Have I fried my Athlon?

[Guest]

I have an Athlon-750 on an Asus K7V motherboard with 256M of PC133 DRAM. I put the system together. I'm running windows 98SE. Last night I was working on a project (my computer having been on for a good 48 hours straight), and all of a sudden the mouse icon froze in place. I rebooted, and the system was ok well into the boot process, but within seconds of trying to use the mouse, the computer froze in the same manner. It seems to be ok if I'm just using the keyboard, for the most part. Even after letting the computer cool for an hour (powered off and unplugged), it now displays the same ailment, and similarly the same thing happens in safe mode. I've had trouble with CPU fan noise, and have replaced the fan several times, and did something that was, umm, perhaps dumb in retrospect which was put a tiny amount of wall putty between the heatsink and CPU to reduce vibration. My question is, obviously: have I fried my CPU, and if so, will getting a new CPU fix the problem? If not, any ideas what's wrong?

Thanks,
Nick

 

[mpjesse]

Whatever the problem is it definitely sounds hardware related. I'd say the problem is somewhere in the memory, CPU or motherboard. It takes a WHOLE lot to get a computer to lock up in safe mode. Reseat the heatsink and ensure you have some thermal compound on the die. I doubt that putty fried your CPU seeing how putty doesn't conduct electricity very well (or heat for that matter). BUT, if you put that putty on the CPU die- then your screwed cause putty is NOT a good substitute for thermal compound.

-MP Jesse

"Signatures Suck"

 

[FUGGER]

Are you using a microsoft optical mouse?

There is a known issue with the cord close to the mouse itself where it gets a short in the wires.

Jiggle the cord and watch the optic on the bottom (don't look directly at it) see if it cuts out.

If its not the mouse, than your CPU is fried.

Wall putty? heh ok, so your not the sharpest knife in the kitchen. but I dont think wall putty will hurt or restrict heat transfer to HSF. You will have fun time removing later tho.

 

[Guest]

What exactly do you mean by "put a tiny amount of wall putty between the heatsink and CPU to reduce vibration"? If you put it between the CPU core and the heat sink, you're almost certainly burning the thing up. That's where you put thermal paste to help the CPU cool itself. If you put it elsewhere, then I really can't even imagine where you put it because the little rubber disks pretty much handle the vibration and cushioning job. Go into the BIOS and watch the temp sensor. Since the BIOS puts essentially no load on the CPU, it should show a pretty low temp (30-45C). If it's climbing higher than that, I'd vote for a heat problem.

As another poster mentioned, crashing in safe mode is an impressive feat but not one to celebrate. Do you have another mouse to try? I suppose it is possible that the mouse drivers are corrupted but I think its unlikely.

 

[Pettytheft]

Wall putty??!! Well I'll give you points for originality. Man I'm sorry but I find that hilarious (only if you actually put it on the die)! Try plugging in a new mouse. If it keeps freezing try a usb or serial mouse. If that doesnt work then your fried!

Good Luck!

 

[Guest]

Update on the situation: yeah, it turned out to be just a dead mouse. Phew! $20 as opposed to $200...

And as for the wall putty, hey man...I end up doing most of the work on my computer late, late at night...you use what you can get your hands on. So far it's survived several months on days at a time. =) Seriously, what should I be using instead? I need something to keep the cpu casing from rattling against the heatsink as it's basically just metal on metal...ideas of what to use and where to get it for someone in college and without a car?

 

[Guest]

I can't imagine that any noise you're hearing is coming from the heatsink vibrating against the CPU. Those things are held on by a very large amount of pressure exerted by the clips. There should be some type of thermal paste/grease between the two which prevents air gaps and fills in the tiny imperfections in the surfaces of the CPU and heat sink. This allows for the greatest heat transfer. The popular favorite compound for this task is Arctic Silver II which you can get lots of places. Just search this board and you'll find lots of sites mentioned.

Now I have had trouble with the CPU fan in my computer rattling on top of the heatsink and this might be your problem too. I'm just using the cheap CoolMaster heat sink and fan that came with the CPU until I stop being lazy and get something better. That fan is just loosely held on and was driving me crazy. So I took it apart and wedged some thin pieces of metal between the fan and heatsink so it clips on real tight. The fan on my A7V133's chipset also bugged me but I couldn't figure out how it is attached. I did notice that putting a little pressure on it made it get a lot quieter so I tied some string around the fan's wires and tied it to the case with just enough pressure to keep it quiet (but nowhere near enough to accidently pull the fan connector out). Works great.

 

[Pettytheft]

I get can just picture you with a bucket of putty and a putty knife trying to gently coat in on your CPU.

Okay sorry no more clownin!

Go here for some real compound

http://www.arcticsilver.com/dealers_and_distributors.htm

If your getting vibrations then your Heatsink clips are probably not up to the proper specs. Try a new one.

Good luck!

And sorry for the jokes I just couldnt resist.

 

[Guest]

No worries...it is funny. =) Perhaps a better description would be poster putty...stuff you use to stick up posters on the wall...kind of like play-doh. Anyway, I've gone through about 4 fans, none of which have done particularly well, but so far this one is barable. I'll probably give artic silver a try though.

Thanks,
Nick

 

[machow]

My friend had the same problem with the mouse. It froze in place and it is a nomral not responsing situation. Then I advised him to try unplugging the mouse and run the computer. Well, it's been a few hours now and he's still have the computer running. Perhaps you could see if it'sthe mouse problems by unplugging the mouse first.

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This site is cool.

 

[HolyGrenade]

I must congradulate you on your first decent post.


<i><b><font color=red>"2 is not equal to 3, not even for large values of 2"</font color=red></b></i>

 

[FUGGER]

Thanks!

Heh, We shipped dozens of Zx10's with bad mice. its in the cord. you can shorten it at the mose body itself and fix problem for short time. but I suggest getting a new mouse.

I just gotta figure out a nice project for all the LED's we have laying around now. I saved them for some reason.

 

[Grizely1]

i had the same problem. it was the mouse. peice of crap was freezing my computer. try another mouse and see what it does.

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"648kb is all the space anyone will ever need!"

Bill Gates, 1980s

 

[Guest]

My brother had the same problem with a Usb logitech mouse, mouse just bounced all over the screen

Microsoft: We not only make Windows hacking possible, we make it easier!