Pc = Dead .. Help!!

[Arkane316]

Greetings to everyone here at Daniweb Forums! As you can see I'm new here, but sure I'll be getting plenty of help from all of the great members here! ;)
Well, I should start my story way from the beginning. I started building a PC about a year ago (buying piece by piece over months at a time) so I wasn't able to test each of the hardware pieces individually. I started buying the hardware that could be used at first, so I bought a Raidmax Smilodon Case, a well as a 750w Thermaltake Toughpower PSU. The case is wonderful, as it has great cooling capabilities and the PSU was working fine on my older Pc. Shortly after that, I bought my motherboard (which is now out of warranty) A ECS NF650iSLIT-A board, which seemed to have been getting good reviews and it was on special at the time. Got a 320gb SATA hdd which also works fine. After that I bought 2gb of Transcend RAM (2x1gb DDR2 800mhz) .. And then an Intel Q6600 CPU (not sure what stepping it is) and about 3 weeks ago, a Gigabyte 9600gt.
Alright, now enough about that. After getting all of the parts together, I was honestly very excited that after a year of building it up, I'd finally be done with it. Put everything in A OK .. Praying that it would now blow up upon switching it on .. So I switched it on, no burny odours .. But then it immediatly got stuck just after detecting the CPU. I spent about 2 hours playing around inside my PC, and finally figured that the one stick of Ram was bad, and the mobo didn't seem to detect it. Anyway, so after that it attempted to boot (Vista 32bit from my previous computer) .. Just when it was about to boot .. The PC just restarted. Friends recommended to me that I should reinstall vista or Xp, and then it should boot up fine. So i tried, and it continuously just gets stuck before its about to install the OS. I've tried everything in my knowledge to get it to work, but to no avail. I will REALLY appreciate any sort of help that can get my new PC up and running. Thanks!
Arkane

[sittas87]

Hi Arkane
Welcome to the forums.
Ok. Firstly I'd recommend that you make use of the least amount of HW possible. Like use on-board as far as possible. use one stick of RAM for time being, And if you can use on- board GFX etc. Apply a fair amount of thermal paste on you're CPU. Ok with that set startup you're pc and go directly into you're BIOS, making sure that the mobo is detecting you're HD. Once thats checked try booting from the OS disk again. See how it behaves and post a reply.

[Arkane316]

Ok. Firstly I'd recommend that you make use of the least amount of HW possible. Like use on-board as far as possible..

Greetings Sittas, thanks for the reply!

As far as on-board goes, the ECS NF650iSLIT-A MBoard only comes with a build in sound chip, with no onboard graphics at all. I have tried taking hardware pieces out etc (thats how I found out that the one RAM stick is faulty, I will be changing it for a new one within this week maybe). The first actual time my PC didnt get stuck during POST, I checked in the bios and the CPU was running at 95 degrees celcuis! Upon further inspection I saw that the stock fan was really PRETTY faulty.
The next day I managed to get a core 2 duo stock cooler from a friend, now its running at about 50 degrees celcuis, with a fair amount of thermal paste on it. This is just a guess, but I think its continously getting stuck before detecting the IDE drives when I install an OS (or sometimes in post, about 2/5 times).
I only have an LG Lightscrbe Dvd writer attached to that though. I have also tried with CD Roms, does the same thing. And also tried swapping the IDE cable into another port on the mobo, still nothing =P

Im sure the solution may be an easy one at that :P But I cannot seem to get it to work!! Where I live, there are not many reliable PC stores around, so I'll have to get this done by myself at the end of the day.

Please if ANYONE has suggestions that may help in this matter, Ill appreciate it greatly!!
Arkane

[Arkane316]

making sure that the mobo is detecting you're HD..

And yes, it does detect it .. ALTHOUGH .. I have been having trouble installing OS's on this SATA before .. When I wanted to install an OS on it, it just fails to detect it DURING OS installation, but it does detect it in POST. Although last month I did manage to install Vista on it with no problems at all. As I said, the PC immediatly restarts just when its about to start the OS. Ive tried with Ubuntu Linux on my old IDE HD as well, and the same thing happened.

[sittas87]

Hi Sorry for the late reply, Internet has been down.

Ok so I'm still thinking it's another HW issue, Because if it was the HD than it would have given you a screen that says no HD detected or something similar. To confirm that case you said that its detecting the HD in the BIOS. So I'm leaning towards some other part being faulty or failing to do its duty. My concern is the fact that it was overheating [clearly as you stated a 95 degree] and might have resulted in damage to the CPU. Even though its cooled down it doesn't mean that the issue is there is solved furthermore 50 Degrees isn't satisfactory in my opinion yet. Ok enough with the detail :) . Reset you're CMOS, by removing you're CMOS battery for 10+ minutes and replacing it after the amount of time. See if there's any difference and post reply.
??

[Arkane316]

Reset you're CMOS, by removing you're CMOS battery for 10+ minutes and replacing it after the amount of time. See if there's any difference and post reply.??

No problem Sittas :) we all have our fair share of internet problems now and then lol..
I certainly hope that the Cpu isn't damaged, attached is a picture of the stock cooler that came with my Cpu :P I dont think thats sufficient to cool down a Quad core Cpu though!
I will definitely invest in an after-market cooler soon enough, just need to get my Pc to start first!

I tried taking the battery out for quite some time, but it still did the same thing. At gets stuck just before detecting the IDE drives, and if it gets past that, then it gets stuck somewhere else sooner or later. I forgot to mention that a few times that I switched the Pc on, the letters all appeared to be scrambled.

Yesterday I decided to call an IT Specialist who used to repair my computer for me when I was younger, and he said it may sound like the motherboard is a bit faulty to him. Unfortunately this motherboard only came with a one year warranty, and I'm not completely satisfied with it, since its PCI-E is locked in 8x mode, due to 'PCI-E Lite', Now if this is the case, Im wondering that MAYBE the Gigabyte 9600GT is having conflict with this issue during Post? http://www.legitreviews.com/article/466/1/ I paid about R1100 (which is about $110) for this motherboard. It seemed very cheap at the time and I was considering SLI that time (but not anymore though)

Do you think there may be a hardware problem with that?

Thanks alot again :)
Arkane

[sittas87]

hi there Arkane

like i said i wont say its the HD. You're techy is probably right. But i still say that it can be the CPU, thats if you're lucky. reason me saying it might be thats its only the CPU cos CPU overheating can eighter result in CPU damage, CPU and MOBO damage or if you're extremely lucky no damage. Thats if you took note immediately after the PC freeze. I'd suggest you get a CPU that will fit in you're socket [Dont buy one just borrow one for testing]. If that fails than you'll need a mobo.

You might want to try you're CPU in another socket. It might work than you can just buy a MOBO that will support you're other HW.That way you'll save some bucks.
As for the mobo you're reffering to, thats a fine deal.

Cheers

[Arkane316]

, CPU and MOBO damage or if you're extremely lucky no damage. Thats if you took note immediately after the PC freeze. Cheers

Greetings Sittas, thanks for the fast reply!

This is quite a problem indeed =P I wish that building up a computer with so much anticipation would be a bit more kind ^^

If the CPU is damaged, I'm not too concerned because its still under warranty for about 1.5 years more. Although I doubt its th Cpu thats damaged, since it switched off automatically as soon as it hit 100 degrees (which was about 2 mins of being powered on).
Although I'm starting school again on Monday, and I'll borrow a core2duo Cpu from the Pc lab there.

Otherwise do you think there are any other problems that could occur? I'm guessing (not sure), maybe the reason behind it getting stuck before it starts to install the OS is because of the RAM, due to insufficent memory storage for the OS? I mean since one stick didn't work at all, maybe the other one is faulty too =P
I say this, because on Linux there is no need to install the OS at first on your Hdd, but to put load it temporarily on your Ram, and it froze just as about it was to load files onto the Ram. Is this possible perhaps?

Thanks alot,
Arkane

[sittas87]

Hi Arkane
To rule out all problems you need to follow all possible leads that you think might be contributing to you're PC's prob. Seeing that you didnt tell me bout the RAM prob before I didnt think that RAM could be a cause of the problem. Anyways ya its like I was saying rule out all possible problems. And yes RAM can be a problem

[DGULLIVER]

hey guys sorry for butting in here are a few comments I have.

1. Test your RAM by using Memtest 86 http://www.memtest.org/
2. 100 degrees wow I'm supprised the CPU is still functioning ;). If your RAM is ok then I'm going with CPU damage.

[Arkane316]

hey guys sorry for butting in here are a few comments I have.

1. Test your RAM by using Memtest 86 http://www.memtest.org/
2. 100 degrees wow I'm supprised the CPU is still functioning ;). If your RAM is ok then I'm going with CPU damage.

Greetings guys, sorry I haven't replied in quite some time, been busy with school etc =P
I dont think I'd be able to run Memtest if my PC doesn't have an OS on it ;)
Well, have quite a major update on what has happened =P

I couldn't wait much longer, and I was sick of trying by myself to get the machine working again, so I decided to call an I.T technichian in another CD to pick my PC when he passes by.
Last week he came to pick it up, and took it for a couple of tests.
1. The motherboard booted ONCE of about the 14 times that he tried it on, with his Celeron processor.
2. The one RAM stick was faulty, but both my machine and his test machine were unable to pick it up, and just got stuck while booting up.
3. He wasn't able to test if my Q6600 is working, but he said it shouldn't have much problems since it is still able to be detected.
4. I'm going to have to buy a new motherboard (Asus Board, P5Q Board) and a few more RAM sticks :P

So it seems this machine that I have been building up has been alot of bad luck ;) I will keep you guys informed on the CPU and whatever else happens.
Thx once again

Arkane

[sittas87]

Sorry mate dont have much time lately but Ill recommend that you rather by a new board if you have a couple of dollars to spend.
PLease Do keep in touch, Cheers for now.

Sittas87

[Arkane316]

Heh! Yeah ^^ A new board solved all the problems here!!

Thanks alot alot for your help guys! Keep well ;)

Arkane (mr happy boy now :D)

[sittas87]

:) great