overheating possibly leading to short circuit?

Hi K.
First you must*thoroughly* clean the mating surfaces of the CPU and the
heatsink with either 99% denatured alcohol (preferred) or Acetone. While you
have the heatsink/fan assembly off thoroughly clean all the dust of heat
sink fins, fan blades, *everything*!. Excessive dust buildup mayl seriously
affect operating temps. Blowing canned air into the fans and allowing them
to spin will not usually do the job. Buy a package of Q-Tips and hold the
blades while you carefully swab them off. Once everything is cleaned
*properly* apply the thermal compound and re-assemble and mount the
CPU/HS/Fan to the MB. Now we can begin the trouble shooting process. In my
experience (PC Power & Cooling and other premium PS, they either work or
not. Sinvce ypou system [owers up i'm inclined to think that the PS is OK.
You speak of alarms and since you don't describe them I'll throw this in the
pot. The IC7 Max 3 has the followin beep codes:
1. Long Beep: Memory problem
Explanation: There is a failure of some sort related to the system memory.
Diagnosis: The first bank of memory probably has a failure of some sort;
this is usually just a physical problem such as an incorrectly inserted
module, but may also mean a bad memory chip in a module. It is possible that
there is a failure related to the motherboard or a system device as well.

2. Long-Short-Short (-..) = Video problem.
Explanation: The BIOS is unable to access the video system in order to write
any error messages to the screen.
Diagnosis: This is usually caused by a problem with the video card, or the
memory on the video card. It can also be a motherboard issue.

If you're gettin the long-short-short beep code and your monitor is not
firering, I'd strongly suspect a video problem. Remove the card, clean the
contacts with a paper towel and denatured alcohol and re-insert it.

Just for kicks remove your memory sticks and clean the contacts. Now turn on
your computer *before* you turn the monitor on.
If your monitor fires up go into the BIOS and insure that all settings are
OK especially the one that specifies AGP first (assuming that you have an
AGP vid card). What happened?
--
TallyHo!
Ed
"kaiser" <> wrote in message
news: oups.com...
> My computer (which I have been building over the last year) has had no
> issues with any hardware problems until two nights ago...
>
> I have a P4 3.E processor (appr. 3.01 to .02 GHz) w/ HT. Abit IC7-G
> motherboard. ATI AGP Radeon 9550XL 256mb video card. 600w Ultra power
> supply.
>
> I was playing AGE III with one of my flat mates. About an hour and
> half into the game my computer's alarm started going off. After waking
> everyone in the room I turned off the game and the computer stopped
> beeping. I immediately thought that it was overheating because I can't
> think of another reason why it would beep like that. I was surprised
> thought because I have a total of 9 fans in my computer. Also, my
> thermal reader said that my CPU was only about 122 deg. F. The thermal
> reader at that time was only loosely connected to the heat sink
> (actually barely hanging on with the thermal tape). So I figure that
> the CPU would be about 20 deg. more or so. My alarm goes off at 185
> deg. and shuts down at 195 and I didn't think there could be anyway it
> could be that warm. When the game was off the thermal reader dropped
> to fluctuating temps, between 113 and 119. I grabbed a fan and open up
> the side panel and the fan dropped the temp another 10 deg. We tried
> starting the game over again. This time the alarm went off around 132
> deg. and it only took about 45 min to get that warm. After that we
> just quit playing AGE. I turned off my computer this time. When my
> computer came back on the CPU was only running at about 85 deg (with my
> fan is still blowing into the machine) with minimal applications. I
> then changed games and played Diablo II by myself since I didn't think
> that it would get as hot with that game. I played for a few hours with
> no problem. The temp was between 119 and 127 with no alarm. Then
> yesterday I played AGE by myself and I was able to play a larger game
> for longer but then the alarm eventually came on. When I went to save
> the game the alarm stopped. I played so more and eventually it went
> off again. This time I save and quit. My flat mate wanted to play AGE
> again but we decided to play Diablo instead. I had no problems once
> again except for a couple of time he had a phone call or had to take a
> smoke break I would tab out of the game and do something else and
> eventually the alarm would come on again. I would save the game and
> close out and the alarm would stop. My flat mate eventually wanted to
> play AGE again so I decided to open the box and see if I can figure out
> what is wrong. I noticed the heat sink has dust caked on it. I take
> it off and grab a can of air. I clean that and blow out the rest of my
> computer too. I also fixed all of my thermal readers so that they were
> better attached to the things that they were reading (3 of 4 had become
> loose or fallen off). When I went to put the heat sink back on I
> realized I just broke the glue seal that was mounting the heat sink to
> the processor chip. Now there is only tried glue smeared on both the
> heat sink and the processor. I didn't think that would make much of a
> difference (someone can confirm if I am wrong) so I put it back on.
> When I turned the computer back on there was an error when searching
> for the CPU and said it had been changed. I then went into the BIOS to
> see if maybe a setting was messed up. Everything looked fine. I did
> change the temp for the alarm from 185 to 175. I saved and exited and
> when it restarted it restarted just fine. However, when windows began
> to load the alarm went off again. When I got to the welcome screen
> instead of logging into my user I just turned off the computer again.
> This time when I opened it up I took out the processor chip to make
> sure there was nothing wrong looking with it and it looked fine. Here
> is the kicker. After that I have never been able to boot my computer
> back up. It powers up just fine. All of the lights work on the mother
> board, for the wireless card, in the power supply, the optical drives
> open and close, the thermal reader reads, however no single is sent to
> the monitor. The light on the monitor stays orange. I thought maybe I
> screwed up my VGA card when I was doing all the messing around so I put
> in my old one and still the same thing.
>
> Do you think that I killed my processor and if so wouldn't I still be
> able to at least get to the first screen of the BIOS for it to tell me
> my CPU is unreadable?
>

Oops, Sorry about the spelling errors. My spell checker must have konked
out??
--
TallyHo!
Ed
"Ed Forsythe" <> wrote in message
news: ...
> Hi K.
> First you must*thoroughly* clean the mating surfaces of the CPU and the
> heatsink with either 99% denatured alcohol (preferred) or Acetone. While
> you have the heatsink/fan assembly off thoroughly clean all the dust of
> heat sink fins, fan blades, *everything*!. Excessive dust buildup mayl
> seriously affect operating temps. Blowing canned air into the fans and
> allowing them to spin will not usually do the job. Buy a package of
> Q-Tips and hold the blades while you carefully swab them off. Once
> everything is cleaned *properly* apply the thermal compound and
> re-assemble and mount the CPU/HS/Fan to the MB. Now we can begin the
> trouble shooting process. In my experience (PC Power & Cooling and other
> premium PS, they either work or not. Sinvce ypou system [owers up i'm
> inclined to think that the PS is OK.
> You speak of alarms and since you don't describe them I'll throw this in
> the pot. The IC7 Max 3 has the followin beep codes:
> 1. Long Beep: Memory problem
> Explanation: There is a failure of some sort related to the system memory.
> Diagnosis: The first bank of memory probably has a failure of some sort;
> this is usually just a physical problem such as an incorrectly inserted
> module, but may also mean a bad memory chip in a module. It is possible
> that there is a failure related to the motherboard or a system device as
> well.
>
> 2. Long-Short-Short (-..) = Video problem.
> Explanation: The BIOS is unable to access the video system in order to
> write any error messages to the screen.
> Diagnosis: This is usually caused by a problem with the video card, or the
> memory on the video card. It can also be a motherboard issue.
>
> If you're gettin the long-short-short beep code and your monitor is not
> firering, I'd strongly suspect a video problem. Remove the card, clean the
> contacts with a paper towel and denatured alcohol and re-insert it.
>
> Just for kicks remove your memory sticks and clean the contacts. Now turn
> on your computer *before* you turn the monitor on.
> If your monitor fires up go into the BIOS and insure that all settings are
> OK especially the one that specifies AGP first (assuming that you have an
> AGP vid card). What happened?
> --
> TallyHo!
> Ed
> "kaiser" <> wrote in message
> news: oups.com...
>> My computer (which I have been building over the last year) has had no
>> issues with any hardware problems until two nights ago...
>>
>> I have a P4 3.E processor (appr. 3.01 to .02 GHz) w/ HT. Abit IC7-G
>> motherboard. ATI AGP Radeon 9550XL 256mb video card. 600w Ultra power
>> supply.
>>
>> I was playing AGE III with one of my flat mates. About an hour and
>> half into the game my computer's alarm started going off. After waking
>> everyone in the room I turned off the game and the computer stopped
>> beeping. I immediately thought that it was overheating because I can't
>> think of another reason why it would beep like that. I was surprised
>> thought because I have a total of 9 fans in my computer. Also, my
>> thermal reader said that my CPU was only about 122 deg. F. The thermal
>> reader at that time was only loosely connected to the heat sink
>> (actually barely hanging on with the thermal tape). So I figure that
>> the CPU would be about 20 deg. more or so. My alarm goes off at 185
>> deg. and shuts down at 195 and I didn't think there could be anyway it
>> could be that warm. When the game was off the thermal reader dropped
>> to fluctuating temps, between 113 and 119. I grabbed a fan and open up
>> the side panel and the fan dropped the temp another 10 deg. We tried
>> starting the game over again. This time the alarm went off around 132
>> deg. and it only took about 45 min to get that warm. After that we
>> just quit playing AGE. I turned off my computer this time. When my
>> computer came back on the CPU was only running at about 85 deg (with my
>> fan is still blowing into the machine) with minimal applications. I
>> then changed games and played Diablo II by myself since I didn't think
>> that it would get as hot with that game. I played for a few hours with
>> no problem. The temp was between 119 and 127 with no alarm. Then
>> yesterday I played AGE by myself and I was able to play a larger game
>> for longer but then the alarm eventually came on. When I went to save
>> the game the alarm stopped. I played so more and eventually it went
>> off again. This time I save and quit. My flat mate wanted to play AGE
>> again but we decided to play Diablo instead. I had no problems once
>> again except for a couple of time he had a phone call or had to take a
>> smoke break I would tab out of the game and do something else and
>> eventually the alarm would come on again. I would save the game and
>> close out and the alarm would stop. My flat mate eventually wanted to
>> play AGE again so I decided to open the box and see if I can figure out
>> what is wrong. I noticed the heat sink has dust caked on it. I take
>> it off and grab a can of air. I clean that and blow out the rest of my
>> computer too. I also fixed all of my thermal readers so that they were
>> better attached to the things that they were reading (3 of 4 had become
>> loose or fallen off). When I went to put the heat sink back on I
>> realized I just broke the glue seal that was mounting the heat sink to
>> the processor chip. Now there is only tried glue smeared on both the
>> heat sink and the processor. I didn't think that would make much of a
>> difference (someone can confirm if I am wrong) so I put it back on.
>> When I turned the computer back on there was an error when searching
>> for the CPU and said it had been changed. I then went into the BIOS to
>> see if maybe a setting was messed up. Everything looked fine. I did
>> change the temp for the alarm from 185 to 175. I saved and exited and
>> when it restarted it restarted just fine. However, when windows began
>> to load the alarm went off again. When I got to the welcome screen
>> instead of logging into my user I just turned off the computer again.
>> This time when I opened it up I took out the processor chip to make
>> sure there was nothing wrong looking with it and it looked fine. Here
>> is the kicker. After that I have never been able to boot my computer
>> back up. It powers up just fine. All of the lights work on the mother
>> board, for the wireless card, in the power supply, the optical drives
>> open and close, the thermal reader reads, however no single is sent to
>> the monitor. The light on the monitor stays orange. I thought maybe I
>> screwed up my VGA card when I was doing all the messing around so I put
>> in my old one and still the same thing.
>>
>> Do you think that I killed my processor and if so wouldn't I still be
>> able to at least get to the first screen of the BIOS for it to tell me
>> my CPU is unreadable?
>>
>
>