Yeah, sometimes you’re at the top of the range your mobo can support.
Even if faster chips on the same pin-out come out, your chipset might be too dumb to understand it, even with a flash.
Also, the voltages sometimes change between versions of the CPU.
I’ve been doing corporate work for a while, though, and most Fortune 500s don’t go in for CPU upgrades, so I haven’t done one in years.
I can get a replacement for the current one online for a pretty good price so I guess I’ll just go with that.
I have a related question: If you do get a blue screen - how do you read those .dmp files Windows creates?
There is a program called WinDbg (available free from Microsoft) that allows you to load a .dmp file and, assuming you have the symbols, allows you to see exactly where the crash occurred.
It’s not much use unless you’re a driver or kernel programmer, though.
That appears to be beyond what I’m looking for then. So how does one find out why a blue screen occurred, especially if you are not there when it occurs or it reboots before the blue screen info can be hand written?
I installed the new CPU and it still doesn’t boot reliably. I had to try several times after I got it back together before it would boot.
The first time the blue power light came on and it beeped twice and then just sat there. After a number of tries it finally booted. Now, sometimes it boots and sometimes it doesn’t. When it doesnt, the power light comes on the disk light flashes and couple of times and then nothing. There are no beeps except for that first time. When it does boot there are no beeps and it brings up Windows normally.
I have a new motherboard. A new CPU. The memory passed an overnight run of Memtest. I’ve considered that maybe it’s the graphics card and that it is booting but the display is just blank. The problem with this idea is that I don’t see the amount of disk seek activity that I see when it boots normally.
I guess I should just go for a whole new system but this has become a challenge (and a learning experience). Obviously this is fixable. I just have to replace the right part.
So now I’m thinking that it must be the power supply. What else, that I haven’t either tested or replaced, could intermittently interfere with booting?
Then there’s still the question of the thermal events. Could that have come from the power supply. Could a wonky power supply send too much power and fry other things?
Yes.
Overdriving a circuit could cause thermal events.
I can’t say that I’ve seen that before, but if you were one of my commercial clients in the past, I’d have already replaced your power supply anyway by now.
Okay, I re-seated the cable that connects the power button to the motherboard. Now it boots easily and consistently every time. :smack:
Since there are about half a dozen different wires in that bundle I have to think that that button sends signals to more than one system, so it’s conceivable that sometimes some systems were coming up and other weren’t
The bad connection obviously occurred when I installed the new motherboard so it’s unlikely this was the original cause of my problems. It’s also unlikely that it was the cause of the heat issues I experienced with the new MB. Hopefully I’ve corrected those problems with the replacement parts and this bad connection was the final issue.
I didn’t see this post when I posted my previous message. You think it would be a good idea to replace the power supply anyway, since it could fry the new parts?
Is there a reliable way to check the output of a power supply. I know about things like multimeters but I’d think something more sophisticated is needed.
I know it’s unlikely but is there software that will check it? I know fanspeed shows some voltage readings but I don’t know how to interpret them or if they’re even relevant.
Weird. I did the above with the front of the case off so I could access the power switch directly rather than by pushing on the plastic button on the case front.
I put it back together, the side and the front, and suddenly it was refusing to boot again.
So, thinking there was an issue with the “button” on the case (a piece of plastic that pushes the actual button) I opened the case again to give me direct access to the actual button again. Now, pushing the actual button no longer boots the system. The light comes on and I think one or two fans in the back come on. Interestingly, I notice that the CPU fan does not come on (it definitely came on when it was booting properly a little while ago.)
So maybe this is connected to the overheating. Maybe at times it was seeming to boot properly but the CPU fan wasn’t on.
So it seems like it’s down to the button, the cable coming from the button, the connection of that cable to the MB, or the power supply.
I reseated the cable that connects the CPU fan to the motherboard. It now boots.
Reading around the net, I discovered that many motherboards won’t boot if they don’t detect that the CPU fan isn’t on (a perfectly reasonable precaution). Since it apparently wasn’t seated properly, it wasn’t coming on, and the MB correctly refused to boot.
Now I’m wondering if there’s a problem with the fan connector. It could be connecting poorly and intermittently losing a connection and causing the thermal events I’ve been seeing. It could explain the intermittent booting (depending on whether the fan was starting), and the thermal events. It might even explain the freezes which might have somehow been caused by overheating.
So now I’m wondering whether to spend money on a new fan or a new power supply. Maybe I should just replace both.
Another thermal shutdown, while watching a video.
After months of performing perfectly, last night… nothing. I hit the on button and it lights up bright blue and I can hear the fans spinning, but nothing else. No drive seeks, no POST, no Gateway logo on the screen, and the only way to turn it off (the light and the fans) is to unplug it. The obvious conclusion is that the CPU is not waking up. Nearly everything is new - the CPU, the motherboard, the disk drive - and the memory had passed a stress test. So the only thing left is the power supply, which sort of makes sense to me given the symptoms.
So I’m picking up a new power supply at lunch since I work near a Microcenter. It has more watts than the original so I’m hoping that it will finally fix this problem.
This whole mess started when I installed a bigger hard drive. Maybe it was too much for the factory power supply to handle.
More like installing the larger hard drive coincided with the age and wear-based beginning of the failure of the power supply.
Larger hard disk capacity generally doesn’t draw more power.
it does if there are more platters inside, or has a higher spindle speed.
Granted.
I considered that before posting, but when most consumers upgrade their computer they’re not actually increasing the power draw on the drive.
In any case it seems like it’s the only thing left to replace other than the video card, and that seems to be an unlikely source of the problems.
I just bought a power supply. I have to sit home and wait for a repairman tomorrow (for an air conditioner) and they gave me a frigging 9 hour window for when he’ll be there. So now I have a project to work on during my forced confinement.
The D series chips almost always ran hot
I bought a 575W power supply. The original is 400W so there should be no question about having enough power.
But now I have another dilemma. My motherboard has a 4 pin processor power connector that looks like this:
http://support.gateway.com/s/MOTHERBD/Intel2/WMEOEMD945GCZG1/WMEOEMD945GCZG1mvr3.shtml
The problem is that the new power supply doesn’t have a 12 volt connector that fits that.
I think I can use an adapter like this: http://www.playtool.com/pages/psuconnectors/12v4pinadapter.jpg
and hook it to one of the 4 pin Molex connetors coming off of the power supply. It seems like it should work fine as long as the ground and 12V lines are correct.
Am I missing something? Can I do that?