparently I borked the board - it never posted again after that despite long CMOS clears, excet. excet.. A DFI rep stated that I shouldn't RMA the board as I voided the warranty just by putting the Evercool on the board (instead of sending it to them when the original chipset fan started to die.)

So, being tired of chipset fans, I got an Asus A8N-SLI Premium. It worked well at first (other than discovering that it was a terrible overclocker.) Then the primary PCI-E slot died. Fixed that by using PCI-E slot 2. Guess the SLI feature came in handy after all . Then it developed cold boot issues, I would have to hit reset after I booted it in the morning to get it thru the post and into XP. Then it quit altogether. I RMA'd it to Newegg which was an experience in itself. The RMA process itself went well, but when I got the replacement it was an OEM white box special. I had sent all the original retail goodies back with the bad board. When I complained Newegg quickly sent me a retail box sans mobo with the goodies in it. While it wasn't the same board, I'm still not entirely sure it was a brand new mobo.

In the meantime I bought a new Ultra D to get my system back up and to try some mild OC'ing (which I had never gotten around to with my first Ultra D.) Upon installing it life was good again for months. Then I began getting one or two instances of my computer completely shutting down for no apparent reason while I was doing nothing more stressful than web browsing. This happened several more times at shorter intervals and at least once I noted an alarmingly high CPU temp (when I happened to maximize the mobo monitoring program DFI supplies.) It never popped up/alarmed until I maximized it that time(s) and I put it off as a glitch as it showed good temps after I rebooted. The Panaflo I'm using on my XP-90 seems to be okay as well. Then it developed cold boot problems and after that halted during posting and refused to boot at all, with a couple of non consistent windows error messages, then it quit even posting. The DFI diagnostic LEDs seem to show all 4 lit and then it drops down to two lit, which I believe means that the vid card and ram are okay but it's halting at the processor.

I've got a new 3200+ venice on the way, as the best I can figure is that maybe the XP-90's fan stopped long enough on several occasions for heat damage to occur with the CPU, but I just don't know. I tried installing the replacement A8N-SLI Premium mobo that I had on hand after the RMA (and had never used yet.) I can get it to post with my old CPU but it always errors out/freezes/crashes at some point during posting before trying to load the OS.

I could really use some help to try to troubleshoot this situation (sorry bout the length.)

I'm concerned about how things will go when the new CPU arrives.

 

[marulee]

So, it could be the new? mobo or CPU. It seems like many people buy their stuffs from Newegg when I saw a Newegg technician responsed to a fellow from looking at this forum. Well, go on to your concern, you are still waiting for your stuff from RMA. Not quite sure about weather you have tried to narrow down your problem by isolating one by one thru diagnosing the devices.

 

[sieistganzfett]

im sorry. you have just too many problems with too much hardware with everything going bad. you must narrow things down and go one step at a time. once you know a part is "perfect" go on to the next part. and stop overclocking your system to its max, back down a quite a bit so it doesnt stress it out, or stop overclocking until you think the system is no longer worth its value. in fact, never tell a rep you went to replace a part such as the fan or that you even overclocked anything. they will automaticly shoot down the rma. just tell them that you dont know why its not working, you just know it doesnt work. :evil:

you took the cpu which you think may be bad (how much did you overclock it anyway? what did you set the voltages to for the cpu?) and put it into a motherboard that came back from rma, but you dont know if that board is good? what hard drive that had windows installed on it are you now connecting to the asus, was this the one that had windows installed when it worked on the DFI board? in that case the different mobo will cause windows to bomb while loading with a blue screen/restart.

you should get ultimatebootcd use memtest on which ever setup you are going to do, then try the prime95. see if memtest passes, see if prime95 can run for a solid hour off the ultimate boot cd.

 

[hmorphone]

You're both right, I do need to narrow it down. It's of course more difficult when you don't have access to a complete second set of components. I have the second mobo, the Asus, and I do have a second video card.
I can see what sieistganzfett is saying about not volunteering any extra information to a manufacturer too.
The processor was only mildly overclocked when the trouble occurred - 3000+ A64 bumped up to 250 fsb. It was at 1.4 volts, highest I ever took it was 1.5 for a very short time. I can't use the ultimate boot cd at this point as it doesn't post at all with the DFI, and it doesn't complete posting with the Asus.

 

[sieistganzfett]

without knowing if the asus board was indeed "good" it can either be 2 bad motherboards, or a bad cpu, but it can also be bad ram causing the boards to not post completely.

since you have a 2nd cpu on the way you can then use that to rule out the cpu, and see which board is bad if it were the cpu, but its possible both boards are bad or ram.

try with just 1 stick of ram, in the 3rd dimm slot on the board, after you clear the CMOS. since you have 2 boards, are you mounting these to test outside the case on something like a desk or box? (try that) with only the power supply, ram, cpu, a video card.

on the DFI board that doesnt post at all, i guess fans just spin up and there are no beep codes, after you try the above, try to see if it will start beeping if you try to boot it without ram in it, if it still doesnt beep its the board in that case.

 

[hmorphone]

I've tried just 1 stick or the other (after CMOS clear,) no go. I reinstalled the DFI board, still no go. I tried it without the ram and did get a beep code. I can try mounting it outside the box when time allows, I'm pretty sure nothing is shorting against the case though. The A64 3200+ should be here from Newegg about tuesday and I'll start looking around for some ram that I can beg, borrow, or buy just in case.