OT: My processor has bitten the dust! Need PC Builders advice!!

[BuckNaked]

The hint was when the pc started and ran the wrong processor speed. Wonky power supply. Unfortunate as it may seem, when a power supply goes, it can throw wild spikes and can take other components out as well.

I'm working on a PC now that had similar symptoms, unfortunately it looks like the hard drive is gone as well. The fan inside the power supply got so gummed up from pet dander and general grunge that it stopped spinning and the PS overheated and died.
Now the hard disk shows a disturbing number of bad or damaged sectors. I will end up installing a new drive and copying the owners files over and taking a sledge hammer to the old drive when it's all backed up.
You can't ever be too safe when it comes to old drives. I have never let a disk drive go to the trash unless it was competely destroyed beyond hope of recovery.

[leicesterboy15]

Hi all, if you've got a problem forget the A-Team, post on here instead!!

Calling all computer people, I need some advice to get me back into cyberspace properly (using my laptop at the moment - slow progress). I think my processor has bitten the dust. The whole machine just froze on me the other day, an old school type freeze where the sound got stuck and nothing would work, no blue screen, just stuck, had to power off in the end.

When I turned it back on it all came on like it was going to work but nothing happened, no output to the graphics card either by the looks of it. Left it over night and the next day the BIOS said my PC crahsed because CPU was running at an unrecommended speed or something like that. I managed to boot to XP and it died again. Now when I try its back to looking like its doing something but nothing happens, can't even access the bios to turn the speed down.

My PC is about 4.5 years old, was **** hot when I got it (was a graphics machine for a computer games company). I really can't be bothered rebuilding it with all new bits as things have moved on a lot since I did this last and I need to read up on all the bits again but don't have time, I just want my PC back. I'm guessing the processor is shot because I haven't changed anything to make it run faster.

I pulled it from the PC and found the following markings: 3.06ghz / 512 / 533 oh and its a P4 hyper thread northwood (whatever that is) I believe from searches on Google.

So theres the speed / cache / bus speed. I've found a P4 3ghz processor with 512kb cache but an FSB of 800. Will this still work on my motherboard if the FSB of my old chip was 533? Is it that it might only run at 533 instead of 800 or that 800 are just not compatible with 533? I have no idea if my motherboard can handle 800 or not, all I know about is that its an Asus with what looks like an Intel chipset.

Failing that can anyone recommend a good motherboard / processor combo that will run all the old components )IDE, PCI, AGP etc)and the new stuff (SATA PCI-E etc) and will stay in touch for at least 2 years?

I need to get this going quickly so any advice is much appreciated.

[leicesterboy15]

Just found out my motherboard is an Asus P4PE

[nirvana19]

Theres a very good chance the problem is the power supply. They fail fairly often and the symptoms match what you're describing (often fail after 2-3 years of constant use). Processor failure sounds unlikely to me. I could be wrong but thats my bet. Usually about a 50-100 dollar fix, don't know about UK prices.

[leicesterboy15]

I replaced my power supply about 6 months ago with a good quality Trust 570W unit. I thought originally that it could be the Power supply but ruled it out as its still quite new, maybe I was too quick...

So a processor wouldn't normally just fail then after a few years? Come to think of it, there have never been any server failures at work due to CPU problems (not common anyway).

[nirvana19]

Power supplies can fail at any time, I've seen them last from a couple weeks to the lifetime of the pc, do you keep your computer running all the time? Unless your system was overclocked and the processor overheated its really quite unusual to have a processor failure. Its possible that theres a problem with the motherboard/chipset (more common than processor). Faulty graphics card can also cause the entire system to halt (system powers but does absolutely nothing except turn the power light on). I'd still say power supply is the most likely culprit. I'd swap one out and see if thats not the problem.

Else I'm sure you could get a very reasonable price on a new motherboard/processor and a graphics card that would outperform your current setup, you would have to reformat/install the OS and all though.

[Tiger]

Change the CMOS battery first... that silver button battery... most likely it has no juice left.

[timandbim]

i had the absolutely nothing problem you did for a while and then when it did boot up again it said that the system had been overclocked at the wrong setting or something. i reset the bios setup to its defaults and it worked normally (very well) for a while and then it happened again.

i suspected that maybe the bios chip wasn't seated properly or was getting static or something so i gave it an good hard poke into the motherboard. while i was in there i reseated the ram chips and generally gave every connection a good wiggle and shove. since i did that everything has worked perfectly for about a month now.

i'm running an intel p4 2.8ghz on an asus p5ld2.

i think cpu's run at only one bus speed, and your motherboard needs to support that speed- not 100% sure about this. but i'd do the wiggle thing and reset your bios if you can before you change parts. (de-static yourself and unplug it first... but you knew that...)

[Ferret]

I'd be looknig at the PSU as well - grab yourself a £15 4-500 watter off of ebuyer for about £15 and chuck it in - see if the machine boots.

If it does, buy a decent PSU again - afaik 'Trust' are not a good quality brand :/ had some of their stuff before and it just didnt make the grade.

Iirc, Northwoods were notorious for having heat/power consumption problems - if your psu goes a bit cockeyed or it loses a percentage of its available power, the machine will just about boot to bios with the cpu in a low clocked mode - but once it ramps up the clock frequency to boot the system the power consumption causes the psu to crap out.

[leicesterboy15]

We'll I've bowed to the pressure and am investing in a new PSU:

http://www.ebuyer.com/product/98564

This is the one i wanted last time my PSU blew up but they were out of stock, its got really good reviews and looks well made. Also bought a new CPU sync and fan just in case. If it was a power spike I hope it hasn't damaged the processor.

If its not the PSU I'm gonna come looking for you.....:p

If it is I owe you one! Could have been out of pocket by a processor...