Ahhhhh what is wrong with my computer??? please help!!

[mlabre20]

About a month ago when I built my computer it worked fine.

A few weeks ago I installed a better heatsink. After having installed this heatsink, I started having problems when booting up my computer. Basically I would press the power button and all the fans would turn on and the leds would flash, but nothing every came up on the display. The harddrive light never started flashing as it would if it was loading windows, so I am positive that it wasn't simply a problem with the monitor not coming on. What I eventually found was that if I turned my computer on and let it sit for 10 minutes or so, and then turned it off and then back on again, it would work. So it was as if it wasn't working until the computer had warmed up or something

Today, in hopes of fixing this booting problem, I took my computer totally apart and then put it back together again. After finishing putting it back together, I tried it out but still had the problem - nothing came up on the display. I did my little trick of leaving it on for 10 minutes, and doing that I managed to get it to boot.

A little while later I needed to reboot. I clicked reboot and it shut down and turned back on fine, but it froze at the bios screen. I shut it off and then tried again but it still froze at the bios screen. I kept on trying and eventually it got passed it, but then I had a message saying that windows failed to start, and that it could be because of a hardware change. I tried rebooting again and windows started normally, but as it was loading windows the computer just randomly rebooted.

Basically, I continued rebooting and getting one of the problems I just mentioned, and after 30 or so tries it finally successfully booted to windows. Though after a little while, I got the blue screen of death.

I tried reinstalling windows (Vista 64 bit) but it didn't seem to make a difference with any of my problems.

What is causing all of this?????

My thoughts
1) Would formatting the hdd possibly do anything?

2) The only things that changed between when I first built my computer and now when I am having all these problems is a different
heatsink and different thermal paste. When I first built my computer, I used the heatsink that came with the cpu and the thermal paste that was already applied to the heatsink. This is when my computer worked 100% fine. When I installed the new heatsink I used Arctic Silver for thermal paste instead of what was on the heatsink already (very new to this sort of thing, I followed the directions but I could have used too much, could have used to little, I don't know). This is when I had the problem of nothing displaying on the monitor.

My most recent rebuilding of my computer had me applying thermal paste again. And still, I don't know what I was down, I could have used too much, or maybe to little, or maybe just did it wrong. This is when I started having all these crazy booting problems.

3) I checked my cpu temp and it was only at about 46c.

Please help!!!

 

[njalterio]

Did you remove the old thermal paste from the CPU before before installing the new heatsink and thermal paste?

46c sounds kind of hot for idle. Is this overclocked? What processor are you using?

When you boot up, all fans and LEDs coming on but not booting up suggests an issue with the CPU. Hard drive is not related at all, even if the HD was defective you would have at least gotten into the BIOS. Hope this helps.

 

[megamanx00]

Leaky Capacitors.

Check to see if there is any strange residue on the board or if any of the capacitors are bulging. Maybe you knocked one when you put in your new heatsink. If that's the case then all you need is a soldering iron and a steady hand. Hopefully you properly discharged any static before you started working on it. It could also be that your power supply just decided it was a good time to start dying so you may want to swap it out. It's rare that power supplys exhibit this kind of behavior though. Usually when they die you get that chemically burned smell and a little smoke, or if it's cheap well alot of things can start smoking other than the PSU ^_^

 

[mlabre20]

Did you remove the old thermal paste from the CPU before before installing the new heatsink and thermal paste?

46c sounds kind of hot for idle. Is this overclocked? What processor are you using?

When you boot up, all fans and LEDs coming on but not booting up suggests an issue with the CPU. Hard drive is not related at all, even if the HD was defective you would have at least gotten into the BIOS. Hope this helps.

I did remove the old thermal paste, but I only had 70% rubbing alcohol, and there was still a bit of a gray tint, so I am sure there was a little bit left on.

46c is the same as my bios used to say when I wasn't having these problems. All my other cpu programs say that the temps is 25-40, though. So 46c may not be accurate.

Leaky Capacitors.

Check to see if there is any strange residue on the board or if any of the capacitors are bulging. Maybe you knocked one when you put in your new heatsink. If that's the case then all you need is a soldering iron and a steady hand. Hopefully you properly discharged any static before you started working on it. It could also be that your power supply just decided it was a good time to start dying so you may want to swap it out. It's rare that power supplys exhibit this kind of behavior though. Usually when they die you get that chemically burned smell and a little smoke, or if it's cheap well alot of things can start smoking other than the PSU ^_^

Didn't notice anything with the capacitors.


Also, today after it had been sitting shut off for about 12 hours, I turned it on and the display came up fine. But as it was loading windows, the computer just randomly restarted. The second time it got all the way to the desktop though. Does this also sound like a cpu problem? Could it be a motherboard problem were the cpu connects?

 

[ohiou_grad_06]

Also, check the memory.

 

[mlabre20]

I tried running memory diagnostic but it froze at 10%. F1 and ESC didn't do anything so I know it was frozen.

Is there any chance that going back to the heatsink that came with my cpu would make a difference? Maybe the current one I have on applies too much pressure or something? idk

 

[mlabre20]

Ok do you guys think something is defective? My motherboard has a 3 year warranty, my cpu has a 3 year warranty, and I'm not sure how long the warranty is for ram, but it is still in warranty. Don't know about the power supply.

How an I test to figure out which is defective and causing this problem?

 

[maru81]

I would take out the CPU it self and check for any bent pins or damage.

 

[mlabre20]

Yep I checked that. Everything on both the cpu and motherboard looked normal.

Any other ways to tell? Or is the only way to try it with hardware that I know works?

 

[njalterio]

Try booting up with just one DIMM of RAM one at a time until you can load everything without issues. RMA the bad RAM. If nothing works with the RAM, verify at least one DIMM of RAM works on another board so you know that all DIMMs aren't bad.

Do you have another CPU that will work with the motherboard? If none of your RAM is successful, try using a different CPU.

Remember, when troubleshooting this kind of issue, make one change at a time to narrow down the possible faults.

 

[megamanx00]

If you can get it to at least boot, try and run Memtest86. It comes on Linux distros like Ubuntu or get on a friends computer and visit

http://www.memtest86.com/

If it's the Ram, this test will tell you. If it's the CPU or MB then this test mighnt lock up and crash ^_^

 

[mlabre20]

Ok I think it is definitely the ram. I went back and forth multiple times switching between my two sticks of ram. One of them booted to windows every time, and the other one never even displayed the bios. So I really hope this means it is the ram. I am really happy I managed to pinpoint the problem!! Will RMA it thanks guys

 

[LnBayGirl]

i recently got a computer from a friend.
Dell XP Home sp2
2.00 GB 256 RAM
with about 48% free space.
It needed cleaning up and defrag'd, etc.
Seemed to be running fine.
Wireless adapter, secured
I tried Google Chrome, then IE8
and reverted fromIE6 to IE7 ,.. and then added Firefox
as well. I was happy with the results EXCEPT
Started running slow, etc.
I decided to see if AAN EXTRA Ram memory stick that i had
would be compatible so i opened it up and there was so
much dust fur balls i carefully cleaned it up. and added another stick
of RAM 128, i then seemed to recall that you have to Dbl the increments.
and figured it wouldn't work, but wouldn't hurt to be there either.
when i booted up it started the Windows logo and then NOTHING
just the mouse pointer. ( it did this when i removed IE,(because i neglected to have ANY browser on at all..) But i recovered with CTRL+DEL
twice for the task mngr. then i could go into my document ans programs
get it back up. It has always prompted for low on virtual memory.
and i noticed that the ?kernel commit was maxing out, not sure what to do
so i thought ' more memory' rebooted and rebooted, using An XP PRO, got into BIOS and made sure CD boot sequence was set 1st. But no avail
I took out the RAM STICK sTILL NOTHING. SO I CHANGED THE POWER GROUND BOX and reseeted the Original RAM again (Becasue i read this ad
when i searched(from another computer) about what to do
AND IT WORKED. BOOTED UP. thanks
my 1st article too. My question to anyone is: I may have C:drive messed up and program files not 'where they should be', file paths,, permissions.
should i go ahead and try to do a NEW INSTALL?? form XP HOME to XP PRO? WILL it clean up everything and give me back speed and power?
It does however seem to work ok. ?? i don't need ANY of the files or data
that's on there,.. ANY SUGGESTIONs?
THANKS