Help with building a computer

[Lithium]

I'm kind of new to building computers, but I thought I had it down. I ordered a new motherboard that came with a graphics card and a windows XP install disc. The motherboard is an ATX form factor with a LGA 775 processor socket 4 DDR2 slots, 4 PCI slots, and 3 PCI-Express Slots. Unfortunately, the only other fan I have for a 775 Socket, fits Micro-ATX. I knew I couldn't do anything without a fan, but I figured that I could at least see if it would turn on. It did and after the first four seconds I reached in to turn it off, but then it shut itself off. I tried to turn it on again, but it gave off a series of loud beeps alternating between a high pitch and a slightly lower pitch and shut off again. After I unplug it for about a minute it will run and show the start up screen again but then it just starts over. The processor is a Pentium 4 running at 3.40 GHz, and when I touched the housing it almost blistered my finger. What I wanted to know before I invest in a fan is if it is the cooling that's causing this problem. Like I said I'm relatively new to this. Help please?

 

[Wings]

The reason why your computer shutdown so suddenly like that is because your processor was overheating. There is a feature in the BIOS where the computer will physically pull a kill switch on itself if your processor reaches a certain temperature. You need to be careful in turning on your computer if it shut itself down on the first boot. You could of possibly fried your CPU along with the rest of the components (very expensive fix).

If it is a problem with the CMOS (auto restart after the system loads), you might want to clear your CMOS through temporarily resetting the jumper placement on your motherboard. The placement for the CMOS jumpers are different on every motherboard, so if yours came with a manual, it would be best to look in there how to do it.

As far as fans go, I'm not sure whether or not you just plan to leave the CPU at default speed (3.4Ghz), or if you plan to overclock it. If you don't plan to overclock your CPU, you may want to try installing a ARCTIC COOLING Freezer 7 Pro CPU fan. The fan system is relatively cheap on newegg.com, $29.99.

If you plan on overclocking your CPU, you are going to need to buy a water cooling system for your computer...which can get pretty expensive.

 

[Dirtie]

Don't even think about trying to run it before first installing a heat sink and fan.

And no, overclocking does not require water cooling, however 99% of the time it requires something better than the standard heatsink/fan (unless you've got a Core 2 :P)

 

[Lithium]

Okay, first off, thank you both. I don't think I fried the parts, like I said it still works after unplugged for a while. I just wanted to make sure that before I invested further, I knew what I need to fix. I'll look into that fan. Once again, thanks.

Edit: I've also heard different things concerning thermal gel. Some people have said that it will only change the tempature by a degree or two, and others have said that it's needed.

 

[Wings]

You misunderstood what I said. I said that it could possibly short out your components (kind of like when you set your motherboard directly on the casing without buffers). It is never a definite problem.

Thermal gel is necessary if you want to attach your heatsink to the CPU. It also allows for even heat distribution to the heat sink...so yes, I would recommend getting it.

@Dirtie: I was offering the best possible solution for a cooling system in an overclocked PC. Of course you don't need one, but if you keep your CPU at a lower temperature, the better your computer is going to perform and the longer it is going to last.

 

[Zanifer]

@Lithium:
Thermal gel is absolutely necessary. Go for some arctic silver [http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.asp?Item=N82E16835100007] and slap a nice hearty heat sink on there. Now something unnecessary would be lapping your heat sink, which is the process of sanding it down... alot... with a fine grit sandpaper, like 2000. When getting a thermal compound, per say, arctic silver, it will fill in all the regularities and create a generally constant heat distribution.


@Maestro:
But Maestro, why water cooling, why not shoot for some peltier action or even better, a dual cascade phase changer?

 

[Lithium]

Ok thanks, I haven't been able to look into the fan yet with christmas as close as it is, well, it's today actually. Anyways, I'm fairly sure that it will all go by sucessfully now, it's going to be nice to quit using the family computer, it doesn't even have a GB of hard drive space and only 256MB of ram. Once again, thanks.

 

[Zanifer]

Yep, not a problem, if you have yourself anymore questions feel free to ask here or pm me.

 

[Lithium]

Ok, i've gotten the fan and the gel, I've hooked them up, they're working and the system is staying on but now I've got a system OS error. I tried installing Windows XP home on a 160 Gb Hardrive but it was dead so I settled for a 13Gb that had run another operating system, I was going to use it til I got something to add on or replace it but after I deleted the partition, re-created it, and formated it (I tried it under both the NTFS and FAT file systems). I got an error message. Everytime I try to install the software, it copies the files like usual, and starts the setup, but before the first minute is over it says that there has been a fatal error and that it's missing a file or that some file is not compatible, and that it's for the verification process. Once again, help please? It would be greatly appreciated.

 

[Wings]

What version of Windows are you using? Is it the full version or the upgrade?

 

[Lithium]

it's XP home edition, and it's the full edition. I ordered it from tigerdirect.com. The old system was 2000, it may be because of different fileing systems but I doubt it. When it ran windows 2000 it used FAT.

Edit: I finally got the hard drive out of the HP but I still get the same message, It says that windows lacks a component needed to continue the installation process, and that a computer file does not match the verification information. It then says to press ok for a log on the error, and when I do it says that there was a syntax error on line 4.

Edit: It also says that there is an error that has something to do with the component manifest?

 

[Dirtie]

:S
It could be a variety of things.
The disc you got could be faulty (unlikely)
More likely is that your hard disk has bad sectors or some sort of corruption, or your memory is faulty.

Try it again, except write down every last word, and the log as well if possible.

 

[Lithium]

Actually, I found out why it wasn't working and the problem is solved (with ALOT of thanks to Jim Drosdick). The problem made me feel like an idiot for not realizing it sooner. Now, however, I'm getting .CAB file errors when I try to install things and my driver disc stopped one driver short of finishing the install, the driver was my intergrated sound.