IS my processor dead?

[WRXHokie]

Alright i've tried just about everything, i had a power outage the other day which cause my computer to not want to boot up. So after extensive testing and talk with others, i determined that it was the motherboard.... so i got a new one and installed it but my system would still not boot up. I put in a new power supply, still not it.

My new MSI board tells me (has indicator lights for troubleshooting) that the processor is dead or installed incorrectly. Well i checked the installation of it and it is installed fine. What my system does when i hit the power switch is all the fans start up the lights on the motherboard come on, but nothing happens. When i take out the RAM and boot up the system, no beaping happens and the same thing happens as if it was in there.

The weird thing is when this happened before i took out the processor kinda cleaned it and put it back in and started it up and it started fine. But then today windows just completely froze and when i tried to restart nothing would happen.

I've verified with another computer that the hard drives and cd rom is fine, the RAM is fine and all the cards are fine. So the only thing that could be possibly wrong is the CPU, so is it dead?

Its a 2.66 GHz P4 thats only about a year old, so i could see how it could be dead already. I'm at a loss here so is there anything i could do to test to see if the processor is dead?

 

[Liquidlen]

You said you "kinda cleaned it..." Im not sure what that means ,but did you examine up close what the pins look like? I bent one that way and it was incredibley had to see.
Also a small shop (reseller) I deal with will test CPU for free.It just takes a moment ,they keep 4-5 Mb ready to do the tests.
If your CPU is a retail boxed purchase it should have a 3 year warranty,just don't give them a long explanation .It just stopped.

 

[WRXHokie]

Well what i meant was that i just kinda took it off the board and blew air on it. Then i put it back on and fired it up and it worked for some reason. I examined it up close and it seemed fine to me. And it looks normal when i examined it up close.

If it was truely dead then why would it work for a time and then all of a sudden stop again? But then again it couldnt be something else or it would never boot at all. What the hell is going on here?

 

[Liquidlen]

What about Heat? do you have a good even wad of paste between your CPU and Heatsink?

 

[WRXHokie]

NAh, there's none left.... but the couple times it did boot up i checked the temperature in the BIOS and everything was normal. So that couldnt be it.

 

[WRXHokie]

Update:

I pulled my processor and put my roommates known working P4 in and again same results, nothing happens... everything sounds normal, just no video no post no nothing.

And yes i have tried other video cards.

 

[Liquidlen]

NAh, there's none left.... but the couple times it did boot up i checked the temperature in the BIOS and everything was normal. So that couldnt be it.

I do not believe it, Thermal paste is essential .Remember the temperature rises dramatically after you begin to use the computer(applications etc)
Also P4's have an internal heat sensor that shuts them down automatically. Your symptoms reflect that.
If it is not fried already ,get some paste to allow it to run at a reasonable temp.
But , it should of registered in your friend's system.
I would be very surprised if it is not gone.

 

[WRXHokie]

My friends processor wouldnt have worked then either, but his works fine in his computer. The heat is not a problem, cause it never gets going hot enough for anything to shut it down. I think it might be the hard drive now, so we'll see.

 

[Liquidlen]

Hmmmmmmmmmm!

 

[Pyrophor_linux]

P4 and the GOOP!!

People love to goop the crap out of their processors. An even thin layer at least 1/16 to 1/8 of an inch from the outer edge of the top cast of the CPU is all that is needed to perform proper heat transfers into the heatsink or cooling block (whatever your preferred cooling solution may be.)

People love to goop it on and put their heatsink on and it ooses down on the mainboard and into the pins and socket of the CPU. Can this be bad? Make a line of Arctic silver and put a multimeter on OHMS. Touch each end of the line and you will find that you will get continuity with much resestance. If drawing a pencil mark on a CPU could create enough resistance from two points do you think cooling compound can do the same?

If you answered yes, you are absolutely correct. Check to make sure that the cooling compound is only on the CPU and heatsink. Just a hair of that stuff between two pins can hinder performance or even stop it. Also depending on which two or more pins are shorted, it may even fry your hardware.

Clean CPU, clean Mainboard around CPU.

Also, carpet has metallic microfibers in it. When you walk it kicks up dust and fibers that your cooling fans suck right into the mainboard. The fibers are soo small that you run a very slim chance of them shorting points on the board, but, these fibers when compounded create a new problem. The even layer of dust and impurities in the air that collect on your hardware act as a thermal blanket raising the operating temperature of your system. Also, the fibers collect in your fans and create cooling problems there too by either restricting air flow, slowing the fan down, or stopping the fans completely. When you said the system began working when you blew it out it didn't come as a supprise to me.

Pyro :hotbounce



A CLEAN SYSTEM IS A HAPPY SYSTEM.