Was it my CPU or MOBO that died?

[x3m]

Hey peepz,

I need some help figuring out wether it was my mobo or my CPU that died Thurday night.

I wen't to bed and the next morning when I woke up my computer was just sitting there with a black screen, there was a burnt smell in the entire room and I knew something was wrong, very wrong!
I could hear that my computer was kindda trying to boot, like a faint whissling sound speeding up a little... then down again, again and again, (no it's not the fans, sounds more like the CPU or something). Also I could hear this "click" sound which I later figured out where comming from a chip on the mobo, I immagine that it was trying to reboot over and over again and that, that's why it was clicking. It seems like it was just stuck in this loop, it never beeped like it normally does, neither did it power on the screen, the HDD and the CD-Rom/DVD-Burner powered on just fine though.

Anyway, I took it completely a part and connected only one stick of RAM the processor and my graphic card. Same result... I took out the graphic card.. Still same result. Removed the RAM.. Same thing (not even a beep since the RAM was missing).
So what I concluded this far is that it must be either the CPU or the mobo. When I remove the CPU the whissling sound stops and the clicking goes away, wheter it's because the mobo dosen't even try to boot if there is no CPU or if it's actually the CPU that causes the mobo to get stuck in the loop I'm not sure of, unfortunately I have no spare CPU or mobo to test it with.

The CPU dosen't look burned or anything neither does it smell funny. The mobo on the other hand smells a little funny around the heat sink mounted on it, but it ain't in the same place as where the "clicking" is comming from...

I assume so far that it must be the mobo, but I would very much like to hear what you guys think, so that I'm not just bying a new mobo and then find out thats it's actually the CPU that's causing the problem, that would make me look a little stupid...

So, what do you think, mobo or CPU?

 

[ThunderGodThor]

what cpu what mobo? whats your build? cant really help with out those. As for which it might be flip a coin. both may have gone too if you have extra parts swap it out its the only true way to know.

 

[x3m]

what cpu what mobo? whats your build? cant really help with out those. As for which it might be flip a coin. both may have gone too if you have extra parts swap it out its the only true way to know.

Doh'!

Here ya go...

CPU: AMD Athlon xp 2800+ (2.0GHZ)
Mobo: Gigabyte GA-7VAXFS
RAM: 512MB Kingston HyperX
GFX: Geforce 3 Ti-200

As I already mentioned above I don't have any spare parts...

Seems to me that it's most likely the mobo, the CPU has "no reason" to die since it has been under clocked as an xp 2200+ until I got it a few months ago, also the smell seems to come from the heatsink on the mobo... I'm not enirely sure though but if there is no way to figure out without spare parts I'll just have to take a chance...

/EDIT
Btw. Forgot to mention that I already tried resetting BIOS.. it didn't make any difference though...

 

[Cybercraig]

Check the power supply by jumping the leads. Look at the voltage regulators around the CPU area (from the underside of the board too). The Vregs tend to go poof more than anytjing on a Gigabyte MB. CPU? Maybe, but I doubt it. :?

 

[sailer]

The CPU dosen't look burned or anything neither does it smell funny. The mobo on the other hand smells a little funny around the heat sink mounted on it, but it ain't in the same place as where the "clicking" is comming from...

Your cpu could have taken a dive, but your description says mobo all over it. Those funny smells are probably from capacitators, though could include resistors, or other fried silicon. The "clicking" is probably from some part thats trying to engage, but either does not quite make it or it does and overheats instantly and then disengages, cools off, and then re-engages.

If you're lucky, the cpu survivied all this burning up, but it could well have been wiped out in the process. If you can find someone else that has a computer which uses the same style cpu, try it in that one and see if it works. If you're lucky, it works fine, if your not, well, you needed to buy a more modern cpu and motherboard anyway, didn't you?

 

[hockeypunk05]

i had the same thing happen to me only with the following


CPU: AMD Athlon 64 3200+
Mobo: DFI Nf3-250gb
RAM: 1Gb Patriot PC4800
GFX: Geforce 6800

after 3 trips to california and back for my mobo, 1 trip for the ram, and 1 trip for the processor and 3 RMA later, it was concluded that the original problem was a fried northbridge and the rest of the parts were ruined from me testing them in the bad board. lucky me i got them all replaced!

 

[MacDuff]

Have you thought about your Power Supply Unit? They make quite a smell when they blow.

 

[x3m]

Check the power supply by jumping the leads. Look at the voltage regulators around the CPU area (from the underside of the board too). The Vregs tend to go poof more than anytjing on a Gigabyte MB. CPU? Maybe, but I doubt it. :?

I tested the PSU by connecting another one.. No difference. Also I looked everywhere on the board including underneath, there is no visual signs anywhere...

The CPU dosen't look burned or anything neither does it smell funny. The mobo on the other hand smells a little funny around the heat sink mounted on it, but it ain't in the same place as where the "clicking" is comming from...

Your cpu could have taken a dive, but your description says mobo all over it. Those funny smells are probably from capacitators, though could include resistors, or other fried silicon. The "clicking" is probably from some part thats trying to engage, but either does not quite make it or it does and overheats instantly and then disengages, cools off, and then re-engages.

If you're lucky, the cpu survivied all this burning up, but it could well have been wiped out in the process. If you can find someone else that has a computer which uses the same style cpu, try it in that one and see if it works. If you're lucky, it works fine, if your not, well, you needed to buy a more modern cpu and motherboard anyway, didn't you?

Ok, everybody seems to be guessing mobo and so do I, I'll just buy a new one and cross my fingers that the CPU is alright. This month is expensive enough already and now my computer fried it self... *Geeez!* :roll:

Thanks for your help so far guys, would you recommend any mobo I should buy? (needs to be stable and not fry it self when I look away!)

 

[sailer]

Thanks for your help so far guys, would you recommend any mobo I should buy? (needs to be stable and not fry it self when I look away!)

For simple reliability, I would recommend an ASUS board with an NVidia chipset, not a VIA one. They may not overclock the best, but I've got two older computers with them that just keep on working, dependable as clockwork.

 

[x3m]

So, I bought my self a new mobo and it just arrived today, I was unable to find a desent ASUS board though so instead I bought a AsRock K7NF2-RAID (not many socket A boards around anymore....)

I plugged it in right away and there we go, it was apperently the old mobo that was fried...

I've got another problem now though, the new mobo refuses to run my Athlon XP 2800+ @ 2GHZ, I tried almost anything...

if I set up the FSB on the mobo to run 266MHZ this is the result in BIOS.
CPU host frequency [AUTO]
Actual Frequency [133MHZ]
53C/129F (if I spice it up a notch to [166MHZ] it just refuses to boot until I reset BIOS).

If I set the jumper on the mobo to run 333MHZ FSB this is the result in BIOS.
CPU host frequency [AUTO]
Actual Frequency [166MHZ]
Then it actually runs the 2GHZ it's suppose to but only for arund 30 sec's then the mobo's safety thingy switches of the computer and refuses to reboot until I reset bios.

The old mobo had no problems running it at 2GHZ so I wonder what is wrong? could it be because the "safety thingy" is to sensitive? actually I'm not sure wheter to run it at 266MHZ or 333MHZ FSB, I'm not entirely sure which CPU it is besides that I was told it's an 2800+.
On my old mobo I never tuched anything besides the core clock cause it was set to low so I changed it from 133 - 166MHZ and since then it's been running 2GHZ, see this thread on the subject. (which also includes scrn. shots of the CPU and RAM).

Any help woud be very appreciated... :?

 

[sailer]

A few different possibilities. First, you should be able to turn off the mobo's "safety thingy" in the BIOS. But there's no guarentee on that, just look and see if it can be done.

Second, try taking the cpu frequency off auto and then set it manually. The auto may be setting it too low. I have an old ASUS board that does that. By raising the cpu frequency, the ram frequency should raise along with it.

Third, see if you can raise the voltage levels to the ram and the cpu. Sometimes that helps, sometimes it doesn't.

Beyond that, I can't think of anything offhand. I'm not very familiar with AsRock boards, so can't get too specific.

 

[randomizer]

I know that youve got a new mobo and all, but did you in fact put thermal paste on your cpu like I told you to in your other thread? We dont want that dying to.