Mach 1 Help

[cavemanep]

Hi!

Help!

Just installed my first Mach 1 and everything went swimmingly! I've got dielectric and beading in all the right places and even got the head on the right way round. Powered up - the compressor did it's bit, reduced to -33, fireed the mobo - then nothing

The mobo is fully lit - CPU fan (just in case it was a mobo thing) is plugged in and cooling the carpet - GFX card is spinning - but no signal to the monitor!

I'm running:

XP-M 2600+ (IQYHA - can't wait to see what it can do!)

256Mb of 2700 ram

Old Nvidia AGP

NF7-s ver 2

I've tried different ram in all the slots

I've tried an old PCI GFX in all the slots

Is there anything else I can do before I unmount the head and mess about with the chip?

(I did notice that the Mobo is a bit bowed as the backplate is a bit higher than the spacers but only by a little bit!)

 

[fatty]

try the system on air again you may have damaged someat

 

[cavemanep]

I'm just in the middle of doing that - noticed a bit of condensation pooling on the back

- if it works on air I'll try mounting again with less grease - was stopping the seal string from sealing properly!

 

[fatty]

mate clean your mobo off as if its got nay grease the seal string will not seal at all

 

[HARRY]

yea dielectric greae can be a real pain in the **** if i were u ide test the system on air and if it dont work clean it up with alchohol and stick it in the airing cupboard for a couple of days to dry the condensation ,if it then works just apply the dielectric grease to the insoide of the cpu socket .just push the grease in the pinslots and fill the center up ,thats what worked for me

 

[cavemanep]

Yeah - think I went a bit overboard - filled the hole - filled the sides - filled around the socket, onto the Mobo around the socket - in every little airgap... it was fun - but I think it rendered the seal string almost useless - I was hoping the back would be immune though as I gave it a thick coating of that plastic seal 60 - so the condensation shouldn't affect it - oh well - More worried about the bow in the mobo where the backplate has lifted it - may have to get a couple of washers on top of the spacers to level it out...

 

[hardw1re]

where have i seen this before guyz? last time that happemed i tried to clean it up... what did i get a dead cpu. so now im just waiting to order a new one.

 

[cavemanep]

Well - not as dire as yours Hardw1re - My shiny IQY is fine (tested it in my main rig) - and the mem is fine too. So - have I killed yet another mobo?

I've cleared the bios - cleaned the board - put all working parts on and it still just sits there with all the lights on but nobody home - anyone got any good troubleshooting tips?

 

[HARRY]

have u tried hot flashing the bios mate they can die quite easily

 

[cavemanep]

I might give that a go - did it with my old Asus and it worked a treat (board was still dead, but at least it was wearing a fresh bios!) - at this point I'll try anything! - I'd be surprised though - it has not booted since the mach 1 install and was running stock before - but hey - worth a go!

 

[grungeisdead]

argh always the way, after unhooking my pc from the prommy and just trying to test a few cpus with my dfi board and air cooling the dfi bios got corrupted somehow...

and as for the installation i just followed everything in the manual didnt use any grease tho just seal string and as5... booted up first time which was nice.

my mobo was also bowing but its just due to the size of the back foam padding stuff backplate

 

[cavemanep]

my mobo was also bowing but its just due to the size of the back foam padding stuff backplate

That's exactly what's happening with mine - v. nervous about it - might try to progressively lift the spacers from bottom to top with washers to reduce the problem - if not... It's powertool time

The mobo tray won't know what hit it!

The mobo is in the cupboard - been bantered into leaving it there for a full 48hrs to make sure it's dry all the way through - then it's retest-hot flash- retest - cry - skip...

(not that I don't think there's a tiny chance it'll resurrect - let's just say I've already bought the replacement!)

 

[cavemanep]

Well, that's it - I tried the hot flash - forced it but it wouldn't go - got to the writing screen and just stalled! Send in the priests - the mobo is hereby pronounced dead! I may consider getting a new bios chip and trying that - but being that the back is covered in servisol, and this is the mast likely cause of the problem - I'm calling the time of death at Saturday, due to hypothermia and overheating

!

 

[grungeisdead]

rip

 

[cavemanep]

Yep - had one last play last night - on closer inspection the socket for the bios was broken - plastic snapped at 2 corners! - glued it up and clamped it with some pliers - the sticker off the back of the bios actaully started to smoke

- I have now backed away slowly and promise never to speak of this motherboard ever again!