still broke

as described earlier, my recently assembled computer refuses to boot up. It all starts up, fans go, HDD starts...then after a few sec it just dies. I'm told it's a heating problem. I just finished removed the mobo, putting it back in, remounted HS and fan, and rescrewed it all....
I'm thinking of going to compUSA and getting a HS/fan combo...maybe the whole "can use a case fan" crap is false, and that's the root of my problems. who knows. But after that i guess just try a diff PSU. after that RMA the sucka.

any other tips or something? thoughts?

i feel like a man whose hands are tied behind his back while being forced to watch porn. the setup is just starting at me...and i can't do anything with it, except hold down papers and put sodas on it to prevent rings on the table.

this sounds like it could be the mobo grounding out too, that is a saftey measure, make sure your board is grounded prperly and isnt touching the aluminum case!

yea i checked that, it's on studs so i'm pretty sure that it's not possible it's touching that case itself. i asked if it's alright if it touched the I/O panel, and someone had told me that's fine.

thanks

Putting a cpu/heatsink/fan onto a motherboard shouldn't be too hard. I'm not sure what your problem is. I would never use a case fan for such a job and would buy a heatsink with a heatsink fan.

The problems can range from overheating from bad heatsink application to voltage settings that have to be made with jumpers on the motherboard. Or you may just have a dud motherboard or cpu. I wouldn't buy into the AMD/P4 approved power supply bunk. I've done tons of athlon systems with and without good powersupplies and never had an issue, and I've read its the same with other people as well.

For now, if you want to stop experimenting on your own, get a motherboard with the cpu/heatsink already mounted so that you don't have to touch it. And maybe have the place test it before you buy it to be sure it works.

So Amen, what CPU did you buy? Did the company assemble the CPU and Mobo. or did you have to do it yourself? and no I would not use a case fan for a CPU fan. They have fans rated for the chip they are supposed to keep cool. If the place didnt assemble it, can you get into BIOS? Reason is, there are little jumpers on the motherboard that do certain things. The manual should tell you what each one does. I think newer boards have "jumperless" mode so you dont need to do much beyond the defaults, but check to see if you need to configure any jumpers for the cpu speed, and/or type of CPU you are using.

But if you can get into BIOS it should detect your chip and what frequency your running at. Also it should show the temperature. If you boght it from a store have them definitely test it out. They actually are pretty much supposed to assemble the CPU and Ram for you before you take it out he store, and make sure any jumpers that need to be set, are. That is common. Tell them to and dont let them charge you.

nopers...i had bought this bad boy off of newegg. It's a thermalright sk-7 copper heatsink, i'm pretty sure i had put it on correctly , but i suppose that since i'm using the casefan it may STILL be the problem...Nope can't get into BIOS, and to my knowledge there aren't any jumper settings, i'll try to look at the manual again though, but i'm pretty sure there aren't.
using a amd xp 2100+.

thanks

Get a hink sink fan rated for an AMD 2100 and see if that solves the problem. Careful because it doesnt take more than a few seconds to burn out a CPU.

hink sink = another name for heatsink?

i'm thinking i'lljust go to compUSA and get a brand spankin' new heatsink w/ fan b/c if i order it from newegg alone, the shipping would just kill me. so i'm bettnig on all copper w/ up to 2 ghz or something like that.

Lol! hinky gone sinky with his grammar =\ ----

Just take your Heat Sink in with you and get a fan that screws onto it. No need to buy a set, they dont come as one unit usually, its a fan that attaches to the heat sink.

hmm...alright. well i was looking at the Copper CPU heatsink w/ fan for AMD Athlon XP/MP processors at the compUSA website. I'll ask them what they recommend instead, last i was there I dont' think they had any individual CPU fans. poo...

thasnk