On Sun, 2 Dec 2007 21:01:55 -0500, "Jack R"
wrote:


On Sun, 2 Dec 2007 11:27:42 -0500, "Jack R"
wrote:


"Paul" wrote in message
...
Hello,

I would sincerely appreciate any help with my problem. Yesterday
I went to turn on my PC, and then 4 or 5 secs later after turning
on it turns off. The fans go on, the hard drives start spinning,
and then mysteriously the system turns off. Unfortunately my case
(Antec P180 silver) doesn't have a built-in speaker, so I don't
know if there are any audible error codes.

I have 2 sticks of Corsair 1GB DDR memory, so I removed one.
No luck. I erased the BIOS memory. Again, no luck. I read
in some forums that if you press the reset button twice right
after turning on, you will be able to see POST and enter the
BIOS settings. Unfortunately, no luck.

One more thing, the day before this problem I updated to the
latest BIOS. Could this have anything to do with it? After
updating the BIOS, I restarted several and it worked perfectly.
However, the next day when I went to turn it on, I had this
damned problem. :-(

Does anyone have any idea what the problem could be? I would
be very grateful for any help.

Thank you,
Paul

It sounds to me like your CPU heatsink has come adrift.
I'd suggest checking that, and if you're confident in the operation,
removing the HS and reinstalling it.
It's probably not the BIOS update, as you said it rebooted successfully a
few times after the update.
IHTH,
Jack R.


"Paul" wrote in message
...
I removed the motherboard from the case to make sure
there are no short circuits. I subsequently removed
the heatsink and processor, then reinstalled both very
carefull. Unfortunately, no luck. :-(

I'm starting to think that I have a bad motherboard. It
was working fine for a couple of months. I must say though
that in the last week or two, I was experiencing more lockups
and freezes. (That's why I decided to upgrade the BIOS to the
latest version.) I wonder if there's a connection here?

Do processors ever go bad? Could it be the processor by
any chance?

Thank you,
Paul



I'd look at the power supply next. Do you have a meter to measure the
voltages, or another PS to substitute?
CPUs do go bad, but rarely in my experience, and then mainly caused by heat
(failed/blocked fan), or a power failure/surge.

Thanks for the suggestion. I will try a PS from another computer.
Even though the system runs for 5 secs, do you think it could be
the Seasonic? If the PS had gone bad, wouldn't the computer fail
to even start?

BTW, top posting is not preferred in these newsgroups, so readers can more
easily follow the thread.

Will keep that in mind next time. Thanks.

Best regards,
Paul