I Fucked Up My Pc :(

This weekend I've updated my processor, from an Athlon XP 1.7 to an 1.8, not too much but I can feel the difference, moreover, this new one have support for SSE2 and the old one hasn't. Anyway, I was so stupid that I pull off the old CPU and installed the new one with the PC connected to the energy (turned off, of course, I'm not so stupid ), and the problem began.

I wasn't able to turn on the PC, everything's fine but the PC don't start, I can see the cpu fan spinning and I can hear the source power turned on, even I can see the small LCD lights on the MoBo turned on, the hard and CD drivers are scanned but the pc simply don't start, I can't even see the BIOS boot screen.

After some tries, I've founded a way to boot the PC. I have to turn on/off the switch of the source power two or three times before, and then the system boots properly, and everything seem fine, the PC has been turned on for the last 6-7 hours with no problem. Also, I can boot if I can pull off the ram dimms and I put them again in their place. I've cheked everything and nothing is wrong, after the boot process everything works pretty fine.

Amy idea? What can I do? If a restart the pc, the problem remains the same, I can't boot, I need to turn off, and play with the switch of the source power a while and then the PC start with no problems... I need a new mobo, cpu or ram?

Any advice will be greatly appreciated.

Hey Iceman, I have a few suggestions. Whether any will work I don't know, but from all of the problems I've had and my many dealings with tech support here is my advice.

1) Do all of this while power is off and power cord is disconnected from the computer. Reseat everything. Take out all pci cards and then put them back in. disconnect all plugs and reconnect them.

2) While disconnected still, flip the switch (the voltage switch) on the power supply back and forth a few times.

3) Clear your cmos. Refer to your motherboard manual or to online documentation. Generally it is a jumper that you just have to mess with.

4) Hold down the power button on the computer for at least 10 seconds. This drains the extra power out of the supply and will let it restart fresh.

5) Well, that's all I can think of. Even with the computer off you may have damaged something. If you did not ground yourself something in your computer may have been affected by static electricity. The fact though that you switched processors with the computer still plugged in but off though is bad. That may have seriously damaged something.

I'm not sure that any of these methods will solve your problem but they have worked for me before. Let me know what happens.

Flyakite

Thanks a lot flyakite!

I've done some of those things, I've taken out all the pci cards, processor, ram, everything, but I didn't do the switchs thing, I'll try it later (before to go to sleep) so I'll tell you what happens tomorrow.

Thank you very much again

Iceman...I've faced this same problem several times.....

The culprit most often is the AGP card (if you have an AGP card)

If it is loose the system will boot but it will not send a signal to the monitor...i.e. the LED on the monitor will still remain amber....It is possible to fix this problem by simply switching the power off and powering it on again....

1) First of all tighten the AGP card (but gently!!!).....make sure it fits really well into the slot...

2) Make sure the cable which goes from the AGP card to the monitor is connected properly

3) Also if your monitor draws power from the SMPS instead of a power outlet, make sure it is connected tightly...

This is only one of the possibilities, please let me know if this fixes the problem...coz if it doesn't (or if you don't have an AGP card) I'll post some other fixes.....I can help you...I'm an A+ Certified Hardware Engineer...

Feel free to contact me through e-mail : sid1231983@rediffmail.com

Regards,

Siddharth

Hi again

Sadly, nothing seems to work... I've tried everything (even the clear CMOS thing) and nothing...

I'll need to live with this fuc**ng problem for the rest of the life (of my PC) :(

Try to get the RAM checked b'coz it is quite likely that the RAM was damaged by static discharge from the power outlet...

Siddharth

Maybe, you must change your motherboard. It is wellknown, the Athlon procs are verry good, but some VIA chipset based MBs get problems. But, firstly, try your videocard and monitor to other computers (I you have available). Check the power supply, what amount of power has, 350 W are the best, 300 are good, but if you have more consomers (high frequence processor, more than 1 HDD with 7200 rpm, CD-ROM and CD-RW, or DVD and CD-RW, or other couple of same drives, etc), you may get problems.

I hope in solving your problems.

Could be an OS thing. It is known that you can't (usually) change over your motherboard without reinstalling XP. The new features in the processor may need a reinstall to pick them up and install the right stuff, etc.

The fact that you can run the pc means that you haven't blown anything.

Good luck.

"Hot Plug'n'Play" just isn't there yet.

You could always call your motherboard tech support and see what they tell you. The thing here is that not only did you swap processors without unplugging the power cord from the computer, but you left everything else plugged in as well. When you are working with the processor the motherboard should not be connected to anything, and technically you should be working on it outside of the case.

Interesting enough, my girlfriend had this same problem after a power outtage in our building. After long dealings with tech, the motherboard was replaced and the computer worked once, then stopped like it does on yours, worked again, and then never again. Called support back up, and we figured it out. The power supply was shot, which in turn caused the replacement motherboard to go bad. Once that was replaced then everything worked fine.

Not saying that is your problem, but you never know.

I had that same problem on my old system. Even the flicking it on and off thingy.

You have to replace your battery. The watch battery thingy...

Wow! Too much experience and knoweldge here Well, I've found part of the problem!

Seems that at least one of the RAM dimms is damaged. After take out all the pci cards and everything else, my system didn't boot either, but I noticed that I have a lot of memory errors (you know the damn death blue screen) So I taked out the dimms until I did find the bad one. After that, sometimes I can boot normally, but not always. Seems like this is another thing that's damaged

Thank you very much for all you support and feedback, all you guys rocks