Installed New Abit K7A-RAID w/AMD 1.2MHz

[Darknyt]

I installed this board in my tower with a 300W UPS and an ORB Heatsink/fan. I have an IBM 9GB HDD, ADAPTEC 2940UW SCSI controller, Viper V770 Ultra 32 AGP, DLINK ethernet card, and SOundBlaster Live value card, 256MB MICRON ram (PC-100). I tried to bootup but I get no video, my floppy light doesnt come on and my SCSI drive has no activity. Please help. What did I do wrong???

[wedor]

Have you tried it with just the CPU,heatsink/fan, RAM and video first to make sure it works? If that doesn't do it try running it out of the caase with the basics.

[Darknyt]

Thanks for your help. I regret that I may have found the problem. It appears that the L2 Die of the Athlon cpu may have been damaged when I installed the orb fan/heatsink(Part of the die seems to have chipped). I had to bend some of the tabs on the orb just to get it to hold down. Might have been too much for the die. I am seriously peeved because these cpus arent exactly cheap(when your bank statement says zero dollars and zero cents). I will test this theory Monday.

[eagle1]

YEp.!! That's the classic problem with AMD Thunderbird proccessors. You perform some heatsinks changes and such and you might end up with some damage to the proccessor.!

Don't you have any warranty?? If not, then I guess you are out of luck.

What still is bothering me is that if the cpu is the one damaged, why isn't the hard drive or floppy drive running? I think the floppy light is supposed to turn on even without cpu????!!!

[thekingofpain]

Ive found it best (for me) to install h/s fan combos on T-Bird/Duron with the m/b OUT of the case...

[Atomic Rooster]

Those darn ORB's will get ya if you're not carefull. They're not the greatest of coolers. If and when your finances improve, you should try getting either one of the GlobalWin coolers (FOP32, CAK38, etc) or a TaiSol 760092. They usually can be found for under $35.

[AuraEdge]

Yet another death of AMD CPU by way of the orbs...

Thermaltakes gotta stop making these things.
THey can keep making the volcano II and the SK6, but for the sake of CPUs everywhere, stop making the orb!

The orb coolers offically dont fit on the Abit KT7, KT7-RAID, KT7A, and KT7A-RAID. Thermaltake came out with the MiniOrb and the MiniChromeOrb to address this. You probably got the full size, and while trying to get those 2-3 fins bent away from that capacitor in the way, the CPU got crushed.

It happens to the best of us. I lost a 1.0Ghz TBird this way. (I wasn't even using an orb, I was just being hasty.

If you can scroung up 50 bucks or so, get a Duron for the time being until the next greatest thing comes out and you have more money.
Durons are great cheap chips, though not the monster the 1.2Ghz Athlon is. But after all this, I bet you just want the darned thing to work! 1.2Ghz or not.

[Darknyt]

Thanks for the input ladies and gentlemen. I am going to return this orb thing and get my money back. Still alittle peeved about losing valuable equipment. Not a problem though, I have my P3 600MHz laptop as backup. I just cannot access my files for now. I will look into getting the other fanheatsinks that are mentioned in this forum.
YOU KNOW THE WORST THING ABOUT THIS ENTIRE ORDEAL IS THAT THIS WAS MY VERY FIRST AMD CPU :-(

[juniorp94]

Sorry about your luck man. I have one of those **** chrome orb fans on my kt7 raid and it sucks. I have taken it off to unlock the processor but that is the only time I am going to mess with it till I get a new HSF.

[yorgmeister1]

Just did the same thing to my duron, the stupid orb wouldent fit so I bent the capatitors away and pushed the orb's tabs down with a tiny screwdriver, and subsequently crushed my duron. NO WARRENTY, orb worked fine on my msi board.

[Bovon]

Jeeeesus, chalk up one more dead AMD to the $@#!?! ORBs. These things have killed more cpu's than all the rest put together.

Thermaltake should be made to put a statement on their site to use one at your own risk because they will kill a cpu.

And all of the sites that sell them should also be requires to post a simular statement on any page that they have to sell this thing.

Maybe if enough guys post something at all of their favorite forums and title it "AMD KILLERS" it will get more attention.

[Kuasimodem]

I must be either lucky or talented...(I'll go with luck & patience).

So far I have had a Chrome Orb, Super Orb (multiple installs to get unlock to work right) and now an Antec Jetcool (http://www.antec-inc.com/product/fans/jetcool.html) on my processor. So far my 900 T-bird is working just fine, and this Jetcool doesn't even have the wide base that the Orbs have. All three fans are round, but the design of the Jetcool is something different, a 29mm dia. copper core wrapped with folded aluminum fins and topped with a 60mm fan. The only part of the cooler that actually touches the processor is the copper core, which rests directly on the processor die.

[Toddly]

I have an Orb but I must have been lucky because it went on pretty good. I had learned that with the ABIT KT7 you needed to file away some of the fins on the cooler to make room because of the capacitors on the board. After all the reading here though I don't think I will install another and now I am sort of leary to remove it.