Right - determined to sort this out today.

Started the machine (for the first time today) in setup and found the
page which gives CPU temperature, etc. Said should be 72C. Over the short
period I watched it it climbed from 50C to 80C then shut down. The fan was
running normally.

Is there anything that could cause the CPU to overheat this quickly -
some form of abnormal load?

--
*I want it all and I want it delivered

Dave Plowman London SW
To e-mail, change noise into sound.

Dave Plowman (News) wrote:
Right - determined to sort this out today.

Started the machine (for the first time today) in setup and found the
page which gives CPU temperature, etc. Said should be 72C. Over the short
period I watched it it climbed from 50C to 80C then shut down. The fan was
running normally.

Is there anything that could cause the CPU to overheat this quickly -
some form of abnormal load?

Bad heatsinking.
Bad CPU.

"Dave Plowman (News)" wrote in message
...
Right - determined to sort this out today.

Started the machine (for the first time today) in setup and found the
page which gives CPU temperature, etc. Said should be 72C. Over the short
period I watched it it climbed from 50C to 80C then shut down. The fan was
running normally.

Is there anything that could cause the CPU to overheat this quickly -
some form of abnormal load?

The heat sink is not fitted correctly.. take it off and do it again.
Next time buy an Intel.

In article ,
AJH wrote:
On Fri, 09 May 2008 09:44:19 +0100, "Dave Plowman (News)"
wrote:

Started the machine (for the first time today) in setup and found the
page which gives CPU temperature, etc.

In the BIOS?

Think so. I'm not really a PC person. ;-)

Said should be 72C.

I think you must mean that this is the CPU shut down temperature,
which explains what was happening.

No - it said something like target temp. Can't look at it now as it's in
bits.

Over the short period I watched it it climbed from 50C to 80C then shut
down. The fan was running normally.

It points to a poor joint between the heat sink and CPU, your wiggling
it may have made it worse. After you clean both surfaces (propyl
alcohol maybe) use some heat sink paste to get a good connection.

It seems to have been making pretty good contact - although it's possible
I was over generous with the paste. I've removed it all including CPU and
cleaned it all up. Will re-assemble after this coffee. ;-)

Is there anything that could cause the CPU to overheat this quickly -
some form of abnormal load?

I forgot what CPU you have but IIRC a p4 2GHz dissipates 67W, so it
cooks in seconds.

Right. It's an Athlon 64 3000+

One other thing I found - not being well up on cable select, or even
reading the instructions on the HD - I'd set it to master but had plugged
in into the slave connector of the cable. So the BIOS reported no master
but slave only. I'd also set the two CD writers to master and slave on the
other IDE bus.

--
*Save a tree, eat a beaver*

Dave Plowman London SW
To e-mail, change noise into sound.

In article ,
Dave Plowman (News) wrote:
I've removed it all including CPU and
cleaned it all up. Will re-assemble after this coffee. ;-)

Whatever I've done has made it worse. It shuts down just after showing the
BIOS page at startup.

--
*I have plenty of talent and vision. I just don't care.

Dave Plowman London SW
To e-mail, change noise into sound.

On Fri, 09 May 2008 12:49:23 +0100, "Dave Plowman (News)"
wrote:

In article ,
AJH wrote:
On Fri, 09 May 2008 09:44:19 +0100, "Dave Plowman (News)"
wrote:

Started the machine (for the first time today) in setup and found the
page which gives CPU temperature, etc.

In the BIOS?

Think so. I'm not really a PC person. ;-)

Said should be 72C.

I think you must mean that this is the CPU shut down temperature,
which explains what was happening.

No - it said something like target temp. Can't look at it now as it's in
bits.

Over the short period I watched it it climbed from 50C to 80C then shut
down. The fan was running normally.

It points to a poor joint between the heat sink and CPU, your wiggling
it may have made it worse. After you clean both surfaces (propyl
alcohol maybe) use some heat sink paste to get a good connection.

It seems to have been making pretty good contact - although it's possible
I was over generous with the paste. I've removed it all including CPU and
cleaned it all up. Will re-assemble after this coffee. ;-)

Normally with paste you only need a tiny amount. Apply some on the
heatsink and spread it out over the contact area. Now scrape off the
excess. A common mistake is to have too much.

See http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xekr6eQL62U. I don't put any
compound on the CPU itself, only on the heatsink.


Is there anything that could cause the CPU to overheat this quickly -
some form of abnormal load?

I forgot what CPU you have but IIRC a p4 2GHz dissipates 67W, so it
cooks in seconds.

Right. It's an Athlon 64 3000+

These produce a lot less heat than a P4 IIRC.

One other thing I found - not being well up on cable select, or even
reading the instructions on the HD - I'd set it to master but had plugged
in into the slave connector of the cable. So the BIOS reported no master
but slave only. I'd also set the two CD writers to master and slave on the
other IDE bus.

If you have set the jumper to master then it is irrelevant which
connector you use.

--
(\__/) M.
(='.'=) Owing to the amount of spam posted via googlegroups and
(")_(") their inaction to the problem. I am blocking most articles
posted from there. If you wish your postings to be seen by
everyone you will need use a different method of posting.
See http://improve-usenet.org

In article ,
"Dave Plowman (News)" writes:
In article ,
Dave Plowman (News) wrote:
I've removed it all including CPU and
cleaned it all up. Will re-assemble after this coffee. ;-)

Whatever I've done has made it worse. It shuts down just after showing the
BIOS page at startup.

Sounds like no contact with heatsink at all.

(If you did that with the really early AMD hammer, you heard
a crack about 2 seconds after switching on, which was the CPU
case cracking in half;-)

Can you get the ZIF leaver up with the heatsink in place?
If so, do that and lift the heatsink off. It should come
off with the chip, as a thin layer of heatsink compound
correctly applied actually takes a bit of pulling apart,
like a rubber sucker.

--
Andrew Gabriel
[email address is not usable -- followup in the newsgroup]

In article ,
Mark wrote:
One other thing I found - not being well up on cable select, or even
reading the instructions on the HD - I'd set it to master but had
plugged in into the slave connector of the cable. So the BIOS reported
no master but slave only. I'd also set the two CD writers to master and
slave on the other IDE bus.

If you have set the jumper to master then it is irrelevant which
connector you use.

The BIOS reported it as master not present, but slave only. I was hoping
correcting this might speed up the damn thing.;-) But it's totally fooked
at the moment anyway. I'll look at it again this evening.

--
*How do you tell when you run out of invisible ink? *

Dave Plowman London SW
To e-mail, change noise into sound.

In article ,
Andrew Gabriel wrote:
In article ,
"Dave Plowman (News)" writes:
In article ,
Dave Plowman (News) wrote:
I've removed it all including CPU and
cleaned it all up. Will re-assemble after this coffee. ;-)

Whatever I've done has made it worse. It shuts down just after showing
the BIOS page at startup.

Sounds like no contact with heatsink at all.

(If you did that with the really early AMD hammer, you heard
a crack about 2 seconds after switching on, which was the CPU
case cracking in half;-)

Can you get the ZIF leaver up with the heatsink in place?
If so, do that and lift the heatsink off. It should come
off with the chip, as a thin layer of heatsink compound
correctly applied actually takes a bit of pulling apart,
like a rubber sucker.

It was indeed truly stuck. It looked to have been making very good contact
indeed. I'm wondering now if I got some of the paste in the CPU connector.
Is it possible to strip it down to clean it properly?

--
*Why is the time of day with the slowest traffic called rush hour?

Dave Plowman London SW
To e-mail, change noise into sound.

In article ,
"Dave Plowman (News)" writes:
In article ,
Andrew Gabriel wrote:
In article ,
"Dave Plowman (News)" writes:
In article ,
Dave Plowman (News) wrote:
I've removed it all including CPU and
cleaned it all up. Will re-assemble after this coffee. ;-)

Whatever I've done has made it worse. It shuts down just after showing
the BIOS page at startup.

Sounds like no contact with heatsink at all.

(If you did that with the really early AMD hammer, you heard
a crack about 2 seconds after switching on, which was the CPU
case cracking in half;-)

Can you get the ZIF leaver up with the heatsink in place?
If so, do that and lift the heatsink off. It should come
off with the chip, as a thin layer of heatsink compound
correctly applied actually takes a bit of pulling apart,
like a rubber sucker.

It was indeed truly stuck. It looked to have been making very good contact
indeed. I'm wondering now if I got some of the paste in the CPU connector.
Is it possible to strip it down to clean it properly?

I really doubt it. I think you would have to be unlucky
for it to prevent the socket working, unless you got
loads in there. I imagine any attempt to dissassemble
one of those sockets is highly unlikely to work afterwards.

Check carefully for bent/broken pins on the chip.

I might try reseating anything else pluggable, incluing
leads (power connector particularly).

--
Andrew Gabriel
[email address is not usable -- followup in the newsgroup]

In message , Andrew Gabriel
writes
In article ,
"Dave Plowman (News)" writes:
In article ,
Dave Plowman (News) wrote:
I've removed it all including CPU and
cleaned it all up. Will re-assemble after this coffee. ;-)

Whatever I've done has made it worse. It shuts down just after showing the
BIOS page at startup.

Sounds like no contact with heatsink at all.

Just a thought ...

is the heatsink on back to front ?


--
geoff

In article ,
geoff wrote:
In message , Andrew Gabriel
writes
In article ,
"Dave Plowman (News)" writes:
In article ,
Dave Plowman (News) wrote:
I've removed it all including CPU and
cleaned it all up. Will re-assemble after this coffee. ;-)

Whatever I've done has made it worse. It shuts down just after
showing the BIOS page at startup.

Sounds like no contact with heatsink at all.

Just a thought ...

is the heatsink on back to front ?

To the best of my knowledge it's not handed. Looks to be symmetrical.

--
*Time is what keeps everything from happening at once.

Dave Plowman London SW
To e-mail, change noise into sound.

In message , "Dave Plowman (News)"
writes
In article ,
geoff wrote:
In message , Andrew Gabriel
writes
In article ,
"Dave Plowman (News)" writes:
In article ,
Dave Plowman (News) wrote:
I've removed it all including CPU and
cleaned it all up. Will re-assemble after this coffee. ;-)

Whatever I've done has made it worse. It shuts down just after
showing the BIOS page at startup.

Sounds like no contact with heatsink at all.

Just a thought ...

is the heatsink on back to front ?

To the best of my knowledge it's not handed. Looks to be symmetrical.

The voice of experience says

"CHECK"

I managed to get it wrong once

one way round the heatsink sits nicely on the CPU, the other way round
.... it overheats because it doesn't

--
geoff

In article ,
geoff wrote:
To the best of my knowledge it's not handed. Looks to be symmetrical.

The voice of experience says

"CHECK"

I managed to get it wrong once

one way round the heatsink sits nicely on the CPU, the other way round
... it overheats because it doesn't

Well, it's been on the same way round since I built the machine and worked
ok for a year or so. I know this because of the cable to the fan.

But I'm not convinced it's a cooling problem. I'm thinking a broken track
or dry joint round about the CPU.

But just for you I'll turn it round...

No difference.

--
*The only difference between a rut and a grave is the depth.

Dave Plowman London SW
To e-mail, change noise into sound.

In article ,
dennis@home wrote:
one way round the heatsink sits nicely on the CPU, the other way round
... it overheats because it doesn't

Well, it's been on the same way round since I built the machine and
worked ok for a year or so. I know this because of the cable to the
fan.

But I'm not convinced it's a cooling problem. I'm thinking a broken
track or dry joint round about the CPU.

But just for you I'll turn it round...

No difference.

You were lucky if you did that! Putting the heatsink the wrong way on
older AMD CPUs would have destroyed the chip! The word was check not
just try it.

As I said it appears symmetrical. Nor are there any markings on it. And it
can only be fitted one of two ways due to the clip. Do you actually know
the type of heatsink supplied with the Athlon 64 3000+ ? And how would you
account for it working ok for over a year if fitted incorrectly?

You can get a new cpu and MB for about £99 which is probably the easiest
solution.

Looking that way.

--
*Everyone has a photographic memory. Some just don't have film*

Dave Plowman London SW
To e-mail, change noise into sound.

"Dave Plowman (News)" wrote in message
...
In article ,
geoff wrote:
To the best of my knowledge it's not handed. Looks to be symmetrical.

The voice of experience says

"CHECK"

I managed to get it wrong once

one way round the heatsink sits nicely on the CPU, the other way round
... it overheats because it doesn't

Well, it's been on the same way round since I built the machine and worked
ok for a year or so. I know this because of the cable to the fan.

But I'm not convinced it's a cooling problem. I'm thinking a broken track
or dry joint round about the CPU.

But just for you I'll turn it round...

No difference.

You were lucky if you did that!
Putting the heatsink the wrong way on older AMD CPUs would have destroyed
the chip!
The word was check not just try it.

You can get a new cpu and MB for about £99 which is probably the easiest
solution.

You can get a new cpu and MB for about £99 which is probably the easiest
solution.

Looking that way.


Then you'll have spares if it turns out to be something else :-)

Soon you'll have enough spares to just keep swapping components till you
find the fault by a process of elimination. Then you'll be a standard PC
repair facility.

In article ,
"Dave Plowman (News)" writes:

As I said it appears symmetrical. Nor are there any markings on it. And it
can only be fitted one of two ways due to the clip. Do you actually know
the type of heatsink supplied with the Athlon 64 3000+ ? And how would you
account for it working ok for over a year if fitted incorrectly?

It could have worked loose, but I think you're ruling out the
heatsink with the subsequent tests.

You can get a new cpu and MB for about £99 which is probably the easiest
solution.

Looking that way.

If you're anywhere near Bracknell, there's a computer fair on
Sunday which is usually stuffed full of this sort of thing.

http://www.britishcomputerfairs.com/...rplan?vnu_id=5

As you'll see from the webpage, it moves around the South every
Sunday. Also happens every Saturday near Tottenham Court Road,
but the lighting's so poor in that venue it's difficult to see
what you're buying.

--
Andrew Gabriel
[email address is not usable -- followup in the newsgroup]

In article ,
Andrew Gabriel andrew@a17 wrote:
In article ,
"Dave Plowman (News)" writes:

As I said it appears symmetrical. Nor are there any markings on it.
And it can only be fitted one of two ways due to the clip. Do you
actually know the type of heatsink supplied with the Athlon 64 3000+ ?
And how would you account for it working ok for over a year if fitted
incorrectly?

It could have worked loose, but I think you're ruling out the heatsink
with the subsequent tests.

No - it's a tight fit via the clamp. And the compound is obviously in
close contact as it's acting like a glue.

You can get a new cpu and MB for about £99 which is probably the
easiest solution.

Looking that way.

If you're anywhere near Bracknell, there's a computer fair on
Sunday which is usually stuffed full of this sort of thing.

http://www.britishcomputerfairs.com/...rplan?vnu_id=5

As you'll see from the webpage, it moves around the South every
Sunday.

Could be the one I see advertised at Crystal Palace - but I've never been.

Also happens every Saturday near Tottenham Court Road,
but the lighting's so poor in that venue it's difficult to see
what you're buying.

I paid roughly 100 quid for the MB and CPU so if they are still the same
price it might not be worth the hassle of travelling to buy from an
unknown.

--
*Virtual reality is its own reward *

Dave Plowman London SW
To e-mail, change noise into sound.

Dave Plowman (News) wrote:
In article ,
Andrew Gabriel andrew@a17 wrote:
In article ,
"Dave Plowman (News)" writes:

As I said it appears symmetrical. Nor are there any markings on it.
And it can only be fitted one of two ways due to the clip. Do you
actually know the type of heatsink supplied with the Athlon 64
3000+ ? And how would you account for it working ok for over a year
if fitted incorrectly?

It could have worked loose, but I think you're ruling out the
heatsink with the subsequent tests.

No - it's a tight fit via the clamp. And the compound is obviously in
close contact as it's acting like a glue.

You can get a new cpu and MB for about £99 which is probably the
easiest solution.

Looking that way.

If you're anywhere near Bracknell, there's a computer fair on
Sunday which is usually stuffed full of this sort of thing.

http://www.britishcomputerfairs.com/...rplan?vnu_id=5

As you'll see from the webpage, it moves around the South every
Sunday.

Could be the one I see advertised at Crystal Palace - but I've never
been.

Also happens every Saturday near Tottenham Court Road,
but the lighting's so poor in that venue it's difficult to see
what you're buying.

I paid roughly 100 quid for the MB and CPU so if they are still the
same price it might not be worth the hassle of travelling to buy from
an unknown.

Dave, just upgraded my next-door neighbours computer with these - well
recommended

Mobo (£29.47)
http://www.ebuyer.com/product/126138

CPU (£31.02)
http://www.microdirect.co.uk/(27444)...00-Socket.aspx
(ebuyer currently out of stock)

Heatsink/fan (£6.14)
http://www.ebuyer.com/product/105995

RAM (£14.21)
http://www.ebuyer.com/product/63618

John

"Dave Plowman (News)" wrote in message
...
In article ,
dennis@home wrote:
one way round the heatsink sits nicely on the CPU, the other way round
... it overheats because it doesn't

Well, it's been on the same way round since I built the machine and
worked ok for a year or so. I know this because of the cable to the
fan.

But I'm not convinced it's a cooling problem. I'm thinking a broken
track or dry joint round about the CPU.

But just for you I'll turn it round...

No difference.

You were lucky if you did that! Putting the heatsink the wrong way on
older AMD CPUs would have destroyed the chip! The word was check not
just try it.

As I said it appears symmetrical. Nor are there any markings on it. And it
can only be fitted one of two ways due to the clip. Do you actually know
the type of heatsink supplied with the Athlon 64 3000+ ?

There are /many/ types, which do you have?

And how would you
account for it working ok for over a year if fitted incorrectly?

Do you just want a scenario or a forensic investigation?
For a possible scenario which I believe I have seen..
you fit the cpu but don't push it in far enough..
you fit the heat sink on top and it is tilted..
it make ok contact until thermal creep moves the chip..
it fails.


You can get a new cpu and MB for about £99 which is probably the easiest
solution.

Looking that way.

--
*Everyone has a photographic memory. Some just don't have film*

Dave Plowman London SW
To e-mail, change noise into sound.

"Dave Plowman (News)" wrote in message
...


I paid roughly 100 quid for the MB and CPU so if they are still the same
price it might not be worth the hassle of travelling to buy from an
unknown.

http://www.ebuyer.com/product/133453
http://www.ebuyer.com/product/135668

I don't know what ram you have.

In article ,
dennis@home wrote:
As I said it appears symmetrical. Nor are there any markings on it.
And it can only be fitted one of two ways due to the clip. Do you
actually know the type of heatsink supplied with the Athlon 64 3000+ ?

There are /many/ types, which do you have?

And how would you
account for it working ok for over a year if fitted incorrectly?

Do you just want a scenario or a forensic investigation?
For a possible scenario which I believe I have seen..
you fit the cpu but don't push it in far enough..
you fit the heat sink on top and it is tilted..
it make ok contact until thermal creep moves the chip..
it fails.

Really not possible. It has two cams which clamp it down firmly. If it
wasn't fitted correctly they'd not operate. I dunno about other designs
but with this one I'd say it's impossible to get it wrong.

--
*I don't suffer from insanity, I enjoy every minute of it *

Dave Plowman London SW
To e-mail, change noise into sound.

"Dave Plowman (News)" wrote in message
...
In article ,
Dave Plowman (News) wrote:
I've removed it all including CPU and
cleaned it all up. Will re-assemble after this coffee. ;-)

Whatever I've done has made it worse. It shuts down just after showing the
BIOS page at startup.

--
*I have plenty of talent and vision. I just don't care.

Dave Plowman London SW
To e-mail, change noise into sound.

Have you got the fan the right way round? ie the cool air from the fan
should blowing onto the heatsink,also check the heatsink fins for dust
clogging them?

In article ,
George wrote:

"Dave Plowman (News)" wrote in message
...
In article ,
Dave Plowman (News) wrote:
I've removed it all including CPU and
cleaned it all up. Will re-assemble after this coffee. ;-)

Whatever I've done has made it worse. It shuts down just after showing
the BIOS page at startup.

Have you got the fan the right way round? ie the cool air from the fan
should blowing onto the heatsink,also check the heatsink fins for dust
clogging them?

Heh heh. It mysteriously turned itself round?

--
*I love cats...they taste just like chicken.

Dave Plowman London SW
To e-mail, change noise into sound.

"Dave Plowman (News)" wrote in message
...
In article ,
George wrote:

"Dave Plowman (News)" wrote in message
...
In article ,
Dave Plowman (News) wrote:
I've removed it all including CPU and
cleaned it all up. Will re-assemble after this coffee. ;-)

Whatever I've done has made it worse. It shuts down just after showing
the BIOS page at startup.

Have you got the fan the right way round? ie the cool air from the fan
should blowing onto the heatsink,also check the heatsink fins for dust
clogging them?

Heh heh. It mysteriously turned itself round?

--
*I love cats...they taste just like chicken.

Dave Plowman London SW
To e-mail, change noise into sound.

Well it worked for me because the last time I cleaned this computer out (if
only dust was a comodity I'd have been rich) I put the fan the wrong way
round and was getting exactly the same symptoms you're faced with.
After much head scratching it suddenly dawned on me that the cool air from
cpu fan was blowing outwards,a quick change around and we were back to
normal.
Funny though I have two big fans in the case one on the front chassis metal
for blowing cool air around the other fan on the back of the chassis for
drawing out any warm/hot air.

In article ,
George wrote:
Have you got the fan the right way round? ie the cool air from the
fan should blowing onto the heatsink,also check the heatsink fins
for dust clogging them?

Heh heh. It mysteriously turned itself round?

Well it worked for me because the last time I cleaned this computer out
(if only dust was a comodity I'd have been rich) I put the fan the wrong
way round and was getting exactly the same symptoms you're faced with.
After much head scratching it suddenly dawned on me that the cool air
from cpu fan was blowing outwards,a quick change around and we were back
to normal. Funny though I have two big fans in the case one on the front
chassis metal for blowing cool air around the other fan on the back of
the chassis for drawing out any warm/hot air.

The symptoms only started after about a year of it working perfectly.
That's why all these suggestions of poorly fitted heatsink or fan etc
don't cut much mustard with me. Plus the fact it now happens so quickly -
within a minute or so of switching on from cold.
I got this reply on a RISC OS group (I asked for a more suitable
newsgroup) where they are understandably iffy about PC posts :-

*********************

I had a similar problem. I think it was a fault in AsusProbe reading
the temperature wrong & shutting down as an emergency. Probe V2.24.10
works ok but I am not entirely sure it wasn't another monitor??

**********************

but no reply to an email asking for clarification as I don't really
understand the solution if any.

--
*I didn't drive my husband crazy -- I flew him there -- it was faster

Dave Plowman London SW
To e-mail, change noise into sound.

"Dave Plowman (News)" wrote in message
...
In article ,
George wrote:
Have you got the fan the right way round? ie the cool air from the
fan should blowing onto the heatsink,also check the heatsink fins
for dust clogging them?

Heh heh. It mysteriously turned itself round?

Well it worked for me because the last time I cleaned this computer out
(if only dust was a comodity I'd have been rich) I put the fan the wrong
way round and was getting exactly the same symptoms you're faced with.
After much head scratching it suddenly dawned on me that the cool air
from cpu fan was blowing outwards,a quick change around and we were back
to normal. Funny though I have two big fans in the case one on the front
chassis metal for blowing cool air around the other fan on the back of
the chassis for drawing out any warm/hot air.

The symptoms only started after about a year of it working perfectly.
That's why all these suggestions of poorly fitted heatsink or fan etc
don't cut much mustard with me. Plus the fact it now happens so quickly -
within a minute or so of switching on from cold.
I got this reply on a RISC OS group (I asked for a more suitable
newsgroup) where they are understandably iffy about PC posts :-

*********************

I had a similar problem. I think it was a fault in AsusProbe reading
the temperature wrong & shutting down as an emergency. Probe V2.24.10
works ok but I am not entirely sure it wasn't another monitor??

**********************

but no reply to an email asking for clarification as I don't really
understand the solution if any.

--
*I didn't drive my husband crazy -- I flew him there -- it was faster

Dave Plowman London SW
To e-mail, change noise into sound.

I presume you have done an elimination process? ie just the graphics
card,mem in place with all drives,periphials,and addon cards disconnected?
at least this would narrow it down to mobo,graphics,cpu.

In article ,
George wrote:
I presume you have done an elimination process? ie just the graphics
card,mem in place with all drives,periphials,and addon cards
disconnected? at least this would narrow it down to mobo,graphics,cpu.

My initial thoughts when it first started was the PS shutting down so
substituted it with a known good one. Then removed all the various
peripherals except the graphics card. Still happened. Tried a different
graphics card too.

--
*Verbs HAS to agree with their subjects *

Dave Plowman London SW
To e-mail, change noise into sound.

Dave Plowman (News) wrote:
In article ,
George wrote:
I presume you have done an elimination process? ie just the graphics
card,mem in place with all drives,periphials,and addon cards
disconnected? at least this would narrow it down to mobo,graphics,cpu.

My initial thoughts when it first started was the PS shutting down so
substituted it with a known good one. Then removed all the various
peripherals except the graphics card. Still happened. Tried a different
graphics card too.


Aren't there any PC anoraks advertising in your local paper? Time to
admit defeat I'd say

In article ,
stuart noble wrote:
Dave Plowman (News) wrote:
In article ,
George wrote:
I presume you have done an elimination process? ie just the graphics
card,mem in place with all drives,periphials,and addon cards
disconnected? at least this would narrow it down to mobo,graphics,cpu.

My initial thoughts when it first started was the PS shutting down so
substituted it with a known good one. Then removed all the various
peripherals except the graphics card. Still happened. Tried a different
graphics card too.


Aren't there any PC anoraks advertising in your local paper? Time to
admit defeat I'd say

If no one on here (or elsewhere) has suggestions would such a type do any
better?
I can obviously fix things by the shotgun approach of replacing MB and
CPU. Get a 'man' in and all I'm doing is paying extra for his labour to do
what I can myself.

--
*Few women admit their age; fewer men act it.

Dave Plowman London SW
To e-mail, change noise into sound.

Dave Plowman (News) wrote:
In article ,
stuart noble wrote:
Dave Plowman (News) wrote:
In article ,
George wrote:
I presume you have done an elimination process? ie just the graphics
card,mem in place with all drives,periphials,and addon cards
disconnected? at least this would narrow it down to mobo,graphics,cpu.
My initial thoughts when it first started was the PS shutting down so
substituted it with a known good one. Then removed all the various
peripherals except the graphics card. Still happened. Tried a different
graphics card too.


Aren't there any PC anoraks advertising in your local paper? Time to
admit defeat I'd say

If no one on here (or elsewhere) has suggestions would such a type do any
better?
I can obviously fix things by the shotgun approach of replacing MB and
CPU. Get a 'man' in and all I'm doing is paying extra for his labour to do
what I can myself.


But he probably has all the bits to hand, so at least you won't pay for
the ones that weren't the problem. Think yourself lucky that the fault
is reproduceable, and not some intermittent can of worms.

I think I might test the water by ringing round and describing the
symptoms. IME the good guys will usually say, "It sound like...." rather
than "Bring it in and we'll look at it". The latter usually means they
know nothing and will be farming it out to a local engineer

"stuart noble" wrote in message
news
Dave Plowman (News) wrote:
In article ,
stuart noble wrote:
Dave Plowman (News) wrote:
In article ,
George wrote:
I presume you have done an elimination process? ie just the graphics
card,mem in place with all drives,periphials,and addon cards
disconnected? at least this would narrow it down to mobo,graphics,cpu.
My initial thoughts when it first started was the PS shutting down so
substituted it with a known good one. Then removed all the various
peripherals except the graphics card. Still happened. Tried a different
graphics card too.


Aren't there any PC anoraks advertising in your local paper? Time to
admit defeat I'd say

If no one on here (or elsewhere) has suggestions would such a type do any
better?
I can obviously fix things by the shotgun approach of replacing MB and
CPU. Get a 'man' in and all I'm doing is paying extra for his labour to
do
what I can myself.


But he probably has all the bits to hand, so at least you won't pay for
the ones that weren't the problem. Think yourself lucky that the fault is
reproduceable, and not some intermittent can of worms.

Unless he works for peanuts its easier and cheaper to buy the barebones and
cpu I posted a while back.
Then you get a nice new faster machine too.


I think I might test the water by ringing round and describing the
symptoms. IME the good guys will usually say, "It sound like...." rather
than "Bring it in and we'll look at it". The latter usually means they
know nothing and will be farming it out to a local engineer