Installed the HSF upside down? As a newbie to this, that makes me feel a little better. So at least I'm not the only one screwing up their stuff the first go 'round. :-)
Maybe someone can help me with this, I haven't had much luck so far. I purchased the following components to build a new box:
MSI Mainboard SIS 645 chipset
P4 1.5 cpu 478 socket
case w/ 400 volt PSU
Geforce3 Ti200
512 MB DDR ram
At the moment I have no cards or devices in the box, other than the video card. What seems to be completely random occurences seem to happen whenever I boot up though. Sometimes I start up and am able to get into BIOS without trouble. However, When modifying BIOS, it almost always freezes up on me before I can save and exit. On restart, nothing shows up on the monitor, although the monitor light is green, indicating input, (as opposed to yellow). The system doesn't beep, and it seems as if only the fan is running. At this point if I reset CMOS, I can get the computer to start normally again, but it always ends up freezing in BIOS. The behavior is almost completely erratic, and sometimes I get random error messages like: "Low Battery" (though I just bought the thing), and "CMOS Setting Error", although I've been VERY careful not to start my computer with CMOS in reset mode.
I checked the temperatures of the cpu and mobo, and they're both running around 86 degrees F. I did not use thermal grease between the HSF and cpu, and the HSF didn't have any padding on the bottom. Some have told me this isn't a problem, others have told me it is. I've tried swapping my geforce3 video card for my older diamond viper. Same situation. The geforce works fine on my other computer. So I'm thinking the problem must be with the cpu, motherboard, or my RAM.
I heard that a certain type of RAM works better on the MSI board, though I can't recall what it was. I don't have any other RAM to substitute in to check, since my older computer uses SDRAM, and it doesn't fit in the newer DDR slots on my new mobo. Does it sound like RAM could be causing the problem? Or does it sound like I blew something out on my mobo or cpu?
This is all from the mind of a newbie, so if I misinterpreted anything, feel free to correct me. Any help or suggestions would be appreciated, as I'm trying to prepare myself to deal with this $800 paper weight.
Thanks.
Maybe someone can help me with this, I haven't had much luck so far. I purchased the following components to build a new box:
MSI Mainboard SIS 645 chipset
P4 1.5 cpu 478 socket
case w/ 400 volt PSU
Geforce3 Ti200
512 MB DDR ram
At the moment I have no cards or devices in the box, other than the video card. What seems to be completely random occurences seem to happen whenever I boot up though. Sometimes I start up and am able to get into BIOS without trouble. However, When modifying BIOS, it almost always freezes up on me before I can save and exit. On restart, nothing shows up on the monitor, although the monitor light is green, indicating input, (as opposed to yellow). The system doesn't beep, and it seems as if only the fan is running. At this point if I reset CMOS, I can get the computer to start normally again, but it always ends up freezing in BIOS. The behavior is almost completely erratic, and sometimes I get random error messages like: "Low Battery" (though I just bought the thing), and "CMOS Setting Error", although I've been VERY careful not to start my computer with CMOS in reset mode.
I checked the temperatures of the cpu and mobo, and they're both running around 86 degrees F. I did not use thermal grease between the HSF and cpu, and the HSF didn't have any padding on the bottom. Some have told me this isn't a problem, others have told me it is. I've tried swapping my geforce3 video card for my older diamond viper. Same situation. The geforce works fine on my other computer. So I'm thinking the problem must be with the cpu, motherboard, or my RAM.
I heard that a certain type of RAM works better on the MSI board, though I can't recall what it was. I don't have any other RAM to substitute in to check, since my older computer uses SDRAM, and it doesn't fit in the newer DDR slots on my new mobo. Does it sound like RAM could be causing the problem? Or does it sound like I blew something out on my mobo or cpu?
This is all from the mind of a newbie, so if I misinterpreted anything, feel free to correct me. Any help or suggestions would be appreciated, as I'm trying to prepare myself to deal with this $800 paper weight.
Thanks.
Comment