CPU/Mobo Tragedy of an upgrade !!

M

mav3r1ck

Disciple
Hi friends,

I used to have a system which had an MSI mobo, AMD 939 pin 3000+ and 1GB PC3200 RAM + 7600 GS card everything was going fine and i used to play all the recent games on it 24/7 without any problems, up until the upgraditis bug hit me and i decided to look here; and i came across this:

http://www.techenclave.com/forums/fs-939-opty-165-opty-170-a-96758.html

i decided to go for the Opty 170 plus some more RAM (2 GB to be exact), one thing i would like to mention here is that the Opty 170 didn't have the original HSF (with heatpipes etc), it was being used with the AMD stock HSF(one which comes with 939 pin 3000+) fitted in a server. Still i decided to go ahead with it and bought it, the package arrived and i replaced my 3000+ with Opty 170 and installed the additional 2 GB RAM. I booted the comp and everything went smoothly, the RAM and OPTY were detected in no time and the system was up and running. since i am a gamer i decided to see what performance boost i must have received and so i started playing FEAR and alas :( (my problem starts from here) after just 3-4 minutes my system rebooted automatically, now i installed PC alert from MSI and started monitoring the CPU temp. I now started playing NFS Carbon and the same rebooting happened after almost the same duration as above, i checked the temp and it was showing 60 c for the CPU. Now i stopped gaming for the moment and started using the comp for general usage like browsing etc and the system was working fine. While writing this on TE i checked the temp and it was showing 54 c for the CPU. I have now seriously started to doubt the Stock HSF capability to cool this opty when any heavy applications like 3d games etc are being played. Is it really due to this or is there any other problem? should i buy a new heat sink fan like TTBT? what would you guys recommend? i am in a fix right now :( since i thought this was the only upgrade i needed for another year. Please help guys, what seems to be the problem here? :huh:

Regards.
 
If you do not overclock, the stock should work. However I do not know the normal temps of the proccy. You can use a good quality thermal paste and invest in an additional HSF if problems persist. Also check the ventilation of your case and install additional fans if necessary.
 
Are you mixing the ram chips? I mean are the 2 sticks new or you added 1GB more to your existing 1GB?

What is your ram configuration 2x1GB or 4x512MB?

What motherboard? 4 sticks on K8 was always trouble.

Did you run the orthos for stock stability?

If not do that first.

See the temps while running small fft orthos.

That will be more than usual gaming.

54C idle is still high. I am hoping you applied some sort of thermal compound while installing the CPU in your system.

If not, remove the stock heatsink, clean both the HSF base and IHS, apply a thin layer or a rice grain dot of thermal compound ( idelly AS5 or MX2 but atleast use some generic goop for stock operations ). And reset the hSF and see what temps you are getting.

Also in your bios check if you have enabled the thermal throttling or reboot. Some mobos have option in bios to automatically shut down the pc if trigger temp is reached.

Give us more info so we can help.
 
check and make sure that you have applied some As5 or similar like funky said and also look in the bios for thermal throttling.

There is no way that the particular CPu has a problem, since its been running 24x7...for months.

get back to me on what progress you make and lets see if this can be worked out. If ur unhappy return the CPU, no problem at all

Vivek
 
Thank you ratna333, Funky and Vivek. Now i know what mistakes i've made and i will be rectifying them shortly. I was good with Intel based systems but now i know that i am a complete noob with AMD :p

@Funky can u tell me what should i use to clean the HSF base and CPU since some of the old thermal paste is still stuck to these. Also can u tell me how much will an AS5 or MX2 cost and i should be able to find it in Nehru place, right? Also how much for a VFM CPU cooler, any particular brand in mind? the thermal throttling was always enabled by default, never used to have a problem with that earlier.

@Vivek, yaar i am not at all doubting the capability of the CPU and pretty happy with the transaction. I think i've made some basic mistakes and everything should work fine after i've rectified these.

thanks for the support guys and if the problems still persist, i know where to come to.....

Merci...
 
mav3r1ck said:
I was good with Intel based systems but now i know that i am a complete noob with AMD :p
Click to expand...

HUH ??? :S

There is a processor, therz thermal paste and therez the heatsink. Where does amd or intel come into this.

Anyway just clean the existing paste and reset the heat sink and fan. Make sure you attach it properly. If the stock temp drops below 54 then you can know for sure that the problem was with the heatsink.

Then get as5 or some generic thermal paste n apply that.
 
as5 can be ordered from prime or katman...look for their contact details around here

mx2 only from prime

Both are prices around 300-400 i think

for now i would suggest get some generic goop so you can have your comp up atleast...that should cost you <100
 
A possibility is that the heatsink is not in proper contact with the processor. Try re-attaching it.

Also, check your Vcore in BIOS. If I'm not mistaken, it should be between 1.35V and 1.4V.
 
hi everybody,

something terrible happened to my system today, i was actually thinking of buying a CoolerMaster Susurro for cooling the CPU. i went to SMC but was told that it was unavailable at the moment and would arrive by 25th of this month. even the thermal paste was unavailable. i couldn't find it anywhere. So i bought the normal white coloured paste and applied it to the CPU and fitted the heatsink on it and once again it was working fine for normal activities like browsing etc. today i tried to test it by playing a game, and the system shutdown again but then something happened, something which was beyond my expectations, i heard a noise, the one like a cracker burst along with a dim flash. something in my system has short circuited, i don't know what, i am hoping and praying to god that its not CPU or mobo or the graphics card. i think it should be the PSU. when i tried to restart the comp nothing happened. what do u guys think? has the PSU gone "kaput"? i am hoping its just the PSU and nothing else. coz if it is then i can't afford to buy new components again, i am already broke and its only the 10th today. would have to wait 20 more days before i get some cash.
 
cant really comment on this. it can be any thing either a capacitor on the mobo or the PSU itself. dont know if there is a crackling sound when the CPU goes off.

check the mobo for any short circuit symptoms especially check at the back of the mobo since that is area where you can see the damage, normally the area gets yellowish/black. also check if the mobo circuit is coming in contact with tray inside the cabinet maybe that was the cause.

on a side note you can also use ur nose to smell of burnt components. you know something like burnt rubber/plastic.
 
Damm thatz very bad, just open up everything, try to look for some black marks on the mobo.

You can also start your psu manually by shorting two pins ( dont remember which ones, search google ). If it doesnt start then ur psu is dead.
 
same happened to me last week except, nothing such sounds were heard, bt no display n no beeps n that too it all went suddenly .:mad: finally it was my mobo....:( it died.

in your case check the mobo as well as smps. Try with other psu.
 
i am thinking it might have to do something with the PSU..coz it was the std one which came with the IBall grabit cabinet. and i actually changed the Processor from 3200+ to Opteron 170. and Opteron must be more power hungry than the 3200+, Right? and what makes me more suspicious is that the PSU's are first in the line of fire, i mean if a spike etc strikes a PC then the fuse of the PSU shorts to protect the PC components, please correct me if i am wrong...
 
mav3r1ck said:
i am thinking it might have to do something with the PSU..coz it was the std one which came with the IBall grabit cabinet. and i actually changed the Processor from 3200+ to Opteron 170. and Opteron must be more power hungry than the 3200+, Right? and what makes me more suspicious is that the PSU's are first in the line of fire, i mean if a spike etc strikes a PC then the fuse of the PSU shorts to protect the PC components, please correct me if i am wrong...
Click to expand...

For testing the PSU, switch off mains supply, disconnect all cables from PSU to Mobo, HDD etc, then using a wire or bent pin short the green and black wires of the 20/24 pin cable and then switch on the AC. The PSU fan should work. Then you can be reasonably sure that it is not fully gone.

By all means it is better to avoid the PSU which comes with non-reputed cabinets.

Finally, Susurro as far as I know is only as good as stock fans in case of cooling, with the exceptions that it is very quiet and has its own thermal sensor for speed regulation.
 
janitha said:
For testing the PSU, switch off mains supply, disconnect all cables from PSU to Mobo, HDD etc, then using a wire or bent pin short the green and black wires of the 20/24 pin cable and then switch on the AC. The PSU fan should work. Then you can be reasonably sure that it is not fully gone.

By all means it is better to avoid the PSU which comes with non-reputed cabinets.

Finally, Susurro as far as I know is only as good as stock fans in case of cooling, with the exceptions that it is very quiet and has its own thermal sensor for speed regulation.
Click to expand...
Not necessary....i have 2 psu's and shorting the cables does verify that its in good condition, but its main atx power connector is supplying NO POWER, but rest Power connectors work fine, so i use them to power fans and hdds. :hap2: So, even after u find that psu is working, just verify whether it can power a mo'board.
 
ronit said:
Not necessary....i have 2 psu's and shorting the cables does verify that its in good condition, but its main atx power connector is supplying NO POWER, but rest Power connectors work fine, so i use them to power fans and hdds. :hap2: So, even after u find that psu is working, just verify whether it can power a mo'board.
Click to expand...

That is why I said
"Then you can be reasonably sure that it is not fully gone."
 
I had this issue long back. This is what you can do. Check if the old ram uses 400 mhz along with the new one. If it is Remove all the ram. You need to run only one ram on ddr dimm a1 slot (1st ram) and go to bios and see if it can recognize. Then run fear for 4-5 hours. Do this for all of them. If one of the same ram fails to boot ,that could be the issue. But most important make sure all of the rams are 400mhz. Some rams do fail to boot. Could it be the cmos battery? Try swapping with another battery. Let us know if any issues.
 
disintegrated the system fully, no burn marks on the motherboard, no smell of burnt plastic, i think its the PSU coz i shorted the black and green pins and then connected it to the mains, but nothing happened, there were two black wires on either side of the single green wire, tried shorting with both of them one by one but still the PSU fan is not working......opened the el cheapo PSU but couldn't smell any burnt plastic there either......is it that small glass fuse inside the PSU which is gone, i don't know what is wrong yaar? and to think that i actually spent 11 K on the upgrade before this damn thing happened... :(

SOS......
 
Back
Top