CMOS

[Art Miller]

Hello,

My old tower, with ASUS A7N8X mobo, AMD Athlon XP 2700+/333 cpu, kINGSTON 512mb pc2700 RAM sticks, Nvidia FX5200 Pro video card, and WD800JB HDD sat for nearly 2 years without use. Naturally, the CMOS bttery died, so I replaced it with like kind (2032).

Disconnected all accessories, powered on (rear switch), then hit the front power button. It started right up, I let it run for a few minutes, then plugged the monitor and keyboard back in and tried again. Within 3-4 seconds, the front power switch shut it down!

I took everything apart again, tried the same sequence, no more luck: each time I try the front power switch, THE FANS RUN FOR 3-4 SECONDS, THEN MACHINE SHUTS DOWN. Same thing, every time.

It seems to me I've read something online about this 3-4 second duration, but cannot retrace my steps to find such reference.

I want to use this machine again (nothing was wrong with it when I stopped using it initially).

Any help?

Art M

 

[cmichael138]

You might need to remove the CPU heatsink and apply fresh thermal paste.

 

[Art Miller]

Thanks for responding.

Might I need to remove the heat sink and apply fresh thermal psate even if the CPU was never removed or otherwise disturbed?

Art

 

[cmichael138]

If it sat for 2 years, the paste should be dried out and not doing it's job of conducting heat away from the CPU. Can't say if that's the problem, but is a start to narrowing it down. What make/power is your PSU?

 

[Art Miller]

My power supply is "400W SmartPower ATX12V Including Pentium 4, SL400".

Consider this, though: why would the system start and run properly ONCE after I installed the new CMOS battery, and thereafer return to it's faulty start sequence (on for 3-4 seconds, then power off)?

Thanks for your input, BTW!

Art Miller