Stuffed it! please help diagnose problem

[leigh]

Hi Guys, thanks for reading.

i cant work out what has gone wrong, so i will describe the problem and see if you have any suggestions.

my OS is XP.

problem 1 - my media centre began to just restart itself when it began to do some work, like opening and closing applications. so i decided to just switch the thing off until i could get to the problem.
Problem 2 - today i bought a new silent zalman cpu fan with heatsink, after installing that the computer will not boot.

everything switches on like the HDD's and the new fan, and the lights and the VGA card (geforce 7300) fan is working. but there is not display on the tv (all properly connected), and there is also no beeping like i would normally hear on start up.
i have reset the cmos, and there is no change
i have taken everything out but the cpu (amd dual core 3800), and no change.

now im not sure if the new fan has anything to do with this, and maybe its just coincidence with the timing of that.

i fear that there may be a problem with the motherboard (msi k9m platinum) or the cpu.

if anyone has any advice or any idea what the problem may be, i would love to hear it.
thanks

leigh

[CraigMBecket]

Hi leigh,

Is your system going through the boot process? Can you hear the system HDD indexing as it would when loading the OS? I as the question to try an narrow down if your problem is just video related or not.

If the problem isn't the video the first thing I would check is the way you connected the new fan. Another option is to go in to your bios and change the setting for the CPU fan so that the system won't halt if it believes the fan isn't working. If the system then starts the problem lies with either the way you connected the fan or the way the fan is reporting to the system that it is working.

Try it and let us know how you get on.

Craig.

[leigh]

im pretty sure the system is not going through the boot process. i can hear and feel the hard disks spinning, but it only sounds like they are getting power and not booting (no beeps). i removed the hard disk with the os on there to see if that might be the problem, but still nothing.

unfortunately my MB does not have onboard graphics and i dont have another graphics card to test whether thats the problem.

i have put the old fan back in, and im still getting the same problem.

the whole thing lights up, and all the fans spin, and the light on the front for when when the computer is thinking is just constantly on. not blinking or anything.

i might see if i can get hold of a friends graphics card and try to rule that out before i start thinking about buying a new MB or CPU.

thanks for the help

[krypto]

It would take a huge coincidence for the MB to pack up at the same time as you installed a fan, unless you accidentally damaged it (A small scratch or similar across a circuit)

I had a similar problem a long time ago and after weeks of mucking around I found that one of my hard drives was pressing on my graphics card when I closed the case. It was quite minor but caused some weird problems.

Might sound obvious but is the CPU properly mounted and is the fan seated correctly with some sort of compound?

Does the Zalman fan have a bottom mount under the motherboard and if so is it touching any circuits? On the same installation I found that the bottom bracket under the motherboard was distorting the MB slightly which also caused intermittent problems.

[leigh]

yeah it would seem like a huge coincidence. but as it was resetting itself before the new fan went in, i though that maybe that could be the problem.

the fan installation is quite easy, just paint on the grease, and then clip it down, there are no extra brackets or anything.

i will check that nothing is physically interfering with anything else tonight, and also hopefully test out the graphics card. maybe i can get some more clues.

thanks

leigh

[simbot82]

did you have to apply alot of pressure to get fan on? Could have cracked PCB.

How old is the system?

[LPS]

What I would do is try to get a response from the motherboard.

1. Pull all the RAM out. Reboot. You should then get a series of beeps - This will at least show that the motherboard is checking the ram.

2. replace the ram and repeat after pulling the video card this time. If it beeps, its still checking.

3. I would them reset the motherboard cmos and restart.

If your not getting any beeps from 1 or 2 I would think your board is shot.

[CraigMBecket]

I still suggest that changing the bios setting to ignor a no fan alarm is worth trying, its possible that you damaged the fan connector and although you get power the rpm signal is not getting through. If that failed to get the system to boot I would then follow LPS's steps.

Craig.

[leigh]

thanks for the responses.

my system is only about 6 months old

i pulled out the ram and it appeared to act exactly the same as without the ram, although last night i tried to arrange to borrow a graphics card off a friend, but i couldnt get hold of one........... but what i did finally notice is that the graphics card looks like it has a component burnt out (eureka!). so im hoping that is the problem (and not motherboard or cpu)......i will purchase a replacement card either tonight or tomorrow to confirm.

my current card was a nvidia geforce7300 - no complaints at all (besides possibly blowing up) and was getting native res at 50hz no problem......does anyone think should i just get another one of these, or maybe go for a better one?

because my card does not have onboard graphics, do you think that it wont beep or boot after it detects that there is no graphics card in there? that would a least explain why it appears to fire up but not get anywhere

thanks again for all your help

leigh

[LPS]

I would be expecting the system to beep with no graphics card.

What is your motherboard model?