I Think i Broke my PC

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WayInOverMyHead

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Jan 13, 2013
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10,510
I built a computer from scratch a couple of weeks ago before i totally muffed it up.

CPU: AMD Phenom II x4 965
GPU: HIS AMD Radeon HD 7850 1G
Motherboard: Foxconn A9D9
Ram: two 4G sticks

This all started when i tried to run a stress test on my overclocked CPU with the program: y-cruncher, that i got from this youtube video: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JvS1T1qAW1k

I didn't exactly follow the videos tutorial which told me to overclock my cpu in the BIOS. Instead i overclocked my cpu through the gpu driver that came with it. when running the stress test, you have to press 2 then enter, and then enter your ram. this is the part where i screwed up. i didn't understand what i was supposed to do so i put 8 for my 8g of ram.

The stress test was working and my cpu was heating up which was the point, to see how hot it would get under stressful conditions to see if it was stable. I then restarted my pc because i didn't know how to turn off the stress test and because thats what the video showed. As my pc was rebooting it was trying to repair windows 8, unsuccessfully. I tried to restore my hard drive to a later version, didn't work. I tried to format the hard drive to barbones windows 8 settings, didn't work. I tried every trouble shoot windows 8 had to offer and nothing worked. It gets much worse.

Frustrated and worried i went to the BIOS to look around. I eventually reset the BIOS to default settings which made my situation much worse. After that i restarted and my pc wouldn't boot. I was getting a AMI BIOS 5 Beep error which means that my cpu, motherboard is failing. I try many things unsuccessfully and eventually took out and put back in my cpu. That fixed my 5 beep error adn replaced it with either a 1 beep error or a constant restart error. Both of these make sense because the y-cruncher program screwed up something with my ram when i entered in the number 8 for ram. i got some help from two very computer savvy friends and narrowed the problem down more specifically but ran into more problems.

My friends and i tried many things with the motherboard to try and reset the BIOS, taking out the battery and moving the 3 pin jumper around all over. I soon forgot which position the jumper was supposed to be in for normal and im pretty sure my motherboard manual labeled it incorrectly which is not surprising since my motherboard also says i have a restart button on it that does not in fact exist. Anyway when i try to turn on my PC now, it doesn't beep at all which i think means bad news becaue it is not starting at all. Power is still being delivered to all devices, fans running, hard drive spins, cpu fan runs. Just no beeps at all. Throughout this entire process i have not been getting any screen display.

Back to the problem that i think my friends and i have narrowed it down to. We found that it may be the Bios settings that is the problem. Bios doesn't load at all when there was beeps. Since i had the computer running for 2 weeks before i broke my pc, the BIOS was updated and i reset the BIOS settings to default, so it will not boot if that makes sense. I don't quite understand, if i did, none of this would have happened. Anyway the solution my friends came up with is that i need to buy an AM3 processor to run the BIOS with since that is an old enough version too do so. Once i have BIOS running i need to flash it to the updated version where my Phenom will be able to run. Then i still need to restore my hard drive to a previous version, or totally format it all together in worst case because windows 8 wasn't able to run in the first place.

Sorry for the sporadic nature of this message. I am writing it at 4 in the morning very frustrated, confused, and highly caffeinated. If anyone can shed some light on this problem i would be very great full, or if any one can share in my pain. I would just be surprised if anyone actually read this entire message as i know it is terrible. I just give up with life. I spent 700 on the computer and was so excited to get one powerful enough to have fun with only to screw it up as i tend to do.
 
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Oh dear. That is quite a frustrating situation. For the record, I'd advise Prime95 for general CPU stability and max temp checks, and, as you've learned, stick to the BIOS for any modifications to overclocks.

To fix the problem... I'm not sure. I'd try flashing the BIOS via a disc or some form of removable drive. Is that a possibility?
 
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Actually, there's no reason at all resetting your BIOS would do this. You reset your BIOS settings, not the actual BIOS or CMOS. All that does is undo changes, like voltage and overclock settings.

You could have fried your CPU. Were you monitoring the temp? What cooling do you have? What sort of voltage were you trying?
 
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Hi,
Thanks for replying so soon. The CPU is not fried, i took it out, and the temp during the stress test was was between 35 to 55 C. I didn't change the voltage, i only overclocked the CPU from 3.4 Gh to 3.8 Gh. I had these settings on for a couple of days before i did the stress test so it was running fine. I just wanted to see how it was handling temp under stress to see if i could go higher.

My current problems are the fans turn on, everything is getting power but i get no visual display and now i don't get any beeps at all, whether it be a normal start up beep or a ami bios beep code. This new symptom only occurred after i took out the jumper and powered everything on. I did this regretting because of a post someone made about their bios only booting up when they removed their jumper.

I am pretty sure the BIOS is the problem due to me resetting it to default settings. I can possibly flash the BIOS but have to figure out how to get my computer to display and properly turn on first. No start up beep.

Also i made an error on listing my motherboard. it is a: A9DA.

thanks for the help and feedback. much appreciated.
 
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have you test the processor in other computer? It may not look damage, but there's the possibility (though i doubt it, since today's processor are equipped with overheat protection).
What's your psu brand? might be the cause, your stress test causing your component to draw their maximum power, and your psu fail to deliver....
 
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Hm. When you say you reset the BIOS settings, what exactly did you do? Did you choose an option along the lines of "reset to defaults?" Because if so, that should just undo your overclock. It wouldn't have anything to do with BIOS software and the such. Taking the battery out also does the same thing, so doing that wouldn't have done anything, I would think.

What software did you use to monitor the CPU temp? I had someone recently complain to me that their computer wouldn't start and that it turned itself off after short periods of time when he tried. It turned out his cooler had been bumped or installed wrong and, despite temps seeming fine, it was running exceptionally hot. Hot CPUs throttle themselves and turn off if need be.

Sorry if I'm not being much help, I'm just not certain BIOS is the problem, because from what you've told us, there shouldn't be a problem with resetting it. I'll have a look around and see what I can come up with. We'll work it out.
 
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Reply to all so far.

My power supply is a Rosewill 600W, it seems to be working fine. Im sure the CPU is fine because it was booting through BIOS when i restarted my PC for the first time after running the programs and was trying to repair Windows 8 from the damage done by the stress test.

I then went into the BIOS and selected the "Return to Default" setting where my PC started to refused to boot, giving me my many beep error codes.

However right before i reset to default in the BIOS settings i was looking around and all of the options in the BIOS were disabled. Even the auto shut off for high CPU temps was disabled. My theory is that the "y-cruncher" stress test altered my BIOS settings. I also know i entered the wrong digit for ram in the stress program which is why i was getting 1 beep ram error messages.

I think my best option is to call foxconn who makes my motherboard, ship it to them and get a new BIOS chip in it.

What do you all think?
 
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i plugged it into the graphics card, took out the GPU, tried every mother board output. No display, because the computer wont go past POST into BIOS. Keeps restarting or one beep code and sometimes doesn't beep at all meaning its not starting.

Funny though, the first time i turned my computer on when i built it the GPU was automatically detected before BIOS started and would only display through GPU.
 
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