Help with bricked box

[bopratchet]

i built a new system about 2 months ago of the following components
q6600 with stock cooling
ati saphire 3870
wesern digital caviar blue 250gb
2*generic cheapo optical drives
4gb (2*2g dimms) 800mhz geil ram
asus P5QL-E mobo
winpower 5oow psu (included in case)
generic case (1*120mm fan)
i ran it for a couple of months on stock speeds then tried some light (2.4- to 3ghz) overclocking- this is said by many of my freinds with similar systems to work easily.
the system booted to vista ultimate well and i ran some basic stability tests for about 1 hour. i then booted up tf2 and played for about 5 mins when the system crashed. i rebooted and got no response.
the on light flickered on and the case fn ran for about 1 second.
there was a pour light in the mobo .
the 3870 is working perfectly as is the hdd and opticaldrives.
i get no response (not even bios) from my system.
i tried moving the q6600 into anothe rbox i own and i just got heat but no response from either the onboard mobo graphics or when i pluged my 3870 ini got heat of the processor and the cpu fan ran.
i tried the dual in that came with that in my new box (the one described above) and i just got the same responseas with the q6600.
i tried moving the dual core into my old box (the origional one it came in) and just got heat and a cpu fan.
now- one smple question.
which component have i fried?
any help apreciated

 

[Griffolion]

From what i gathered of that description, your CPU has not worked in 2 separate machines? If thats true then its probably the CPU. Also, the fact that the machine wont even POST also suggests the CPU is done for.

Btw you were wrong to 'lightly' overclock your CPU on a crappy no brand PSU that came with your case, it may say its 500w but those cheap ones put out less wattage than they are rated to. Also, the fact it was on stock cooling was a mistake. Sorry, im not laying into you or anything, but you did make a few mistakes with this thing, never skimp on the PSU and never OC to the extent you did (600 Mhz) without an aftermarket cooler.

You say you have PC enthusiast friends, see if they can lend you a spare CPU, drop it in your box and if it works then you know whats been fried, if not then get back to us here at TH and we'll suggest other things.

 

[bopratchet]

thanks for the quick replu and i know it was stupid
i did replace the cpu and i got the same result (as detailed above)
sorry if its a bit difficult to understand.
is it normal for a fried cpu to produce heat?
thanks again
bob

 

[Griffolion]

Ah ok, thanks for clarifying. A fried CPU probably wont take any electricity at all so i dont think it would. Its a very strange problem here, and annoying since you're not able to POST or get past BIOS.

Try taking out 1 stick of RAM and test if it works then, if not, swap em round and boot with the other. If this still fails, its not necessarily your RAM.

Take all unessential components out of the machine, i.e the dvd drive and the gfx card (only if your mobo has on board graphics). Try it then, if it works then begin to add the removed components back in one by one to see which one was causing the problem. If it doesn't work at all then you know its not them.

Next up is the HD, and this may be a bitch, but try and swap out your HD for another one (known to work prefferably) just to see if the BIOS comes up and to see if it POSTs. If it does, your HD was out of order, if not then we're going into serious territory.

The only thing left is your mobo, and this can be annoying as its your mainboard to replace. Theres no trial and error method of working this unless you have access to some other hardware. But if you can try and drop all essential only components into a new mobo and see if it POSTs then you know it was your mobo, if not then you best get on your knees and pray to your god for an answer.

But one thing you should do regardless of all this is get a proper PSU! Corsair 650W HX series will do you just fine.

 

[bopratchet]

thanks alot- iv given my bro my graphics so ill wait for the new card (nvida this time so i can use linux properly). il then try swaping out the ram and all other sugestions and then tell you what it was.
thanks again
bob

 

[Griffolion]

No problem. Its all trial and error, process of elimination of components. Go about it scientifically and it will be cool.