Compter Help!

[Msterbeau]

So... I decided the amount of noise my computer was making in the new house (Wood floors and all) was too much. The primary source of it was coming from the GPU fan and somewhat from the CPU fan. A little research revealed that aftermarket fans work quite well at reducing both noise and temps so i ordered one of each. (Zalman for CPU, Arctic Cooling Silencer for the GPU) I also decided update the case. I got one made of aluminum that was a lot cooler looking then my old one, plus it was lighter and smaller. After carefully transferring everything from one case to the other, including the new fans, I plugged it all in, turned on the powerstrip and it..... emitted a painful continuous tone. All the fans seemed to be functioning, there was power at the front "headlight" but it doesn't boot. I checked everything, made a couple changes to drive jumpers (Oh yeah... I took that external drive that was giving me problems out of it's case and mounted it internally.) and still the annoying tone and no boot. The motherboard (Intel D865PERL) documentation is a little sketchy in some areas, especially for the front panel lights and power button. I found a better version online at work today... I'll be double checking things on the comp at lunch time.

So... What could be causing the continuous tone and lack of boot? There's lot's of info on beep codes but they aren't relevant to what's going on with mine.

[Msterbeau]

Tweeked a few connections. Still emitting extremely irritating tone. All the fans are on... the power and activity lights are both on...

WTF!!!!!!!!!

Intuition says it's one of the new fans but which.. and how do I know what to fix? Grrrrrrrrrr....

[torn asunder]

Tweeked a few connections. Still emitting extremely irritating tone. All the fans are on... the power and activity lights are both on...

WTF!!!!!!!!!

Intuition says it's one of the new fans but which.. and how do I know what to fix? Grrrrrrrrrr....

replace each fan with the old one, in turn...

[Msterbeau]

replace each fan with the old one, in turn...

Yeah. The problem with that is that I'll need to get some thermal pads/paste in order to do it properly. I live 40 miles from the nearest decent computer place. Double Grrrr....

[Head Wreck]

dont forget to get some TIM cleaner and clean the processors first, and thermal paste can take a day to set properly.

next step is to think about dust. dust causes fans to become noisy by entering the bearings. the best way to do this is via positive pressure. think of it like how some tanks and APC's seal off from NBC warfare. the british warriors actually arent sealed, they just take in more air through filters than can enter the machine any other way, a decent fan and dust filters are great. additions to any case.

my current rig is running 4 sharkoom 80mm fans on dust filters on the front intake, one over the GPU, and two filterless fans on extraction and i am now down to cleaning that case every 6 months or so

[Msterbeau]

I cleaned both the GPU and CPU of old paste before attaching the fans. Possible I may have put a bit much on the CPU before attaching the fan.

I can't seem to find much that relates to the continuous warning beep/noise.. which I'm assuming would point the way to what my problem is.

[Head Wreck]

have you got your mainboard manual?

if not look for any text on the mainboard and google it, mainboard manuals will have the pleepcode guide

as to amount of TIM... a very small amount evenly spread. the idea of tim is to fill in any imperfections of the surface (i have heared of some folk polishing down the contact surface of thier processors) ise something flat to spread the tim, if in dobt, put a spot on the processor and polish it about with the heatsink as if you were polishing boots (small circles)

[Gaf The Horse With Tears]

um... The new case... it came with screws and other odds and ends... there should have been some little brass thingys... They are called "Stand Offs". What did you do with them?

Where is this noise coming from? The speaker? or the Power Supply?

[glc]

There may be an issue with the new cpu fan (not the fan, but a simple bios setting) - does the fan have 2, 3, or 4 pins?

Is it's speed manually controlled?

If you can get into bios turn off the cpu fan monitor function - that may stop the warning beep. Also, do you have active or passive cooling on your southbridge chip? Thats something you can replace too. Replacing the power supply can be a good option aswell, the antec smart power is a good cheap replacement.

The pc I use as a console for my studio is really really quiet. I can barely hear it at all. It consists of

- Antec take4 case with smart power

- passive mb

- passive gpu

- thermalright cpu heatsink with 120mm nexus fan

- 1 80mm and 1 120mm nexus case fans

[Draco1958]

I believe 1 long continuous beep means memory error. You can google search motherboard beeps and depending on bios maker you can find out what the beeps mean.

[Dubh Aingeal]

A Continuous Beep usually means a Loose Card, or Short. 2 short beeps is usually a memory error.

If you didn't put in the brass stand offs you probably have a short.

If you did put them stand offs in you probably have a card thats not seated properly. Try pulling them out one at a time and putting them back in. Its very easy to think you got your cards/memory seated properly and they aren't.

[Msterbeau]

Thanks for the replies guys...

HW- As I said earlier, I have the manuals and they don't address this issue. They're really kinda vague.. which is why I went to the Intel site. Some better info but still not telling me what I needed to know. I posted in a couple hardware forums. Only one reply that seems to point to a possible short, which a couple other responses here seem to think too. Judging by your description of how much paste to use.... I put too much. I'll fix that.

Mark - I did use the brass standoffs. I'm not THAT computer un-savvy. Noise is coming from the motherboard. I thought it was the PSU at first but a close listen changed my mind.

glc - I have a 480 watt Antec PSU. I don't think there's any issues there. The southbridge is passive. No way to get at the BIOS.

Dubh - I've reseated all the cards already. They're in properly. When I moved the motherboard, I didn't take the CPU or the memory out. Is that a bad idea?

So... If there's a short, how to make it go away? I've heard you can get paper washers to put between the standoffs and the board to isolate it. Good idea? Could I have damaged anything if the board IS shorting?

[glc]

Hey man, I've got a similar problem with one of my computers at the moment, it wont boot, and I just get an auditory warning from my mb. I think I may have caught something that fucks with the boot sector - did you have any issues before you upgrades said items?

[Msterbeau]

Hey man, I've got a similar problem with one of my computers at the moment, it wont boot, and I just get an auditory warning from my mb. I think I may have caught something that fucks with the boot sector - did you have any issues before you upgrades said items?

Nope. No problems.

Maybe it's the cold? :-)

[Gaf The Horse With Tears]

OK. Marc, I have seen some savy people get ahead of themselves and forget the stand offs...

You may have to yank everything out of the case and see of it boots outside of the case.... Perhaps you put one too many stand offs in and you have one where there isn't a hole on the mainboard... thus causing a short.

Before you go that far though.. I would suggest reseating your memory... Sometimes, even when you dont remove it, it can come part way out.. it will look, at a casual glance, to be fully in the slot..

Next... Your video card... I thought you said you had a higher end card... Does it require a power hookup? Some cards that require external power, will still let you boot but will operate in a "safe mode" (3D acceleration is turned way down) Others, will give an annoying ass buzz/beep noise when you power on the rig and wont let it post... ATI card, I beleive, all buzz and stop the post process.

Did you remember to plug in the 4(8)pin CPU power connector?

Is your CPU fan plugged into the proper header? Some boards will not let the post process happen if they dont detect a cpu fan.

[Msterbeau]

GPU power... Now that I think of it, I don't think I ever plugged it in. I'll check that first. Thanks Mark.

[Msterbeau]

I'm such an idiot. I hadn't plugged in the GPU. *sigh*

Thanks for all the suggestions everyone. Since the new system looks all cool and stuff... Imma start a thread to show off our computer setups. :-)

[Gaf The Horse With Tears]

No Problem.

[Shade Everdark]

Sorry to thread-jack (at least your problem is resolved), but are you using a Smart Power PSU?

[Msterbeau]

Sorry to thread-jack (at least your problem is resolved), but are you using a Smart Power PSU?

Yessir. I believe it is.

[Shade Everdark]

Any problems with it?

I've had to replace my 500W Smart Power PSU twice already....

[Msterbeau]

Any problems with it?

I've had to replace my 500W Smart Power PSU twice already....

If it's fucking up... it hasn't given me any indication that it's doing so. I haven't lost power. Or maybe I have and I don't realize it? It's set up to warn when power drops right?

[Gaf The Horse With Tears]

Shade... and Marc... get rid of them. I had 5 Smart Power 550s before I switched... that was in a two year period. I have talked with a lot of people that have reported high failure rates on them. Antec's True Power Trio is a far better line if you want to stay with Antecs. Thats what I am using right now but it is just a stop gate until I can go to a PC Power and Cooling.

[Gaf The Horse With Tears]

BTW.. the last SmartPower I had.. when it died..it took my motherboard with it.

[Msterbeau]

Hmmm... Looks like I don't have a "Smart Power". I have "Truepower". Whatever...