Computer will not boot

[Geoffrey]

I've just started building my own computer using a little money on the side. While installing win 98 at 59 % of the way through the computer just stopped with the screen still stuck on the same image.

I tried rebooting and it would not start. Everything will start running but the screen is blank and I recieve no sounds.

I reset the cmos and took out the battery, disconnected everything one by one to no avail.

I think I either fried my cpu or my cmos battery could be dead as it was saying the battery was low when I first booted the computer into the bios the first few times. It did stop later so I thought it might have been a glitch.

[merlin_2]

more info .......on hard drive........is it an old one?? what does the bios screen say??.......time..is it set?.....boot it up and hold down the del key......when you mean building this pc ......what specs.....and components used.....ram etc....

[Raptor]

Firmly reseat the videocard and VGA connector.

[Geoffrey]

Oops should have listed
Pcchips M830 Revision 1.1A
Athlon XP 2400+ with heatsink and fan<---Starting to think I fried through bad application of thermal grease and only 2 fans in the case besides its own
Ati Radeon 9600XT
512 MB stick of Elixir 2100 ddr ram

Scanvanged to get the system running
1 GB WD Caviar AC21000
7 GB DiamondMax 1750 Ultra ATA 33
Cdrom
floppy

Bios will not show up
reseating the videocard does not work
I wiped both harddrives

[Raptor]

Apart from the Hard Disk Drives, it seems more than capable of running Windows XP. Using Windows 98 would be a waste of resources.

Athlon XP 2400+ with heatsink and fan<---Starting to think I fried through bad application of thermal grease

1. What type of thermal grease have you used?
2. How have you applied the substance?

my cmos battery could be dead as it was saying the battery was low when I first booted the computer into the bios the first few times. It did stop later so I thought it might have been a glitch.

1. Obtain a new CMOS battery to eliminate doubt in that department.

[merlin_2]

boot with one hard drive  as master......use the wd one.....now what happens.leave the max till later...

[Geoffrey]

Ya nevermind I just noticed some black burn marks around the die. I was using the antec forumula 5 silver thermal compound. I put to much on and it oozed around , I also believe I needed some more fans in the case. Ah well it was a good first try for me. Thank you for trying to help.

[merlin_2]

Link:>http://www.buildyourowncomputer.net/learntobuild.html

[Raptor]

Ya nevermind I just noticed some black burn marks around the die. I was using the antec forumula 5 silver thermal compound. I put to much on and it oozed around , I also believe I needed some more fans in the case. Ah well it was a good first try for me. Thank you for trying to help.

You should be very careful when applying thermal paste. I suggest you gently spread the thermal paste with a razor blade should you attempt to do so again.
Be mindful not to scratch the processor.

[uisquebeathus]

how did you get an AMD 2400 into this motherboard re following excerp from specification:-
Install A CPU
This mainboard has a Socket-A which supports AMD K7 processors.To ensure reliability, ensure that your processor has a heatsink/cooling fan assembly.
Do not try to install a Socket-370/Socket-7 processor in the Socket-462. A Socket-370/Socket-7 processor such as the PPGA Celeron, FCPGA Pentium-III, Pentium-MMX, or the AMD K5/K6 does not fit in the Socket-462.

The following list notes the processors that are currently supported by this mainboard.
Athlon: 650 MHz~1.4 GHz, FSB: 200 MHz, 266 MHz
Duron: 550~950 MHz, FSB: 200 MHz
the max is a 950 duron