Mods: As this is my first post, and it began as a power supply problem, feel free to move it as you see fit. I botched a repair in epic fashion (no explosions though), with humor, and am now up the proverbial creek. Thought it would provide good fodder for the General Hrdware thread.
I provide this story for your entertainment (laugh, cry or rage with me as it suits your feelings upon reading this.) The final gut wrenching/ belly laugh piece of idiocy is provided at the end.
A couple of years ago I built a new PC. This is something I have been doing about once every 18 months since 1990 or so. So I have experience, but definitely a hobbyist (with some formal training) and not a newb. Around a month ago I was watching football on my PC one afternoon when it simply shutdown. Power off, no smoke or dramatic sounds, it simply shutdown. Tried to reboot it and no POST. Nothing, completely dead. Needless to say I feared the worst and was not happy. Borrowed a family laptop (which I am typing on now). After tearing it down and looking around the internet at forums like this on, I was at a bit of a loss. It seemed my nice Corsair power supply had failed me. I had no good known compatible parts to test with so after a bit of skull scratching I went ahead and took it to a local who fixes pc's. He tested the components and told me the PS was shot and took the MB with it. This was my fault. Why? Because I bought a 550 watt PS and put components in it which drew 632 watts. It worked, though with some quirks, for a couple of years like this. So I decide to get a replacement MB and a new PS to fix it. (And tried not to forget the thermal paste).
While this made me feel rather stupid, I did not feel as bad as when I previously had problems with these wonderful(note the sarcasm in that word) heat sink and fan combos that "pop" onto the board. Previously the 2.66 Quad (65nm) had been running hot so I reseated the fan in hopes this would help. I did this without thermal paste, which was always an "option" that last time I had built a box. Never a requirement. Yeah, that didn't work well, but it caused no damage so I lucked out and used Artic Silver thermal paste. That ended the overheating problems. Now back to the more currenct idiocy.
I finally saved up the money (after around a month or so) to correct the problem. It took me nearly that long to find a place which still sold the Asus P5Q Pro MB. I finally found some refurbished models at a place called Compuserve. Their prices were considerably better than those I had seen on Ebay. About 70 as opposed to 100+. Sounds good so far. A little thermal paste, a new 750 watt PS from MicroCenter and the board came in the mail a few days ago. Now here comes the funny part for you.
Hooked it all up and no POST. Good MB light. No fans, no POST, nothing. Check everything 3 times. Made sure the case panel connections are correct. Checked the PS connections, etc, etc. All good. I was once again left scratching my head. At this point the only thing I can think of is 1: bad power supply - very unlikely with a from the box PS and a good light. 2: A bad case switch - also very unlikely. 3: maybe I somehow mis seated the CPU. So I go to remove the fan. Are you ready for the punchline?
The fan unlocks from the MB but wont come off the CPU. Go check online. Something about twisting it or trying to break the paste seal with a knife or screwdriver or even a paperclip. Nope, and i can see the board flexing when I try and apply a little muscle. Hmm. What the hell right? Come across a Q&A snippet.... " should come off with a little twisting. Unless someone used THERMAL ADHESIVE."
A moments panic. Sure enough, Artic Silver now apparently makes a Thermal Adhesive. Something I had never heard of in connection with computer parts before and certainly did not expect to find looking exactly like paste and occupying the same pegs with "Arctic Silver" written across the top, and the word adhesive in small print beneath. So now I have no money for repairs again, cannot return the MB since the CPU fan is epoxied to the MB, and cannot even see if the CPU seating is the problem since the lever is well underneath the fan and wouldnt move far enough to unclamp the CPU even if I could reach it.
While being angry at myself, Arctic Silver, whomever is responsible for these pop-on fans and MB and case manufacturers who still cannot seem to create a design where there is no pin confusion for the panel connections, I decided people would take a good lesson from this and get a good, if hopefully rueful, chuckle at my expense.
Laugh or Cry as befits your taste.
I provide this story for your entertainment (laugh, cry or rage with me as it suits your feelings upon reading this.) The final gut wrenching/ belly laugh piece of idiocy is provided at the end.
A couple of years ago I built a new PC. This is something I have been doing about once every 18 months since 1990 or so. So I have experience, but definitely a hobbyist (with some formal training) and not a newb. Around a month ago I was watching football on my PC one afternoon when it simply shutdown. Power off, no smoke or dramatic sounds, it simply shutdown. Tried to reboot it and no POST. Nothing, completely dead. Needless to say I feared the worst and was not happy. Borrowed a family laptop (which I am typing on now). After tearing it down and looking around the internet at forums like this on, I was at a bit of a loss. It seemed my nice Corsair power supply had failed me. I had no good known compatible parts to test with so after a bit of skull scratching I went ahead and took it to a local who fixes pc's. He tested the components and told me the PS was shot and took the MB with it. This was my fault. Why? Because I bought a 550 watt PS and put components in it which drew 632 watts. It worked, though with some quirks, for a couple of years like this. So I decide to get a replacement MB and a new PS to fix it. (And tried not to forget the thermal paste).
While this made me feel rather stupid, I did not feel as bad as when I previously had problems with these wonderful(note the sarcasm in that word) heat sink and fan combos that "pop" onto the board. Previously the 2.66 Quad (65nm) had been running hot so I reseated the fan in hopes this would help. I did this without thermal paste, which was always an "option" that last time I had built a box. Never a requirement. Yeah, that didn't work well, but it caused no damage so I lucked out and used Artic Silver thermal paste. That ended the overheating problems. Now back to the more currenct idiocy.
I finally saved up the money (after around a month or so) to correct the problem. It took me nearly that long to find a place which still sold the Asus P5Q Pro MB. I finally found some refurbished models at a place called Compuserve. Their prices were considerably better than those I had seen on Ebay. About 70 as opposed to 100+. Sounds good so far. A little thermal paste, a new 750 watt PS from MicroCenter and the board came in the mail a few days ago. Now here comes the funny part for you.
Hooked it all up and no POST. Good MB light. No fans, no POST, nothing. Check everything 3 times. Made sure the case panel connections are correct. Checked the PS connections, etc, etc. All good. I was once again left scratching my head. At this point the only thing I can think of is 1: bad power supply - very unlikely with a from the box PS and a good light. 2: A bad case switch - also very unlikely. 3: maybe I somehow mis seated the CPU. So I go to remove the fan. Are you ready for the punchline?
The fan unlocks from the MB but wont come off the CPU. Go check online. Something about twisting it or trying to break the paste seal with a knife or screwdriver or even a paperclip. Nope, and i can see the board flexing when I try and apply a little muscle. Hmm. What the hell right? Come across a Q&A snippet.... " should come off with a little twisting. Unless someone used THERMAL ADHESIVE."
A moments panic. Sure enough, Artic Silver now apparently makes a Thermal Adhesive. Something I had never heard of in connection with computer parts before and certainly did not expect to find looking exactly like paste and occupying the same pegs with "Arctic Silver" written across the top, and the word adhesive in small print beneath. So now I have no money for repairs again, cannot return the MB since the CPU fan is epoxied to the MB, and cannot even see if the CPU seating is the problem since the lever is well underneath the fan and wouldnt move far enough to unclamp the CPU even if I could reach it.
While being angry at myself, Arctic Silver, whomever is responsible for these pop-on fans and MB and case manufacturers who still cannot seem to create a design where there is no pin confusion for the panel connections, I decided people would take a good lesson from this and get a good, if hopefully rueful, chuckle at my expense.
Laugh or Cry as befits your taste.
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