I don't know if this question belongs in this category, but it all started in the name of case cooling.
I've finally done it, I've broken my computer. If I tell you the circumstances maybe one of you knowlegeable folks can save this old guy from hanging himself.
A couple of days ago I replaced a thermaltake volcano 6Cu heatsink with a Thermalright Ax-7 and a 39CFM Panaflo fan. I have an Athlon XP 1800+ cpu and I wasn't thrilled with the cooler. Before this everything worked fine, it was just a little noisy for me. I'm not an overclocker so I disconnected my 2 extra fans (blow hole on top & intake fan on the door).
I still wasn't happy with the noise so today I replaced the CPU fan and the 2 operating case fans with Vantec Stealth fans. I also had to do some replugging as I eliminating 2 fans that were plugged into the power supply and changed other fans. The new cpu fan has an RPM sensor (I think) so I plugged it into the mobo. All others are still connected to P.S.
So far, so good. The case is on its side, all 3 fans, plus P.S. fan are all spinning. The computer is working and all is right with the world. I tied all the wires together, made the whole mess neat, put the cover back on and stood the case upright.
Now it started to misbehave. The power kept going on and off and I got this message on the monitor: OUT OF RANGE
HF:30KHz-60KHz VF: 55Hz-75Hz Current Frequency
HF:27-9KHz VF:26Hz.
I put the machine back on its side and tightened every connection. Pushed the main power plug in hard, etc. etc. Now when I turned it on it did the same thing. If I leaned over the case it would go on, if I backed away it would shut down.
It went on again long enough for me to get into BIOS where, afraid of overheating, I enabled the shutdown feature (it was off because the Panaflo fan had no RPM sensor). The result was even worse. The computer now goes on for 5 seconds and then turns off. If I restart it the same thing happens.
Could it be the power supply? Did I make some wrong connections? Is the lower CFM (29) on the CPU causing pproblems? Did I screw up the heatsink installation? (I used Artic Silver). As I said, all the fans are spinning.
I'm at wits end here and don't even no where to begin. All I can say is H.E.L.P.!!!
sounds like bad contact possibly, your heatsink might be getting enough downward pressure when sideways, but when the case is upright it might be losing good contact, suggest reinstalling the sink,and bending the clip a bit to tighten it, worth a shot!
It was the new heatsink/fan combo. There was no crack or burning on the cpu. I reset the vid card but that wasn't it. Next I removed the Vantec fan and put back the Panaflo. Still NG. Then I removed the AX-7 heatsink, greased her up and put back my trusty old Thermaltake 6Cu. She's back up and running!
Now to decide if I want to leave the old heatsink in (probably should leave well enough alone) or bring back the AX-7 with a stronger, and noisier, fan. Thanks for the advice, you guys are the best!
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