Right then, what's most likely to have gone *pop*

[Feek]

Here's the situation.

The CPU fan on my server box has been getting noisier for a while, it's an XP-2700 but running underspeed due to limitations on the motherboard.

Yesterday evening, I removed the side of the case and reached in to the coolermaster HSF doofer. It's a variable speed thing and can go from almost stopped to tornado. I may exagerate slightly there on it's top speed rating!

I slowed it down, keeping an eye on the mbm5 readout of CPU temp and knocked it a couple of times to try and remove a bit of dust and to perhaps persuade the bearings to behave. Speeded it back up and it was still just as loud.

Slowed it down again, grabbed the fan unit and I lifted it slightly. The PC stopped dead instantly.

Power switch did nothing, I had to remove the power from the PSU and try again to get any activity.

It now sits there when I put power on, no screen activity, I get keyboard LED activity and the drives spin. The CD drive flashes it's LED and it sounds as though it's continually resetting itself with a slight thump as it tries to bring the door back in.

I've had the system out of here, cleaned it all up, removed the HSF, cleaned the CPU core, fitted a different HSF (stock manufacturers), reseated everything but it's still doing the same. I've used the BIOS reset jumpers.

What have I knackered?

CPU, memory, PSU, Mobo? What's most likely?

The mobo is an old one of the kind that was used in the later versions of the OcUK stomp-monster which would take either of the two types of RAM that were kicking around at the time.

I can take the drive out and put it into another system to get stuff off but the point is that it's my server and I don't want to start installing stuff apart from my email on other systems, I really need to get this back up and running.

[Dymetrie]

I'd say the CPU or Mobo as that's what you were faffing with when it died...

I know you don't have spares but are any of your other systems compatible with the chip and board? If so then the best idea is to just switch parts between them with working parts to see if they work...

[Mark]

I've still got one of those boards here - still crunching away and in use as a server box. :eek:

Given how quickly Athlons cook themselves if without proper heatsink contact, my first guess would be the CPU.

Second guess would be to scour the board for any bulging or leaky capacitors. I'm not sure whether those boards date far enough back to be prone to that problem (due to an incorrect chemical mix in certain cheap non-Japanese capacitors). I have had a rather expensive motherboard die for this very reason, so this is something I fear may happen to my server (which is why I'm in the process of making it possible to transplant the whole lot to a new motherboard).

[Daz]

Motherboard I would suggest, specifically something to do with the CPU socket.

If there are no bent pins on the chip anyway, but I assume you checked that when you took it to bits.

[Feek]

No obvious burning on the cpu, no popped caps on the mobo and no bent pins (that was my first thought).

[Mark]

Simple stuff, but how long did you leave the CMOS jumper in the 'clear' position for? Did you pull the power connector from the motherboard before doing this?

[Feek]

Couple of minutes, and yes it was unplugged.

[Mark]

Should be good enough then. I'm left with the original suggestion - the CPU, and possibly the PSU if something shorted (I'm pretty sure you'd have noticed if that happened though).

[Dr. Z]

Recreate the situation but see if its possible that when you moved the fan, you shorted something soldered on the motherboard with the motherboard tray - killing god knows what.

My money is on death by motherboard (with or without a side helping of short-circuiting)

[Feek]

No, motherboard tray is well clear of everything.