I pieced together a brand new computer online and got it shipped to me. It arrived Friday. The specs are:
Intel Core 2 Duo 2.17 ghz
ASUS P5L-MX motherboard
Seagate Barracuda 250gig harddrive
1 gig DDR2-5200 ram
Geforce 7900gs 256 PCI-E graphics card
450 watt PSU
Windows XP
Ok, so I hooked everything up Friday, and everything was perfect. Installed a bunch of games I never dreamed I could run, and they all performed at max settings without a hitch. So amazed.
The next day I got up (saturday morning) and put a few more things on, and began playing Half-Life 2. I was tweaking with some graphics settings in the nVidia control panel beforehand, trying to get as much out of it as I could. I started the game and fiddled with settings. I switched the audio from 'two desktop speakers' to 'headphones' since that's what I was using, and I noticed as soon as the change was applied the sound became delayed and crackling. Now I'm positive that this isn't the cause of the entire meltdown, but I thought I'd throw in the initial conditions anyways.
So I reset my computer, and it would not boot up. So I hit the kill switch and then booted it, only to be prompted with "Overclocking or Overvoltage failed, press 1 to enter setup, 2 to load defaults". Very odd, I never touched a thing in the BIOS in the few hours I've had the computer, so I just loaded defaults, suspicious, and went on. It took some time to get back into windows, and I immediately noticed things like menus were delayed, and the sound was still messed up like it was while playing the game. So I shut it down again, getting worried.
Prompted with the overclock/voltage message again. This time I enter BIOS to see if anything's out of whack, although I guess I really wouldnt know what to look for. Didn't change anything, just quit and the computer rebooted again. This time, the display would not come on, and holding the power button would not shut down the computer, so I had to keep killing it.
After a few rounds of this, eventually the computer would not turn back on at all. It seemed to take longer and longer for it to power on after each reset until finally, nothing. No fans, no beeps, nadda.
I got it to power up a few more times that night, but still no display, and now it is dead, period. I've tried manually tripping the power, I've tried resetting the BIOS, nothing. The only sign of life is a small light on the motherboard that will light up once the power is on (I guess to tell me that there is power and not to mess with anything).
I've ruled out the power supply, since it will power up another board, and plus I took the computer to a technician who put another one in it with the same results: no power at all. He suspected the CPU overheated and fried. Said I should have gotten a warning once it got hot, and then the computer should have eventually shut itself down if it REALLY got too hot, but none of this happened, just some faulty sound once I changed a headphone setting and reset the computer manually.
I bought a new motherboard because I suspected that was also malfunctioning... I set it up with my powersupply, but left the CPU out to try to narrow down where the problem was. All the fans came on perfectly. Then I put the CPU in the new motherboard. The thing powers up for a second, and then shuts itself down. It will not stay powered.
So it LOOKS like both the CPU and original motherboard died... but why? And is the CPU actually dead? Does the fact that it powers on for just a second in the new motherboard tell me anything? Is it possible one piece of hardware was imcompatible with another?
Another thing to note... I put the system to the most use the night before, and even left it on all night, why wouldn't it fry itself then rather than the next day when I get up? Also, no visible damage like burning, no smell.
If there's anything anyone can suggest I try before I try to get these apparently damaged pieces replaced (if the company will replace them... after I spend 7 days shipping it back, they test it, and spend 7 more days shipping it to me... I really don't know how long I'll have to wait), I'd really appreciate it. I feel like I've tried all the troubleshooting I could and it's come down to a CPU that got overheated and cooked, and took the motherboard with it.
short version: Put a computer together, a day later it shut down and gave me a 'overclocking or overvoltage failed' on start up. I don't overclock and didnt play with BIOS settings. Eventually, the display went and the computer will not power up anymore. no fans or anything.
Ruled out power supply, tried a new motherboard, which DID power up, but when the CPU was placed in it, it would only power up for a second before shutting itself off.