What Is Wrong?

[GunnerMan]

Well I built this comp for this kid but we have one large problem, well the mobo came with these little metal dohickies < :::]]]]== look like that the arrow being the point were the motherboard snapped into place on, and the eguals the screews for them into the chassis, the symbols inbetween the metal space. Now the mobo did not include any plastic or nylon spacers and these were alredy on it and they seemed to smap on the motherboard fairly easy and hold it, now I was skeptical about cnnection a mobo to a metal surface that was spreadthing thrughout the case, because if he gets some ESD or the mobo shorts out hese screewed, so should I try and fid some plastc spacers to replace the metal hings wth if you dont already think its fried? Now here is my dilemea...

We have an AMD64 3500+ on an ASUS A8V mobo with a Zalamn all copper heatsink hooked snuggley on it, there is no play in it and it seems as far as I knw making great contact with the CPU because when I took the heatsink off it took a bit of lossenig to get it unstuck from the thermal grease. Now here is the bad part, when I turn on the computer the CPU goes up to 100C in about 15-30 seconds, I am going to take out the obo again todayand try the stock heatsink to make shure thats working and making good contact and f that dosent work what do you think is wrong, is the CPU not working properley or did the mobo get broken/fried or both!  

Thanks for all your help

[Gixer]

Well first off I bolted my mobo directly to my metal case with no washers between it or the metal mounting points.

I did put fibre washers between the bolt head and mobo though, but my mobo is in direct contact with my PC's case.

As for the heat issue.  Is there a fan on that heatsink or is it one of the silent ones?  If there is a fan have you checked that it is turning on when you power up?  If it doesn't have you got the fan plugged in correctly?

Double check the BIOS is at default settings too and that no voltages have been altered etc.  

I dont think you have fried the mobo, just dont let the cpu temps get quite so high, turn off at 80c I would.

[JRoc]

The metal clip fasteners should be fine.

As for the heat, you should definitely get a large heatsink/fan combo, rated for that processor, but a good practice is to get a larger/more powerful fan that recommended - but of course making sure it'll fit snug & proper.  A heat sink alone is not the way to go with an AMD cpu.

Also: I've read that sometimes when you remove the heatsink from the CPU after it has already been attached, you run the possible risk of losing a proper seal, thus raising the risk of overheating.

[Dan]

Better heatsink / fan needed...

[Gixer]

If the one being fitted is the one I think it is the heatsink is a very good one.  Zalamn do good stuff and being copper it should be great.  Not sure that they all come with fans though, they do a lot of silent non fan type ones which I would be too scared to use!

[Delta_]

If you have removed the heatsink after it has been attached long enough for the grease to dry then when you reattach it, it won't have a proper contact between the CPU and heatsink.  All you need to do is get some thermal grease, then put this on the heatsink.  Make sure you use a very thin layer.  Also pull excess dried grease off the CPU and heatsink, careful not to damage the CPU with static.  Then re-attach the heatsink with the new thermal grease.  

Thermal grease is an insulator so use small amounts, a thin layer is adequate enough.

[GunnerMan]

Thanks for all the help, I will; get some new thermal grease today because I did break the seal once as I forgot the temp sencor, so it was kid of dry, the HS has a big fan running at 3000 RPMs and I have a simalar HS wich is aluminum and copper keeping my temps at 30C idle so it is a good quiet HS so that it not the problem and I am very please to know I did not screew a mobo because of metal fasteners. I will try new grease and check BIOS and trouble shoot some more, thanks alot

[GunnerMan]

Well god news Wen to the comp took out mobo and got upclose and personal with the CPU and heatsink, I see a small gap 1/2mm on 1/2 side of the CPU areah between the CPU and heatsink, at first im sitting here like dont tell m Zalamn didnt cut this thing level then I took it off and saw that little fan controller temp scensor.... took it out and HS screewed on flush, bboot up and we get 27C!! Now to figure out this SATA Hard drive :/

[Delta_]

Glad to hear you got the problem sorted!  :)