Can a dodgy processor cause a computer to reboot...

[_Bat_]

A few weeks back, I tried to clean the heatsink/fan on a computer i'm fixing up to give to someone, as I pulled the heatsink off, the processor was stuck to the bottom and decided to come out with it (before I had pulled the lil lever up). This of course bent the pins... because they are made of gold, I was able to bend them back with some ease. I shoved it back in the socket, put some thermal paste on and put the heatsink/fan back on top of it.

I turned the computer on and after 10 mins it spontaneously rebooted. Hoping it was an operating system error as opposed to the hardware, I reinstalled winXP. That went fine and I was just starting to relax and update it, when during the update process the computer cuts off and reboots again.

I assumed I had killed the processor but mentioned it in passing to my network manager today and he believes that it is a heat issue as opposed to a processor problem because if one of the pins was dodgy, the computer wouldn't even boot.

Does anyone have ideas? I can't see how it can be anything but the processor as the fan works fine and I put thermal paste on. What my NM says does make sense though.

Thanks

James

[webman]

Can you monitor the CPU temperature at all? Does it reboot even if you leave it in the BIOS setup screen for a while without doing anything taxing on the CPU?

[crc-ict]

Hi James,

I would be inclined to agree with your NM - definately sounds heat-related. Very similar symptoms to those I had with a laptop where the fan had died. Definately try Craig's suggestion.

How much thermal paste did you use? Too much can be as bad as too little. Did you notice any damage to the bottom surface of the heatsink?

Might also be worth doing a memory test - google Memtest86 - memory which is on the way out can also exhibit similar signs.

[_Bat_]

Can you monitor the CPU temperature at all? Does it reboot even if you leave it in the BIOS setup screen for a while without doing anything taxing on the CPU?

Can't monitor the CPU temp on this particular computer... it came from pcworld, what more can I say

I just tried turning it on again and this time I actually got a BSOD about two mins in that said "page fault in non paged area". Unfortunately I failed to get any more details, but will write them down if there is a next time.

It is currently in the BIOS now, i'll leave it in there a while and see what happens.

[nathan]

I'd do what was said in the above post, do a quick mem test. Also to keep an eye on the temps you could use a program called, speedfan. it will monitor your cpu etc. also if you have SMART enabled on your hard drives, it will monitor your hard drive temps.

[_Bat_]

Hi James,

I would be inclined to agree with your NM - definately sounds heat-related. Very similar symptoms to those I had with a laptop where the fan had died. Definately try Craig's suggestion.

How much thermal paste did you use? Too much can be as bad as too little. Did you notice any damage to the bottom surface of the heatsink?

Might also be worth doing a memory test - google Memtest86 - memory which is on the way out can also exhibit similar signs.

I didn't realise too much could be that much of a bad thing to be honest, I probably did put too much on in that case. There was a lot of the old thermal paste still stuck there as well which I didn't remove. I should try clearing it off I guess?

It could be the memory, but i'm more inclined to think its nearer the processor as this point because the computer hasn't shown any similar symptoms until I started fiddling with its intestines.

[nathan]

Having the old paste no is a very bad thing. It will ruin the contact between the heat sink and cpu.

[_Bat_]

Having the old paste no is a very bad thing. It will ruin the contact between the heat sink and cpu.

K, I think this thread might be leading somewhere.

Leaving it in the BIOS didn't do anything noticably weird, so i've turned it off. I'll wait for it to cool down and clear some of the paste off the bottom of heat sink and let you all know how it goes.

Thanks for your help

PS:

Nathan Thirlby
ICT Technician
34 Primary Schools

Thats taking the micky

[nathan]

yeah i work for a company in the leicester area. I changed my sig as i feared people would think im touting for business which im not. Nobody even said hello to me in the welcome thread

[_Bat_]

yeah i work for a company in the leicester area. I changed my sig as i feared people would think im touting for business which im not. Nobody even said hello to me in the welcome thread

I don't know why no-one said hello to you, but count this as the first

As for touting for business, I don't think anyone will assume that of you... since I joined this forum myself i've got the impression that while it is made for educational technicians etc. everyone is welcome (with the possible exception of the odd student who comes here to blag about how their knowledge of proxies is so great that we are all doomed).

[nathan]

why thanks Hope to learn a fair bit from you guys.

think im going to be sick, dont put sky 3 on :S

[_Bat_]

why thanks Hope to learn a fair bit from you guys.

think im going to be sick, dont put sky 3 on :S

Unfortunately I don't have sky

What was it?

[webman]

You can get Sky Three on Freeview btw...

It was '101 More Things Removed from the Human Body'... "An insight into the strange and often horrifying selection of objects that have been found inside and removed from the bodies of human beings - including a maggot, a tree branch and a drill bit. Doctors discuss the sometimes life-saving operations behind these stories and explain how these objects found their way into obscure locations". Lovely

[_Bat_]

...including a maggot, a tree branch and a drill bit...

A maggot isn't too surprising (the average human is supposed to swallow eight spiders during their life time), a drill bit... well lets not go there, but a tree branch 8O. Did anyone happen to see the explanation?

[monkey_boy]

Try and identify whether it is time based or action based. This would give you a better indication towards either bad hardware or a heat issue. If its a heat problem then in theory the time between reboots should get shorter each time, because the processor won't cool down enough. If it's action based look for what causes it to reboot. If it's a RAM problem, you might get a blue screen flash up that says memory dump for instance. If it's graphics RAM, the screen might not redraw correctly just before it dies, or it could be none of the above and we'll have to keep guessing! But look out for the smaller details is what i'm saying I guess.