New & first build: Powers off after a few minutes

[NukeThemTillTheyGlow]

I just finished assembling my first build. I connected the monitor and keyboard and started it up. Get what looks like normal POST type of messages, but regardless of what I do, the system powers itself off after about 2 minutes of run time. I pulled the side panel off the case and both the CPU fan/heatsink and the case fan are running. I don't see anythng else loose or not connected. No OS installed yet.

Components are:

ASUS P5K Deluxe
Intel E6750 Core 2 Duo with stock fan/heatsink
4 stickes of Crucial Ballistix DDR2-800 RAM, 1GB each (on the ASUS ram list)
EVGA 8600 GT video card
Antec Sonota III with included 500W "Earthwatts" PSU
2 Samsung 500 GB SATA drives, planning on configuring as RAID 1 via Intel motherboard features
1 Samsung DVD SATA burner
1 Kouwell Firewire and USB port card for 3.5" bay
1 Koutech/Kouwell 3.5" internal card reader/writer (USB)

What do I need to do? It shuts down regardless of where I am in the BIOS settings. My plans are to install Vista Ultimate 64 bit once I figure out how to install the RAID drivers since I don't have a floppy

[Jimmy0]

Are you sure you have the heatsink seated correctly, was there any thermal paste on it when you put it on the CPU?

Having problems with a new build? Try this.

[flanzig1]

Sounds like the classic case of one of the 4 lock pins on the heatsink not being latched fully. When this happens, the heatsink doesn't make full, tight contact with the CPU and the CPU can overheat to the shutdown point. You need to pull the motherboard to make sure the black pins are fully into the clear plastic latch.
One other quick tip: leave the card reader unplugged until after you get the OS installed. Otherwise the drive letter order will be wrong.

[NukeThemTillTheyGlow]

Wow, you guys are fast and good.

When I was installing the CPU fan/heatsink I had all kinds of issues getting the 4 white plastic pins to engage in the motherboard and lock down. I played around with it, pulled up on the latch/knob to give the legs the length to reengage and thought I finally got it installed correctly.

There was paste on the stock heat sink, do I need more?

[NukeThemTillTheyGlow]

Wow, you guys are fast and good.

When I was installing the CPU fan/heatsink I had all kinds of issues getting the 4 white plastic pins to engage in the motherboard and lock down. I played around with it, pulled up on the latch/knob to give the legs the length to reengage and thought I finally got it installed correctly.

So pull the motherboard out with the cpu and fan attached...and make sure that all 4 legs are thru the mobo and properly connected?? that was the one thing that didn't go smoothly during the assembly.


There was paste on the stock heat sink, do I need more?

[shadowpr]

no, you don't need more paste.

and i would definately take it oput of the case and do a post to see if it works after you ensure that the heatsink is in right.

[flanzig1]

The paste should still be OK if you haven't taken the heatsink off and on a bunch of times.
Yeh, those locking pins are a pain, just finished a build and took me about an half hour to get them in.

[NukeThemTillTheyGlow]

Great, I'll take the mobo out right now. Do you suggest trying to run the mobo outside of the case?

[shadowpr]

do just like the link that jimmy gave. that will be the best way.

[The Village Idiot]

I wasn't quite sure what to expect with my E6750 and the heatsink, i put minor pressure on each, safe to say it kept powering down, after a good slam on each pin i'm cruising at normal speeds.

[NukeThemTillTheyGlow]

That did it. I took the mobo out, found only 2 of the 4 heatsink pins were fulled seated from looking underneath the mobo. I messed around with it and I think I finally got it working.

I followed the directions in the link from Jimmy, but I left the 4 gb of ram in just becuase I am lazy. I used one half of the intel CPU box to prop up the mobo, connect the basics and let it run for a while. its been running now for about 25 min so I'm going to say its working. I even shutdown and connected the sata disk drives and they show up. So I did a little BIOS review and config and I'm ready to restart it. THANKS!

[shadowpr]

cool.

enjoy your new build.

[The Village Idiot]

Go into the BIOS and give us a temperature reading, i'm running an E6750 so i can roughly guide you around correct temperatures and good fan RPM Speeds, i'm too running stock coolers.

[NukeThemTillTheyGlow]

I am in the hardware monitor section of the BIOS...

CPU temp is 73F
MB temp is 87.5

CPU fan speed is 1785 rpm

Hows that?

[NukeThemTillTheyGlow]

I didn't have the side of the case on when i posted those temps/rpm's

updated with case enclosed :

CPU Temp is 75F
MB Temp is 91 F

CPU speed is 1804 RPM

My case has a 3 speed fan in the back, I have that set to high. You have to open the case to control the speed. I Can see replacing that fan with a auto fan that I can plug into the mobo and control via software

[Alaron]

Those temps are excellent. Enjoy the system.

[NukeThemTillTheyGlow]

Thanks guys! Great forum.

Now... Vista Ultimate 64 bit here I come!

[The Village Idiot]

Thats...wierd, makes my Core 2 Duo seem like a giant oven... 100 degrees farenheit. Cant be right : |

Wait a second, with a quick conversion that means you'd be running at 20 degrees C, which is unusually cool for a Core 2 Duo, let alone using the stock fan.

[shadowpr]

now i'm curious as to what my temps are.......hmmm

[NukeThemTillTheyGlow]

once i get the ASUS drivers installed and/or get another reboot chance I'll check the temps again. it blazed thru the Vista Ultimate install in my opinion. running the ASUS driver installs now, then do a few others (video, etc) and see what it will do.

but so far I see both CPU's in task mgr as well as all 4 gb of memory. I really hope 64 bit isnt an isssue since this seems like the way to go

[The Village Idiot]

64Bit applications are increasingly coming forward, you should really have no trouble with 64, I know people with it and some applications are even modified by windows to run on your machine.

[NukeThemTillTheyGlow]

running windows update, and other driver installs.

I installed the ASUS AI Suite so I can see the temps "live".

CPU is varying from 82 to 96F, System is steady at 100F. CPU fan is at 912 rpm right now

[The Village Idiot]

Yeah, that seems more like the temperatures I was expecting, my system runs at 100F only the fans running at 1500 RPM, but i'd expect that as I have a small case.