Bad processor or CPU?

[Whiplash73]

I've been running an Athlon XP on an Asus a7n8x-e deluxe board, and it ran 24/7. I never overclocked anything, and one day, I turn on the monitor, and it's frozen. I reset, and nothing came up. After doing some hardware pulls to isolate the problem part, I think I have come down to the MB and the CPU. Anyone had any problems with this particular Asus board? Any hints on narrowing between the two?

I did get one error message of CPU failure due to over clocking. But the MB wouldn't give any error messages unless I took out the memory, so naturally, I replaced it first, and still had the same problem. The MB won't even go to the splash screen. And when any video signal comes up at all, it's a black screen with some dashed lines running vertically.

Please help.

 

[Merc14]

Could the HSF have failed causing an overheat?

 

[Whiplash73]

All the fans are running, but I don't A/C in my house, so overheating is a possibility. I have no way to check if the board won't allow a boot. And it was pretty dusty in the case. I cleaned everything, and reseated the CPU, but same boot up tests won't allow me to even get to the bios. I'm assumng the CPU may be bad, since the board will perform tests. What got me was that it wouldn't do anything unless I removed the memory at first.

I'm not sure of the order (unless it's listed in order in the manual) the tests are performed. The prices are about half what I paid when I built it. I may just upgrade the MB and CPU now....funds allowing, of course.

 

[Merc14]

I would remove everything except the video card, 1 stick of RAM and the CPU/HSF. Reset the CMOS/BIOS with the battery-jumper sequence and then see if it will boot. No boot then use a different video card and check again. then switch out RAM. Then look at the CPU. Basic troubleshooting with the basic system.

 

[Whiplash73]

What exactly is the Battery-jumper sequence? I did remove the battery, and re-installed, thinking that would put Bios settings back to default, and it would do a floppy seek, and power the drives, but still won't get past that. I don't have extra parts either. This stinks.

 

[Merc14]

If you have your manual look up jumpers in 2.1.5. You can get it at asus .com. Anyways the procedure is to
1. Unplug the PC from the wall.
2. Remove the battery.
3. Locate the set of 3 pins with a cap covering two of them (usually pins 1 & 2) near the battery. On your board it is to the right of the battery marked "clrtc1". Move the cap to pins 2 & 3 . Leave there for a few minutes.
3. Put the cap back on pins 1 & 2.
4. Replace the battery.
5. Plug the PC back in and turn it on.

Hopefully it will boot. Best to do this when the board is stripped down as mentioned above.

 

[Whiplash73]

Cool. thanks.

 

[Vigilante]

Look carefully at your motherboard for any blown capacitors. These are the tall thingies sticking up on the board. There usually is a row of them around the CPU, and various ones around AGP slot and RAM. Check the tops of them all, are they mirror flat? If they are leaking or bulging, then your motherboard is bad.

When you turn on the system, just leave it on even though you can't see anything. Is the CPU heating up? Can you feel heat on the heatsink of the CPU? If the CPU stays cold even after a few minutes, then it could be a dead CPU.

You might also want to swap a different power supply if you have one. Could be a 3v line dead.

cheers