Not having a good day. Cursing.

[babybunny]

Bear with me. There is a question at the end of this post.

1. Went to go get my new, highly anticipated, eBay-bought 6800GT from the university post office.
2. Was handed a box the size of a computer case for a "MSI Hera Barebones System."
3. Sh!t my pants and thought that my sh!t was ruined.
4. Ripped open box. Found video card inside. Yummy again.
5. Went home, started building watercooling system.

Problem 1:
Took off 6800GT HSF and tried attaching RAMsinks with thermal tape. They SLID off. Felt tape with my knuckle. Very sticky. Looked at RAM. Very clean. Tried again. SLID OFF again. Tried different thermal tape. Didn't slide off this time, but was still very fragile, but good enough to counteract gravity.

Problem 2:
Went to install Swifty MCW50 on GPU. Realized that I couldn't mount retention frame because barb adapters were in the way.
a. Went to go pull off adapters.
b. Nope.
c. WTF?
d. Drove to hardware store for allen wrench to open up MCW50. Opened up. Nope.
e. Drove back, hopped on procooling and asked question about getting barb adapters off, hoping to attract Bill (Unregistered).
f. Got promptly pwned by Bill.

6. Mounted all waterblocks.
7. Connected tubing until I got to pump.
8. Couldn't find T adapter for T line. I had bought it a week ago.
9. Realized hardware store was closed.
10. Looked for T adapter for two hours. Cried because I was so close to completion but foiled by a fvcking $0.50 plastic piece.
11. Finally found it in my bookbag.

12. Connected all the tubing.
13. Filled the system with water.
14. Turned on computer, hoping for some 6800 GT goodness.

Problem 3:
a. No display.
b. Motherboard starts beeping in an annoying continual loop of 1 sec beeps. Read online that my beeps (Award BIOS) mean either memory is dead or CPU is overheating.
c. Tried my two sticks of memory in all combinations. Beeps keep coming. Unwilling to believe BOTH of my memory sticks have managed to kill themselves in less than a day of being turned off.
d. Forced to admit that A64 may be screwed. The CPU fan is working because a 120mm is attached to the CPU fan power on mobo, so beeps are not because of absence of CPU fan.
e. When I take out the CPU the beeps stop. Should BIOS beeps continue even without a CPU?

[jaydee]

Originally Posted by babybunny

e. When I take out the CPU the beeps stop. Should BIOS beeps continue even without a CPU?

Probably not. I think the CPU has to work in order for everything to work.

Anyway, if you havn't already, try clearing the CMOS.

[babybunny]

Originally Posted by jaydee116

Probably not. I think the CPU has to work in order for everything to work.

Anyway, if you havn't already, try clearing the CMOS.

CMOS clear doesn't work. So basically at this point I can't know whether it's my motherboard or CPU that's messed up?

[jaydee]

Originally Posted by babybunny

CMOS clear doesn't work. So basically at this point I can't know whether it's my motherboard or CPU that's messed up?

At this point I would start removing parts.... Tear it down to bear minumun to work. Power Supply, CPU/FAN, Memory, and vid card. If possible try removing the vid card and swapping it with an old one. Maybe the cards bad.

[SysCrusher]

How many watts and amps is that 120 rated for? Make sure you got a good mount on the cpu.

[babybunny]

The bad thing is that it was already running on bare minimum. I just tried plugging in the retail HSF to the CPU power plug and it still doesn't work. I swapped out with my old and working video card but still no go.

How long can a CPU last when it has an empty waterblock on it?

[satanicoo]

Like jaydee said, i would add:
-Try to mount your system on a table, not on the case;
-Remove the water-cooling and put a normal air cooler.

[jaydee]

Originally Posted by babybunny

The bad thing is that it was already running on bare minimum. I just tried plugging in the retail HSF to the CPU power plug and it still doesn't work. I swapped out with my old and working video card but still no go.

How long can a CPU last when it has an empty waterblock on it?

If installed correctly it should run for a long time with no water. Certainly will not cause it to burn up on start up unless it wasn't on correctly. Take it off and see if it has a solid imprint of thermal compound.

[babybunny]

I have something to admit. I turned on the computer when the waterblock was still empty because my whole circuit had yet to be filled and the pump only turns on when the system is on. I gradually filled it with some moments of off time every now and then. I remember feeling the waterblock at one point and it was warm.

I don't think the mounting was bad. The swiftech is pretty foolproof and the thermal compound imprint was very consistent and spread out when I took off the waterblock.

[satanicoo]

How warm?
If you could keep your hand on it, it should'nt have been because of that.

Hey, try replacing the CPU with one from a friend, if it works ok, it gets ugly...

[babybunny]

Yeah. Basically it's definitely narrowed down to either the mobo or the CPU. The problem is that no one else has an A64 system in my dorm.

On a side note, if there were more than one problem, would the system give two different types of beeps? When I took off the HSF on the 6800GT the core looked awfully crackable, like what the naked cores for the old Athlons used to look like, only about 4 times as big.

pictures of 6800GT core

[babybunny]

Right now the question that is absolutely essential is:
Will the BIOS error beeps still beep without a CPU in the mobo? The beeps stop when I take out the CPU, and start again when it goes back in. Soooo... if system will still beep without CPU, that means CPU is dead.

I've been getting mixed reponses on this one.

[babybunny]

Ok, I just got the definitive CPU Failure error beeps, AFTER I shut down the system. Weird.

[DrMemory]

Originally Posted by babybunny

Ok, I just got the definitive CPU Failure error beeps, AFTER I shut down the system. Weird.

There will be no BIOS beeps without the CPU running PERIOD. I am 100% sure of this. It is the CPU running code from the BIOS ROM that sets up the hardware required to generate the beeps. It is the CPU running code from the BIOS ROM that determines during POST (Power Up Self Test) when there is a hardware problem and which "beeps" to output.

[babybunny]

Thank You. QED.

[MadHacker]

you should get ram error beeps when you have no ram...
try that... do you theappropriate beeps?
also you should get beeps when no video card is present ... does those beeps match to what yopu should be getting?
my 2¢

[Ozymand]

I'm gonna ask a really silly question.. did you plug in your molex connectors from your power supply into your video card? See, I did the same thing when I first built this computer and Abit mobo liked to beep repeatedly... then I realized the error in my ways, plugged it in, and all was good.

[babybunny]

I get the same beeps whether I have RAM in no not, when I have video in or not. I guess the CPU overheating/failure beeps get precedence over RAM and video beeps.

Haha, being unused to these newfangled "NeVideo GEfORce 6800 Jee-Tees" with them required molex plug-er-in thingies I at first didn't plug in the molex. But yeah, I caught that problem, plugged in the molex, but still got that error beep

Sending back the CPU for replacement. It is out of newegg's refund period, so I can't do a cross-ship

[DrMemory]

Originally Posted by babybunny

I get the same beeps whether I have RAM in no not, when I have video in or not. I guess the CPU overheating/failure beeps get precedence over RAM and video beeps.

Haha, being unused to these newfangled "NeVideo GEfORce 6800 Jee-Tees" with them required molex plug-er-in thingies I at first didn't plug in the molex. But yeah, I caught that problem, plugged in the molex, but still got that error beep

Sending back the CPU for replacement. It is out of newegg's refund period, so I can't do a cross-ship

It depends on which test runs (and fails) first. Most (all ?) tests run during the POST are considered critical so after any test fails, the testing stops and the beeping begins. The CPU test is the most critical, so it runs (and in your case, fails) first.

[babybunny]

Originally Posted by DrMemory

It depends on which test runs (and fails) first. Most (all ?) tests run during the POST are considered critical so after any test fails, the testing stops and the beeping begins. The CPU test is the most critical, so it runs (and in your case, fails) first.

So basically when I get a working CPU I have some possible video, memory, and/or mobo failures to look forward to?

[msv]

http://www.amptron.com/html/bios.beepcodes.html

Had to do some googling. Wasn´t sure of the beep codes. Hope the link can help You track down the problem.
regards
Mikael S.