Help with dead pc - CPU or Board?

[Jimster71]

Hi,

I need some help with diagnosing a PC problem.

A couple of weeks ago, my PC started shutting down randomly or would only start up if you turned it on and off a couple of times. By starting up, I mean getting to the first beep after start up. If it made it to that, it would boot up fine.

I did remember that I had a problem in the past when my PC would shut down on it's own if the heatsink wasn't properly installed.

I opened up the PC and pressed the heatsink down to make sure it was in proper contact. This seemed to solve the problem for a couple of days, but then it started up again.

Yesterday, it took a couple of power cycles to get the PC to boot but it locked up as soon as I started to run any applications. It did this twice and then would no longer boot.

When I power on, the led on the board lights up and the fans all start up. I get no beeps at all.

I have tried refitting the heatsink with fresh thermal grase to ensure it is in good contact with the CPU.

All of the cables seem to be in correctly. I had a similar problem to this last year, which ended up with me replacing all of the PC components (under warranty).

I have a P4 3.4GHz CPU and a single 1GB Kingston memory unit. The motherboard is an ASUS P5GD1 Pro.

I've not yet stripped everything down, but I would guess that I will still just get the light and no beeps.

Before this happened, the PC had been running fine for the past 12 months. The unit has not been moved around.

Any suggestions?

[cguan_77]

hi, it could be a bad processor, try using another processor, but if you use a new processor much better don't use your old heatsink and fan, and make sure there's enough thermal compound, processor overheating causes damage..i think there are shop that has a processor for testing just pay for the evaluation fee if ever...