[redsniper]

Here's the deal: my computer restarts fine but when I turn it completely off (to tinker with it, for example) it acts strangely when booting up. It seems to get stuck in a loop of trying to boot and then restarting again and again. Eventually it gets to POST and it usually gets stuck there a couple of times after counting the RAM, sometimes it doesn't display the CPU info. Once Windows finally boots everything is fine until I have to turn it off again. Could these be symptoms of heat damage? I ask this because I've been without air conditioning for several days and it's freakin' hot around here. It's also worth mentioning that we had a big thunderstorm last night however, this comp is surge protected and it was acting funny before the storm. I've got personal stuff backed up on another HD (savegames, models, etc.) so I'm prepared if this 'puter goes under. Am I farked or just paranoid?
EDIT: wow, post 1500. I could care less right now .

[vyper]

Your PC has 24 hours to live. I suggest checking memory and processor for heat damage.

Check the processor thusly - remove heatsink, check for brown burn marks around centre of processor. If any at all, fuct, you are.

[redsniper]

If this is the case, will it most likely work if I replace the processor and/or memory, whichever is burned?

[vyper]

Depends how it got burned in the first place. If the m/board caused it and is itself damaged you'd end up with another dead chip.

[redsniper]

and I guess there's no way to tell if the mobo caused it or not?

[Martinus]

Originally posted by redsniper
and I guess there's no way to tell if the mobo caused it or not?

[color=66ff00]Have you checked on google to see if anyone with the same mobo as you had the same issues?

Did you install anything/edit anything prior to the problem arising?
[/color]

[vyper]

Well... I'd say take it to the place you bought it and have 'em check it out.

[redsniper]

Maeg,
No, this is the first place I came for advice since I knew I'd get a quick response
I can't recall any major changes I've made recently.
vyper,
I built this comp so there's no store to take it back to.

[Martinus]

[color=66ff00]Well if anyone's had the same issues and managed to resolve them then google is the way to go.

If you've got access to another PC you can swap out the processor from yours into the other. A mobo could destroy a processor or RAM but the inverse is very unlikely so putting them into another PC should be safe enough.
[/color]

[redsniper]

I don't have any other Athlon PCs around so I can't test it that way. My mobo is an Asus A7N8X-E Deluxe, I don't know if being an almost bullet-proof mobo in terms of stability counts for anything but would that possibly make it less likely to fry a new cpu? I'm scouring Google as we 'speak' but not having much success.

[redsniper]

Q. My system posts and boots extremely slow, hard drive detection seems to take a long time, and/or windows doesn’t boot all the time.
A. Again not entirely A7N8X related but does apply. Generally speaking 1 of 3 things could be happening. If you have any Western Digital hard drives connected to your system you should set their jumpers at either the standalone setting (for single drives on a channel or drives using the SATA controller), or cable select setting (for drives that are not the only device on the IDE channel). This is an issue with Western Digital drives. Setting their jumpers at conventional master/slave settings causes problems and should not be used. There is usually a jumper setting diagram on the label on the topside of the drive. If by chance your drive doesn’t have this diagram then you can get the correct jumper positions from Western Digital.
...or...
You are using the IDE driver from the 2.00 package, which has been known to cause problems on some peoples systems, cause errors and other problems, see the above question for more information. You should uninstall this driver and either install the default IDE driver that came with your version of windows, or you should install an updated driver as outlined in the question above.
...or...
There have also been issues of slow boots with people who have the Firewire controller(s) enabled, but no devices hooked up to it. What essentially is happening is that while booting, the system polls the Firewire controller for devices. In theory when the system polls the controller it should either 'reply' "device BlahBlahBlah on controllerX" or it should reply "No device on controllerX". It seems as though in some cases if there is no device present its not getting a "no device present" reply and you have to wait for the signal to 'time out' which causes the delay in boot times.

Hmmm... this sounds like what I'm experiencing. I do have a Firewire controller set up. Also this mobo has some sort of automatic shut off if the cpu gets too hot so I'm thinking it might not be fried.

[redsniper]

Well, it turns out that if I remove the heatsink I'll have to replace the phase-change thermal pad thingy for it to work properly. I don't have any spares of those lying around and the closest place to buy any is at least an hour away. So I can't even check to see if I'm doomed or not. Crap.

[Taristin]

I never used any of that special crap on my PC. Just the chip and the heatsink on top... works good enough for me.

[redsniper]

yeah... but that'll void the warranty plus this cpu has always run kinda hot. I'd hate to see how hot it gets without the special crap.

[Taristin]

warranty? Who cares? They'll find a way of denying responsibility anyhow.

[redsniper]

I'm more concerned about the heat than the warranty. What if I check it and it's okay, but then it really does fry because I didn't put thermal stuff on it. I don't have enough money right now to be cavalier about this.

[Scuddie]

Hmmm...  You say it works perfectly fine once the OS starts...  That leads me to believe that your CPU and RAM are fine.  If I would expect something to be damaged, it'd be the EEPROM.  Try re-flashing the bios, and if it fails, you know what the cause is.

Ofcourse it can be, as everyone is hinting at, your IDE channels being misconfigured.  I'm surprised something as simple as that can bring a system to its knees, and I've seen my fair share of it.

[Nuke]

kill apm
kill anything you arent using
KILL OVERCLOCKING
try resetting the bios to factory settings.
flashing the bios is the last thing that id do
and stop tinkering, it exposes your **** to potential esd

do all that and you should be fine

[redsniper]

I'm not overclocking so I guess I'll try resetting the BIOS. My HD setup is a little weird, which may be confusing the mobo. My main HD is a SATA and my little backup HD is IDE. They both have windows on them so I can boot from either one and the only way to change which one it boots from is to adjust the boot order in the BIOS.