Weird PC Freezin Take 2

[Ogroc]

Hey all,

New poster here and saw the thread by Thejuggla112 about a new PC freezing up and didn't wanna take over that thread, but I'm kinda havin the same problem.

Just built a new PC with:
Intel E6420 Core 2 duo processor
MSI P6N Platinum MB
2GB Corsair PC 800 RAM
720W Enermax PSU
EVGA 320MB 8800 GTS video card
BFG Physx card
and...320 GB hard drive

I put it all together Thursday night and it was runnin fine till just a couple hours ago when it all of a sudden locked up on me. After a couple reboots I got a message on the BIOS boot screen that a previous overclock attempt had failed. I reset all the BIOS defaults and booted up again but as my programs loaded up on boot, the PC locked up again.

Any thoughts/ideas?

[Mr.Ferrari]

Have you tried clearing the cmos?

[Ogroc]

Yep. Did that, even told it to load the safest settings and just reseated the processor and fan. Still locks up on me.

Only thing I can think of is to head out tomorrow and grab an extra fan to mount on the side door of the case.

[Ogroc]

Anybody else have any ideas?

The PC boots up, but after a couple minutes it completely locks up, even in the BIOS which makes me think it's overheatin, but according to the temp reading in the BIOS screen the processor stays at a steady 28-30 C so I dunno.

Possibly bad power supply or motherboard?

[doubledragon5]

Did you try taking out the battery for 5 minutes then rebooting? I had this happen once trying to overclock and that was what fixed the problem...

[Ogroc]

Did you try taking out the battery for 5 minutes then rebooting? I had this happen once trying to overclock and that was what fixed the problem...


Just got back from tryin that and still havin the same trouble. I'm outta ideas here. /scratches head

[doubledragon5]

Now it is time to try the out of the case build to help eliminate which piece of hardware may be causing your problem...

http://forum.pcmech.com/showthread.php?t=168456

[Ogroc]

Well, tried the put together outside the case thing and no luck.

BIOS said the CMOS CPU temp was 60c so I powered it off, checked all the connections, and started it back up

With just the processor and video in the MB, no RAM, I couldn't even get a beep. I've tried reseating the processor and putting some Arctic Silver on and it booted once and now it won't give me a beep or anything.

I've got an RMA to replace the CPU and MB so hopefully everything else is okay. :(

[Mr.Ferrari]

Thats a good step, but when you added the arctic silver, did you throughly clean the processor and heatsink off? And were/are the pins of the heatsink sticking through the back of the motherboard?

Update us when the cpu and mb come back.

[Ogroc]

Thats a good step, but when you added the arctic silver, did you throughly clean the processor and heatsink off? And were/are the pins of the heatsink sticking through the back of the motherboard?

Update us when the cpu and mb come back.

Yeah. I followed the guide listed in the tips section here and used a dry q-tip then one dipped in 91% isopropyl alcohol to clean both the heatsink and processor off. I was havin trouble gettin the new Arctic Silver spread around the processor so don't know if that had somethin to do with it or not.

Guess hopefully the new CPU and MB'll work out. Was just gettin used to the new speed too. :(

[Mr.Ferrari]

Just put a small dab of it on the middle of the CPU, twist the heatsink and pin it down. Full instructions at www.arcticsilver.com ;).

Did you overclock the machine though?

[Ogroc]

Unless the BIOS was set to it from the factory or set itself to OC, no. I never opened up that setting page in the BIOS when I turned it on. I think it was corrupted.

When I got the PC to reboot after taking out and putting the battery back in, I could never change the date and time.

[Ogroc]

Alrighty. Finally got my parts back in and gettin ready to install em and see what happens.

One thing I've been confused on the whole time here and I can't seem to find anywhere is on the 12v CPU power connector.

The PSU has two 2x2 (8 pins total) 12v plugs and the MB has space for both connectors but do I need to install both?

There's a cover over one side of the connector like I only need to use one of the plugs, but I can't seem to find anything anywhere that says to use only one or both.

[Cricket]

Alrighty. Finally got my parts back in and gettin ready to install em and see what happens.

One thing I've been confused on the whole time here and I can't seem to find anywhere is on the 12v CPU power connector.

The PSU has two 2x2 (8 pins total) 12v plugs and the MB has space for both connectors but do I need to install both?

There's a cover over one side of the connector like I only need to use one of the plugs, but I can't seem to find anything anywhere that says to use only one or both.Do you have anything plugged into that connector yet?

:) Cricket

[Ogroc]

Nope. Haven't taken any of the parts out of the package yet.

Was waiting to see exactly if I needed to use both of the 4 pins or only one before I started in on anything.

[Cricket]

I'd try 1 to start with and if the computer runs okay you won't need the second connector.

:) Cricket

[Ogroc]

Alrighty. Thanks Cricket. I'll keep things updated here.

Hopefully everything works.

/crosses fingers

[Ogroc]

Okay. I give up.

Did the put the PC together outside the case with just CPU, memory and video.

Couldn't get anything on screen, reseated everything then tried with only one stick of memory and got it to boot. Powered off and tried the other stick by itself and booted. Put em togther and wouldn't boot. Powered off and reseated everything again nice and good, booted up.

So I figured things are good, put everything together. Carry it over to my main PC desk where my main monitor and KB and everything is. Power it on and it boots up. Get into BIOS and can't do anything.

Realized that I had my PS/2 mouse cable in the keyboard jack. Powered off and switched, no boot. Popped the CMOS battery out for 15 minutes and then put it back in and powered back up. Booted and started detecting the drives and then gave me a CMOS checksum error.

Powered it back off and now I can't get the thing to boot back up. :( :confused: :mad:

[Cricket]

Pull the motherboard battery again and then see if the computer will boot up. If it gives you the CMOS error message again, reset the system instead of shutting it down. Go into BIOS and make necessary changes and such and then Save and Exit.

:) Cricket

[Ogroc]

Well, pulled the battery again and restarted. System booted and gave me the checksum. Hit the reset switch and got the checksum again. Went into BIOS and started configurin stuff and everything locked up again just like it was doin before with the original CPU and MB.

Could it possibly be that the MB doesn't like this RAM or maybe the RAM itself is bad? :confused:

Edit: Here's a link to the memory and MB
CORSAIR XMS2 2GB (2 x 1GB) 240-Pin DDR2 SDRAM DDR2 800 (PC2 6400)
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16820145590

MSI P6N SLI Platinum LGA 775 NVIDIA nForce 650i SLI ATX Intel Motherboard
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16813130081

[Ogroc]

Another update...

I really am beginnin to think that either the RAM I've got is shot or just the MB flat don't like it.

I've tried disconnectin the Physix card, HDD and DVD drive all separate;y but still havin the same lock up problem.

Anybody else got any suggestions?

I wouldn't have thought the different CAS latency of 5 that the RAM I've got has over a 4 would make a difference, but I'm completely out of other ideas.

[andper10]

Try connecting both 4 pin chunks of the "extra" power connection and see if that helps. There is a chance that could be causing the problem.

[doubledragon5]

If both ram work one at a time, then I would think that you have a bad dimm slot.. It is

[Ogroc]

Well, after finally gettin the new memory in that's timed at 4 latency, the new PC is up and goin.

Thanks all for the help! :)