upgrade for a venerable rig

Waldoinsc · Mar 7, 2011

having issues keeping the upgrade running...some of the backstory:

perfectly fine rig for the wife...she's been using it about 3 years now for general internet and email, but it takes about 12 minutes to start & load everything (WinXP SP3, MS Office 2007) to get to email-- she wanted faster boot up and response loading webpages (btw, its not the network- hardwired Cat 5e through Netgear N600 with cable modem)

OLD RIG:
CoolMax Centurion 5 Mini case with 380W PSU
AMD 3700 754 pin
2GB DDR
VIA mobo
RADEON 9700 Pro All-in-Wonder AGP with Arctic Cooling Silencer (ATITool rocks!)
320GB WD HDD

The UPGRADE:
upgrade to 430W PSU,
AM2 5000X2 BE
AM2/AM2+ BIOSTAR N68S mobo
IGP- GeForce 7025/nForce 630a
4GB DDR2-800 G-SKILL
same case, HDD,DVD.

The PROBLEM:
hit the power button, the rig powers up and I can get into BIOS, but within 30-60 sec's it shuts down....the chipset (GeFforce 7025/nForce 630a) heatsink is very hot at that point. I cannot get the unit to restart until it sets for a period of time....

Seem to be a THERMAL ISSUE, but wondering if anyone has any advice...should I pull the heatsink and apply fresh thermal paste or an active cooler?, or does this type of issue usually indicate a bigger problem with the mobo and should I RMA it (Newegg)?

Thanks for the help.

MRCL · Mar 8, 2011

Say did you reinstall Windows after completely changing vital hardware? If not, thats your problem right there.

Waldoinsc · Mar 8, 2011

didn't get that far yet...haven't let it boot to windows yet...I'm in trying to configure the BIOS and it just shuts down while I'm setting it up...still haven't been able to fully review all settings, let alone set them how I want them.

JATownes · Mar 8, 2011

What brand of PSU are you using?

blkhogan · Mar 8, 2011

Got any fans laying around? See if you can pump some good air flow over the chipset. Maybe it will stay running long enough to see your settings. Could be having voltage issues with the board. Pull your battery and clear your bios. Might help.

stevednmc · Mar 8, 2011

Personally i would rma it. If the heatsink is getting that hot. I would think if you pulled the heatsink and reapplied TIM it would void the warranty. Might be wrong though.

Waldoinsc · Mar 8, 2011

JATownes said:
What brand of PSU are you using?

good question...its just a no-name I had lying around from some old builds---thought about buying an upgrade, but was trying to minimze $$ spent for this little upgrade-- all I bought was the mobo and DDR2 ($115 total), everything else was on my 'extra stuff' shelf.

@ blkhogan-- good idea also...see how far I can get...though Stevednmc has a a good point about removing the heat sink

stevednmc · Mar 8, 2011

One hthing i can tell ya i have learned...Do not skimp out on the PSU. Maybe i would try to upgrade that first, see if it improves. Worst case..it doesnt improve, you still rma, but you have a solid psu!

Waldoinsc · Mar 8, 2011

the POST summary screen identifies the CPU and the DDR2 correctly, the BIOS hardware monitor is sensing the cooler fan okay (RPM's indicated) and the CPU temp is not abnormal 25-30C on startup and begins increasing slowly...but hte rig still shuts down for no apparent reason. THis time it took about 3-4 minutes (I was blowing a fan into the open case)...so I'm thinking either a PSU issue (thought all voltages were stable on the HW monitor in BIOS) or a thermal issue.

stevednmc · Mar 8, 2011

You say its the heatsink for the VGA thats getting hot? I would say thats enough to shut it down, and since you have to wait to start it back up it really sounds like a thermal issue. Do you happen to have an infrared or laser thermometer, or a thermal couple to take its temp? Since it took longer to shut down with a fan blowing on it, id say thats your smoking gun. No pun intended.
Its up to you, but i think i would rma. Its possible that if you reapply TIM it may not help if there is an issue with the mobo itself, ie maybe a short, that can get things hot in a hurry. Put the old stuff back in that case and wait for your new part..
now that i think about it maybe make sure there isnt a short between the mobo and case?

Waldoinsc · Mar 9, 2011

thanks for the help...I'm going to swap the origianl components back in and RMA the mobo.

stevednmc · Mar 9, 2011

I hope it turns out well. Please keep us informed, we need Closure!

Waldoinsc · Jul 14, 2011

Sorry for the long delay...forgot to update this thread-- the culprit was the mobo chipset-- I RMA'd it and the new board worked fine...no problems now...

Thansk to all who assisted

MT Alex · Jul 14, 2011

Good deal. How was turn around time with the RMA?

Waldoinsc · Jul 16, 2011

RMA process...submitted the RMA request online and they approved it in less than a day-- sent the old board, took them about a day or two to confirm/validate the issue-- I received notification the new board was shipping 7 days after requesting the RMA-- not too bad.

scaminatrix · Jul 16, 2011

Glad you got it sorted, thanks for keeping us updated :toast:

Processor	Athlon II X4 945 (AM3)
Motherboard	MSI NF725GM-P43 micro
Cooling	stock
Memory	8GB G.Skill Ripjaw (DDR3-1066)
Video Card(s)	EVGA 9600GT
Storage	Vertex 2 60GB SSD, WD 250GB Cavair
Display(s)	Dual Asus 22"
Software	Win7 (32 bit)

System Name	Fractality 1.0
Processor	Intel Core i7-860 @ 3.6GHz
Motherboard	EVGA P55 SLI
Cooling	Prolimatech Megahalems and four Fractal Design 120mm fans, sleeved
Memory	16GB Kingston Hyper RAM
Video Card(s)	PNY GeForce 580 XLR8
Storage	64GB and 180GB SSDs / 1TB and 2TB HDDs
Display(s)	24" Acer V243W
Case	Fractal Design Define R2, sleeved all I/O cables
Audio Device(s)	onboard
Power Supply	Corsair HX750W modular, sadly only stock sleeving
Software	Win 7 64bit

Processor	Athlon II X4 945 (AM3)
Motherboard	MSI NF725GM-P43 micro
Cooling	stock
Memory	8GB G.Skill Ripjaw (DDR3-1066)
Video Card(s)	EVGA 9600GT
Storage	Vertex 2 60GB SSD, WD 250GB Cavair
Display(s)	Dual Asus 22"
Software	Win7 (32 bit)

System Name	Mr. Reliable
Processor	Ryzen R9 5950x
Motherboard	MSI Meg X570s Ace Max
Cooling	D5 Pump, Singularity Top/Res, 2x360mm EK P rads, EK Magnitude/Alphacool Blocks
Memory	32Gb (4x8Gb) Corsair Dominator Platinum 3600Mhz @ 16/19/20/36 1.35v
Video Card(s)	MSI 3080ti with Alphacool Block
Storage	2 x Corsair Force MP400 1TB Nvme; 2 x T-Force Cardea Z340; 2 x Mushkin Reactor 1TB
Display(s)	Acer 32" Z321QU 2560x1440; LG 34GP83A-B 34" 3440x1440
Case	Lian Li PC-011 Dynamic XL; Synology DS218j w/ 2 x 2TB WD Red
Audio Device(s)	SteelSeries Arctis Pro+
Power Supply	EVGA SuperNova 850G3
Mouse	Razer Basilisk V2
Keyboard	Das Keyboard 6; Razer Orbweaver Chroma
Software	Windows 10 Pro

System Name	Hogan's Crap
Processor	Intel i3-2120 Crap!
Motherboard	Dell POS Crap!
Cooling	Stock Crap!
Memory	4 GB Kingston DDR3 10600 Crap!
Video Card(s)	Stock Crap!
Storage	500 GB 5400 rpm Crap!
Software	Windows 10 64bit

System Name	TheBruise
Processor	i7-960
Motherboard	Gigabyte x58A -Ud5
Cooling	Vantage ALC push pull/2x180mm fans/1x120mm silverstone
Memory	12GB Corsair Vengeance 1600Mhz
Video Card(s)	2 Sapphire Vapor-X 5870's in Xfire
Storage	Ocz Vertex 3 Max Iops (OS) 300GB Velociraptor, 750 GB WD Black
Display(s)	Asus 23" VS238H-P
Case	Silverstone Ft01-BW Fortress
Audio Device(s)	Creative X-fi Titanium
Power Supply	Corsair HX-850
Software	W7pro SP1

System Name	Benny
Processor	Phenom II 1055t @ 3.3GHz; 300x11; 1.380v; NB 2700; HT 2400
Motherboard	ASUS Crosshair IV Formula (2002 BIOS)
Cooling	Thermalright TRUE 120 Black + 2 Xilence Red Wing PWM 120mm (push/pull) + polycarbonate fan holders
Memory	8GB GeIL Ultra 2133MHZ C9 running at 1600MHz @ 7-7-7-21 1T 1.5v
Video Card(s)	MSI Twin Frozr II GTX470 @ Stock w/CPU fan cable-tied on, as one of the GPU fans broke.
Storage	60GB OCZ Agility3 (OS);500GB WDC Grn; 1x1TB WDC Blk (Backup)
Display(s)	ASUS PA823Q
Case	Silverstone Raven 2 (all cables custom sleeved with velcro mod on side panel...)
Audio Device(s)	X-Fi (Onboard) + Harmon Kardon HK6100 amp powering JVC HA-RX700's with Zalman mic
Power Supply	Corsair HX650W
Software	Win7 Pro x64
Benchmark Scores	No benchies so making this space useful! Corsair M90, Logitech G19. Phobya FlexLight LED's (gawjus)

upgrade for a venerable rig

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