[buono]

PC died at the weekend. I tried the usual, cables etc.

There was power going to the MB, fans and drives. I removed the PCI cards including the Video card.

Machine would not post or send a signal to the monitor.

I thought it was the MB so I bought a new ASUS A7N8X.

Fitted that, re-added averything.

No progress. Same problems, different motherboard (and also now using DDR instead of DIMMs.

So, my next guess was the processor - an Athlon 1.2GHz about 2 and a half years old.

I ran a few tests with the fan etc. When I switch the PC on, it runs but does not POST or boot.

I then removed the heatsink and fan from the processor. The PC started then switched off after about 5 seconds. I think this proves the new MB is OK as it is the MB that shuts the PC down if the procesor gets too hot.

So, am I right in thinking it is the Processor?

How can I prove that, assuming I know no-one else with an Athlon to swap/test?

Thanks.

 

[johnwill]

Well, I think you can be assured that the processor is dead now! In tests performed at www.tomshardware.com, the AMD processors were destroyed in a few seconds operating without a heatsink, their thermal protection is not fast enough to protect them with no heatsink. At this point, you might as well buy a new CPU, but DON'T run it without a heatsink for even one second! :no:

 

[buono]

I did unclasp the fan but not remove it completely.

New processor then! (and a new fan for good measure).

 

[yellowduck]

i have a similar problem with my AMD 1800+ (1.53 GHz)

And cant figure it out... fan turns on for a second, but thats it... no decernable power at all for more than that second... well not even second... fan just twitches once

 

[johnwill]

If you haven't run it without the HS, it's unlikely to be the processor. Every processor I've seen that has died has been from abuse, they're really very reliable as a rule. With the AMD, running without the HS will kill them for sure, but other than that, it's unlikely to be the processor. I'd vote for the P/S or MB as the top suspects.

My usual debugging for this kind of problem is to remove everything but the MB, processor, video card, and keyboard and fire it up. If you can't get it running in that configuration, start swapping parts.

 

[yellowduck]

I tried that... took out everything even, left no connection to just see if it would boot and then start whining because it couldnt find anything to boot

 

[johnwill]

If you get the BIOS display with no boot devices connected, it's pretty obvious that the processor is not dead!

 

[yellowduck]

No... no boot, no power, no display, nothing...

I have my own post on this you might want to check...

 

[johnwill]

Perhaps you should be more specific about the symptoms. You said:

I tried that... took out everything even, left no connection to just see if it would boot and then start whining because it couldnt find anything to boot

I don't know about other folks, but I assumed you were saying it had an error message about a boot device. In the future, perhaps you should refrain from the colorful descriptions and just make them accurate, it helps us to help you.

 

[yellowduck]

perhaps you should read my post that everyone is ignoring *tear*

symptoms are simple: no power, with a fan twitch if it was just plugged in and the power switch it hit

Computer just shut off and the power light stayed on, needed to hit the master switch to kill power.