Member Avatar for sethwood

I have a Soyo KT400 Dragon Ultra motherboard w/ an AMD Athlon XP 2600+ & 128MB PC2100 DDR RAM (I'll get more if I get this working). Other than that, all that's connected is a 64MB Nvidia GeForce 3 Ti 200, a 300 watt power supply and the external buttons and LEDs (no case). All of these components are fully seated and properly connected. When I turn the computer on the CPU & GPU fans spin and after 4 seconds it shuts down. No beeps, no nothing. The power supply is fine so don't go there. I have inspected the motherboard and no pins or solders are touching, causing a short. It is clean. I have reset the CMOS too. If the motherboard is shot, it's shot; it not, can anyone help me get this setup working? Any help would be greatly appreciated. I have resorted to using a PIII600 w/ no sound!

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Dani AI

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A short, practical isolation plan based on ’s details (Soyo KT400, Athlon XP 2600+, system powers up, fans spin, then cuts out after ~4s with no POST) and the heat-suspicions from , and . This symptom most often points to one of three things: a protection trip or rail collapse, an immediate component fault (CPU/VRM/short), or simply no POST feedback because a speaker is not attached.

Recommended isolation sequence (anti-static precautions):

  • Confirm the 4-pin ATX12V (CPU 12V) connector is present and fully seated.
  • Attach a motherboard speaker so POST beeps can be heard.
  • Bare-minimum bench: motherboard on a non-conductive surface, CPU (reseated), single RAM stick in the primary slot, PSU, and CPU fan connected to the CPU_FAN header. No drives, USB devices, or extra cards.
  • If available, boot with no RAM to force a memory-beep; the presence or absence of that beep is a strong diagnostic pointer.
  • Remove or swap the GPU if the board supports onboard video; otherwise swap the GPU with a known-good card.

Inspection and swaps to prioritize next: look closely at the VRM area for bulging or leaking electrolytic capacitors and any scorch marks. Metallic/silver thermal pastes can be electrically conductive—if used, clean both surfaces with isopropyl alcohol and reapply a non-conductive paste if there is any risk of spill onto pads or pins. Swap to a known-good PSU (rails can collapse under load even when fans spin) and, if possible, test with a spare CPU or RAM module to isolate the bad part.

If the system still cuts out at ~4s with a speaker attached and known-good PSU/CPU swaps fail, the motherboard (VRM or a hidden short) is the likely failure and replacement is the pragmatic next step. Recording any LED or beep patterns and noting visible capacitor damage will aid the repair-or-replace decision.

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Member Avatar for TT4Titans

feel the side of the heat sink after it shuts down and see if it is extremely hot.

Member Avatar for dcc

It could be the CPU is overheating. Check the connection of the heat sink. Did you use thermal compound when you put the CPU and the heat sink together?

Member Avatar for TT4Titans

It could be the CPU is overheating. Check the connection of the heat sink. Did you use thermal compound when you put the CPU and the heat sink together?

Great minds think alike don't they dcc i was thinking same thing older AMD and heat.LOL

Member Avatar for sethwood

I have a nice $30 copper heatsink & fan but there istn't that much thermal compound on it b/c it was on a on a slower Athlon & I didn't have any more thermal compound. The heatsink isn't getting hot but that could be due to a lack of thermal compound. I'll check back when I get some thermal compound.

Member Avatar for dcc

Great minds think alike don't they dcc i was thinking same thing older AMD and heat.LOL

Yeah...you must have posted a nanosecond before I did.:lol:

Member Avatar for sethwood

I finally used some silver thermal compound but it did nothing.

Member Avatar for dcc

Did you clean both surfaces before you applied the thermal compound?

Member Avatar for sethwood

yes

Member Avatar for dcc

Disabling the “restart on system failure” feature may permit the exact cause to be isolated: Right-click on My Computer, click Properties, click the Advanced tab. Under “Startup & Recovery,” click Settings. Under “System Failure,” uncheck the box in front of “Automatically restart.”

Member Avatar for sethwood

It turns off whether I have the hard drive connected or not. I can't even get to the BIOS.

Member Avatar for linkfeed

Seems like your cooler isn't the right one to give enough cooling to your cpu and your system is shutting down bevor your cpu ist getting to hot and burning through.

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