Workinprogress Posted December 3, 2005 Share Posted December 3, 2005 My cpu on my desktop overheated (dead fan). Now it wont boot up at all, its a 1.1 ghz athalon cpu. I've replaced mobo's before, but had a problem with the hard drives needing formatted with the new cpu/motherboard combo. I dont want to lose the info (family pics and videos) on the hard drives. Any advice? Also, any advice on a decent but inexpensive combo? I surf the internet every day and game now and then, so I dont need top of the line stuff. Help??? Thanks, Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
mario_82_ZXT Posted December 3, 2005 Share Posted December 3, 2005 What operating system? Most WinXP will require a format or clean install to work, unless you have a no-activitation-required copy. If that is required, why not upgrade the hard drive? install windows on that, and use the other's as storage. As far as combo's go, check out Tigerdirect and New Egg. Anything over 2.5 ghz is more then enough for a casual gamer, it won't run a lot of the newer games, but its twice as fast as your current setup. Good luck! Mario Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
kcelectronics Posted December 3, 2005 Share Posted December 3, 2005 Hi if it was the CPU fan then it is most likely the CPU has died! They don’t like zero airflow. I was cleaning my M/B and removed the fan to clean it and didn’t refit it properly, I hit the on button, the fan fell off when it fired up, and before I could power it down the CPU was fried!!!!! (all within about 10 sec) so your M/B and H/Drive are probably Ok You could find a replacement CPU on Ebay for a few $$ (maybe a faster one! This is what I did so it wasn’t a complete disaster (fried the 850mhz and installed a 1.5mhz) so check your M/Board manual to find a compatible speed) And don’t forget to make good contact between the fan and CPU! but if you buy a new fan it should have a heat transfer pad, but I also added heat transfer compound to the huge new fan i fitted as I also "Over Clocked" the CPU! Colin:twisted: Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
mario_82_ZXT Posted December 3, 2005 Share Posted December 3, 2005 Weird thing is, lots of motherboards are supposed to shut off before the CPU overheats, at least that has been my experience.... Mario Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Workinprogress Posted December 3, 2005 Author Share Posted December 3, 2005 I dont want to lose the data. Other than that the hard drives dont mean anything to me. The important data is on a secondary drive, not the bootable drive (other than desktop items and email crap) I did replace the cpu fan last night, no new news. The cpu was HOT to the touch, coudnt touch the heat sink hot. Wife heard it, but didnt think a computer making horrible sounds was a bad thing. I think the cpu died, since there are no startup beep signals that normally happen, it doesnt even trigger the monitor to come out of sleep mode. No hard drive access, no cd spool up, nothing... Crap..................... Off to Fry's Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
kcelectronics Posted December 3, 2005 Share Posted December 3, 2005 I would go for the New CPU/Fan approch. Colin:twisted: Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
onephatz Posted December 3, 2005 Share Posted December 3, 2005 another option that you could do is buy and external hard drive enclosure. when my old computer went south I bought a $50 enclosure at circuit city and put my 30 gig hd in there. it plugs in with usb and works great. if all you want is the files on the drive this may be the cheapest and most convient solution. jesse Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
kcelectronics Posted December 3, 2005 Share Posted December 3, 2005 Read the post his PC IS DEAD an external HD wont fix it!!! Colin:twisted: Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
(goldfish) Posted December 3, 2005 Share Posted December 3, 2005 early athlons did not have good enough thermal controls to prevent this type of overheating. Modern stuff does. If you upgrade cpu you prob'ly want new mb and ram. After that because you game, it would be silly to limit your video cards to a dead AGP standard. You want PCI-express for fast cheap VC,s. I'd look for a replacment cpu, most likley the MB is good, but I have seen them die in this situation as well. New MB/Ram/CPU/VC is spendy, luckly you have two HDs. that makes saving data easy. When you get the parts sorted out, try running it and see if windows will find the new hardware and run. It's worth a shot. If not, boot to the cd, enter the recovery console (2k,XP) and copy the wanted data to the second hd. You can try a recovery install ( installing on top of, w/o erasing) of windows also. Good luck Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Cruez Posted December 3, 2005 Share Posted December 3, 2005 Sounds like the CPU is dead... Another option of retaining your information is getting another CPU and hard drive. Install your operating system to that new drive, then connect your old drive to the computer and you'll still have everything that you had intact. There are other options also.... Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guest tony78_280z Posted December 3, 2005 Share Posted December 3, 2005 Buy a new CPU, Main board, and Hard Drive. Save the reciept. Install the new one as master and your old hard drive as a slave and fire it up. You'll be able to access your old hard drive's data, just not boot off of it. Copy your data to the new drive, And back it up this time you dope. Then you can reformat your old drive, reinstall it as master, copy the info back onto it, and return the new hard drive to the store. Or keep the hard drives in Master Slave configuration and have a second hard drive for backing up data onto. I've done this many times. Before I had a CD burner I'd take out my hard drive and install it in my friends machine who had a CD burner then transfer my Data to his hard drive and back it all up. Then put my hard drive back in my computer. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Ruben Posted December 4, 2005 Share Posted December 4, 2005 Here is a link to how you can replace a motherboard without losing anything. http://support.microsoft.com/default.aspx?scid=kb;en-us;824125 This Microsoft article only covers Windows Server 2003, XP or 2000. But you could probably find a solution for other versions of Windows. I have successfully used this method. However, it is not for the faint of heart. One more thing, you will have to have the Windows installation CDs or disk on hand. Good luck. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Gollum Posted December 4, 2005 Share Posted December 4, 2005 Even if you change your hardware config windows should be fine. It's when you try to reinstall XP on the same key that you'll have an issue. Mobo/cpu combo nowdays for budget systems can be well under the $100 mark. A new socket A AMD cpu is CHEEP. I'd go that route, it's rare that overheating will fry a mobo. If push comes to shove for the harddrive just format the primary one (that you said didn't have any important data) then reinstall windows on that one. You're secondary HardD should be fine. No worries about data loss there. Shope NEWEGG.COM ! I can't stress that fact enough. They're cheeper than any retail store (fry's included) and they're the most reliable online store for PC componets. Even if you're into gaming you DON'T "NEED" PCI express. It's been proven in benckmarks this technology is ahead of it's time for budget and midrange graphics cars. It's better to stick to AGP unless you're going with a top of the line core (radeon X850 or X1800 would be a good example). I play lots of new games on my radeon 9700 that i've had for a long time. This is a true testament to how backwards compatable games are nowdays. They can bog even the best cards down, but they can also disable much of the effects that make games so pretty. Most graphical power nowdays is used for filtering, wich is barely noticable to the average gamer (and maybe even self-proclaimed "hard-core gamers"). I'd suggest just get a new CPU, and if it doesn't work spring for a new mobo/cpu. You don't need ram right away if your ram you have is DDR. There's no point to go spending 500 bucks on a new mobo/cpu/ram/graphics card. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
VRJoe Posted December 4, 2005 Share Posted December 4, 2005 Take a look at the capacitors on the MB. There's been a run of bad capacitors over the years (made in China). Look a the top of the capacitors, if the top is bulged in any way the capacitor is shot. The top should be flat. When these capacitors fail they can take out the MB, damage the processor and even cook the power supply. You should be able to just swap in a new MB with a processor with no trouble. I'd replace the power supply at the same time, get a 400W or better, the bigger the better (kinda like horsepower or boost). - Joe Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
rudypoochris Posted December 4, 2005 Share Posted December 4, 2005 400w sounds overkill to me on a 1 and some ghz system. IMHO you should just buy the cheapest computer you can find, because it will still have more mhz then what you had. So for $300-$400 get the computer, put in your old video card b/c intel integrated grphics suck, and then hook the old HD up as the secondary drive. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
BrandonsZ Posted December 5, 2005 Share Posted December 5, 2005 Read the post his PC IS DEAD an external HD wont fix it!!! Colin:twisted: Yes, you cannot use that harddrive as the primary drive again in the new config, to fix this (the cheapest route) would be to get a cheap new comp (as low as $300 from DELL.com) and install this drive as the secondary slave, I can walk you through if you don't know how. It involved moving a jumper on the hard drive, and installing it with a two drive cable (IDE right?)in the new comp. I wouldn't bother replacing the motherboard or processor in 1.1G. If you love the case and can't live without it, get over it, it'll cost more than a new comp most likely to salvage. It's different today new comps are so cheap and the lowest rung would be better than what you got (1.1). Merry Christmas! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
zack_280 Posted December 6, 2005 Share Posted December 6, 2005 I had the exact same thing happen to my computer recently. I ended up getting a new CPU/Fan and it fixed the problem. Just make sure that the CPU you are getting will work with your mobo. I believe the Sempron processors are a little touchy about which mobos they like to work with, so you'd probably be better off with another Athlon. Just install the new hardware and boot it up and see what happens. Since the important info is on the secondary drive, it shouldn't matter if you have any trouble and have to reformat your primary. Try that first, if it doesn't work then you can worry about the new computer. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
rudypoochris Posted December 6, 2005 Share Posted December 6, 2005 What I do, for anyone who cares, Is i keep windows on its own partition with the program files. Then on a secondary partition I put all the documents, you can even hook the "My Documents" button up to the secondary drive directly. You don't know the difference until your computer crashes and you need to format, then you are happy. And, get partition magic Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Cruez Posted December 6, 2005 Share Posted December 6, 2005 What I do, for anyone who cares, Is i keep windows on its own partition with the program files. Then on a secondary partition I put all the documents, you can even hook the "My Documents" button up to the secondary drive directly. You don't know the difference until your computer crashes and you need to format, then you are happy. And, get partition magic Amen to that... I've got a few partitions on a few drives Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
BrandonsZ Posted December 6, 2005 Share Posted December 6, 2005 What I do, for anyone who cares, Is i keep windows on its own partition with the program files. Then on a secondary partition I put all the documents, you can even hook the "My Documents" button up to the secondary drive directly. You don't know the difference until your computer crashes and you need to format, then you are happy. And, get partition magic I have two drives and partition the first drive in 2 for the OS and then use the other part for backup of files that I store on the second drive. So it looks like I have three drives but I only have a master with two partitions and a slave. That way either drive can fail and I'll still have the data, I also periodically backup everything on CD and that way catastrophic failure can occur that wipes out both drives and I still have the data albeit possibly out of date but better then nothing. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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