Nuclear Meltdown?

[mikelieber]

Alright guys I'm back and needing help.

I finally got the heatsink fan and i installed it, turned on the system and got nothing. No beeps. No picture, just fans running.

Then i turned it off. Turned it back on to retry after triple checking all the connections. And it turned on for a few seconds and turned off, and something smelled really weird. And was definitely coming from the heatsink/cpu.

I don't like weird smells from my lovely build.

Someone help!

And when I go to turn it back on, the fans spin about two revolutions and stop.. What the crap is happening? It was JUST working. Errr..running. Not exactly working..

Specs arrree....

X-Finity 600W Power Supply
ASUS P5NSLI
Intel Pentium D 940
Seagate 400GB Hard Drive (Also running a 80GB old HD from old computer? As Slave (I THINK)
ULTRA Fire P4 Socket 775 CPU Cooler
GeForce 7900 GS

[Darth Revan]

First thing I always here when this happens is check and make sure you heatsink is set correctly.
And that happened to me with another board. Make sure your MB is set up on the standoves and not touching the chasis at all. The first build I ever did i installed everything on the MB tray w/o standoff and the fan qould spin for a sec and then everything shorts out.

[mikelieber]

Originally Posted by Darth Revan First thing I always here when this happens is check and make sure you heatsink is set correctly. And that happened to me with another board. Make sure your MB is set up on the standoves and not touching the chasis at all. The first build I ever did i installed everything on the MB tray w/o standoff and the fan qould spin for a sec and then everything shorts out.

Funny thing is..what is a standoff? And the heatsink is pretty set correctly. What could be unset about it? And not touching the chasis..? I'm confused..

The MB is just screwed into the case.

[sdkfz]

Originally Posted by mikelieber ..what is a standoff? The MB is just screwed into the case.

Stand offs are the little brass legs that hold the motherboard AWAY from the case so no shorts occur - the following is qouted from the PC Mech link below.

"Standoffs - these are screws that are used to hold the motherboard about 1/8" from the motherboard mounting plate. Their ends have a threaded opening in them that accept the smaller chassis screws. If you have an AT case, you may find small white standoffs. These serve the same function as the metal standoff, but are simply punched through the board and slid into slots on the case. They are rather clumsy to use compared to the metal standoffs, but they get the job done. Lastly, some cases use small metal clip-looking stand-offs. They are pinched together and slipped into small rectangular holes in the motherboard mounting plate and they snap in. These are, too, a bit awkward. "

The motherboard has small areas around the mounting holes that are isolated from all circuitry in the motherboard- the standoffs themselves are smaller than this isolated area so when you attach the motherboard you get no shorts.

I would stop- pick up the documentation for everything and read it slowly, carefully and completley repeating until you have full understanding of each step in the process.

I know you are anxious to complete, but skipping steps or boldly going where you have not gone before is not advised unless you are completely willing to accept the loss of the component(s).

At this point I would say there is an excellant chance that a short has occured and the results of this could be nothing, or maybe the loss of a built into the motherboard component that you can replace (think sound card/ NIC card) or a total loss of the mother board and maybe other components that are hooked up.

Go here for a how to build your own guide....http://www.pcmech.com/byopc/index.htm

[LeftyAce]

Try this: http://forum.pcmech.com/showthread.php?t=132409

Sounds like you didn't put stand-offs in. They sepparate your motherboard from the case and prevent shorting out. Try the out of case procedure I linked to, to make sure you haven't damaged anything.

[mikelieber]

Hopefully.

I'm just going to unbuild everything, and put the screws in the bottom of the chasis. I just found them..

And yes I'm anxious. Thank you for the input and i will reply with my findings. Thanks for the help!

[mikelieber]

Okay I just tried the out of case thing, and when i'd short the power. the heatsink would spin a revolution and stop.

Is the mobo fried?

DAMNIT

And if it did like...blow up. Can i exchange it? Or do i have a blown mobo on my hands

[LeftyAce]

You have the motherboard out of the case and sitting on a non-conductive surface (Such as the cardboard box it came in), right?

Which components do you have connected? Take it down to the processor, heatsink/fan and 1 stick of ram (no video card) and see if it will stay on longer and give you some error beeps.

Double check that any auxiliary power connections to the motherboard are correctly plugged in.

[mikelieber]

Yes its definitely on a cardboard box. I took it down to the CPU heatsink and power supply. Shorted it with a screwdriver, and the same exact thing happened.

And furthermore I've never gotten any beeps from the system.

And all the connections from the mobo to the power supply are locked and loaded.

[Cricket]

You've been working on this computer without the standoffs installed in the case? Carefully inspect the bottom of the motherboard for any sign of burnt or fried spots (the weird smell makes me think something got zapped pretty good). I've seen motherboard get fried by the RAM slots, video card slots and the CPU socket when these areas touched the motherboard mounting tray because no standoffs were used.

Cricket

[Darth Revan]

Originally Posted by mikelieber Is the mobo fried?

Mine was fine and still works.

[mikelieber]

Man I feel stupid..

Well there are alot of scratchy marks it looks like near the cpu, closer to the 4 pin power supply connection. But thats all I see.

Is this really bad?

Where do i go?

[doubledragon5]

Unplug the power supply from the mb, and see if there are any burnt spots on the connector or the connector of the mb.. You probably from the sounds of it shorted out the board itself...

[mikelieber]

Alright no burn marks. But funny thing is the 24pin connector from the power supply smells exactly like the smell from when this whole short happened. Could the power supply connected be done for?

And if it did, thats cool because I want an Antec Smart Power anyway..

[minsonngo]

If the PSU died... it could very well have taken out some other components with it too...

[mikelieber]

So...everything could have gone with it..?

So...the cpu died basically? How do i check the mobo to see if that is gone? And the power supply could be gone?

Man this freakin sucks. So what do i do? Exchange everything?

[minsonngo]

The only way to test them really is to hook them up one by one to another working compatitble machine and find out if they are working or not.

[Cricket]

Originally Posted by mikelieber So...everything could have gone with it..?

It's a possibility.

Originally Posted by mikelieber So...the cpu died basically?

We don't know that for sure at this point.

Originally Posted by mikelieber How do i check the mobo to see if that is gone?

You would need known-to-be-working compatible parts to swap in to test with. Or you could take it to a computer shop and have them test it.

Originally Posted by mikelieber And the power supply could be gone?

Again, we don't know at this point. You could try installing it in another computer and see if it works or not. Or take it to a computer shop and have them test it.

Originally Posted by mikelieber Man this freakin sucks. So what do i do? Exchange everything?

Unfortunately this was user error and I doubt the vendor would take the items back and give you new ones.

Cricket

[mikelieber]

Man...so i just spent 600+ dollars and blew myself up..what a world..

[minsonngo]

Its not definate that everything died. Only way to tell is test each component out seperately it another compatible working machine.

[mikelieber]

Welllllll.......I don't really know anyone. Nor do i have the time. I can't believe this..

And this is all because i didn't freaking put the standoffs on..

What the crap.

[mikelieber]

Well i have an old dell I'll just rebuild that..and stick with that computer.

This is hopeless..

[minsonngo]

Don't give up. The beauty of building your own computer is the learning experience and the satisfaction you get when the thing fires up error free.

We all have made mistakes along the way. This is where you learn something you won't forget.


What I would do is return the motherboard and see if you can get replacement. Then we can work from that point on.


EDIT: Actually before doing that... it looks like you purchased an aftermarket CPU heatsink/fan. Did you apply a thin layer of thermal compound between the bottom of the heat sink and fan before securing it on top of the processor? If not... you will need to do that and see if the PC will power on and post then.

You might also want to do all of this with the components outside of the case.

If it works... then you good to go... just pop in the standoffs to the case... mount your motherboard and put back all of the other components and your good to go.

[mikelieber]

Sounds good to me..thank you for the help by the way. You guys are all awesome on these forums.

[doubledragon5]

First off try using another psu.. A buddy of mine fried a computer I built for him. The 20pin connector to the psu was melted to the mb.. All other parts survived..

[minsonngo]

Originally Posted by mikelieber Sounds good to me..thank you for the help by the way. You guys are all awesome on these forums.

Not sure if you saw my edit.

EDIT: Actually before doing that... it looks like you purchased an aftermarket CPU heatsink/fan. Did you apply a thin layer of thermal compound between the bottom of the heat sink and fan before securing it on top of the processor? If not... you will need to do that and see if the PC will power on and post then. You might also want to do all of this with the components outside of the case. If it works... then you good to go... just pop in the standoffs to the case... mount your motherboard and put back all of the other components and your good to go.

+1 on trying another PSU too... the PSU brand you purchased (Ultra) is not a very good brand either. That is the kind that they usually have on sale or deeply discounted at Fry's Electronics. You need a quality PSU from Antec, FSP, Sparkle, and etc.

[glc]

Looks like you bought the parts from Tiger Direct - good luck getting customer service.

[mikelieber]

Is tiger direct not good to get parts from?

And i was just thinking of buying another power supply..because i just feel like its the really sucky PSU.

We will see though. I just rebuilt my old computer so at least one computer is working.

I'm going to try to Antec Smart Power 2.0. I've got to try something, I don't feel like they will even consider exchanging my parts for new ones.. Worse comes to worse, theres ebay, and craigslist.

Its just weird there are no other weird smells anywhere else except the 24 pin from the PSU..

Maybe its a sign. I just feel like the mobo would have signs of a short, and not just from the sucky 24 pin PSU. Any thoughts?

Becuase I've heard this MOBO is really high quality and not usually will it just short like that. One of my friends I just talked to said it has to be the PSU. All of the other stuff is in pretty good shape in quality wise. And he doesn't see why there wouldn't be signs except the only thing that sucks on the entire built, is fried.

Gimme thoughts guys

And furthermore, is it possible to buy another 24pin socket for the mobo, because what if that is only gone?

And I definitely put the thermal grease on the cpu before adding the heatsink. I think I may go with dragon's idea, and try the new psu. Its worth a dang shot.

[minsonngo]

Tiger Direct is not a good company to deal with in any aspects at all.


Go to Newegg.com (highly recommended on this site and by others) or Directron.com


A new PSU would be a good move. Antec is a good choice.

[Cricket]

Originally Posted by mikelieber Is tiger direct not good to get parts from?

Not really. See for yourself.

Tiger Direct

Newegg

Originally Posted by mikelieber And i was just thinking of buying another power supply..because i just feel like its the really sucky PSU. I'm going to try to Antec Smart Power 2.0. I've got to try something,

Can't hurt.

Originally Posted by mikelieber Its just weird there are no other weird smells anywhere else except the 24 pin from the PSU.. Maybe its a sign. I just feel like the mobo would have signs of a short, and not just from the sucky 24 pin PSU. Any thoughts?

A dead motherboard may or may not have any outward signs of damage. With electronics it's just not that simple.

Originally Posted by mikelieber Becuase I've heard this MOBO is really high quality and not usually will it just short like that.

Oh, it'll short out if you don't use the standoffs when you mount it in the case. But that doesn't mean it's fried. It might work with the new power supply...it might not.

Originally Posted by mikelieber One of my friends I just talked to said it has to be the PSU. All of the other stuff is in pretty good shape in quality wise. And he doesn't see why there wouldn't be signs except the only thing that sucks on the entire built, is fried.

Again, with electronics you don't always get outward signs of damage. You won't know if the parts are dead or not until you try them in another computer or have a computer shop test them for you.

Originally Posted by mikelieber And furthermore, is it possible to buy another 24pin socket for the mobo, because what if that is only gone?

Nope, if the 24 pin socket is fried you gotta get a whole new motherboard.

Cricket