Help Computer won't start!

Oriel

Folks,
I removed my heatsink and fan last night to apply some thermal paste. Everything went fine, until I turned the computer on again - nothing.
It powers up ok, fans and hard drives start, just nothing from the processor or the monitor.

There are two things I'm worried about:
- That I fried the processor.
- that I damaged the motherboard (ASUS 7333)

I don't think I was too forceful in taking off the heatsink, so I don't think I damaged the motherboard.
But what does a fried processor looks like? My XP2000 just looks like it always used to, no marks or anything like that.

A friend said to reset the CMOS jumper, but I don't have my motherboard manual, so I just reset any obvious jumpers, all to no avail.

Any does anybody know what I can do?

Cheers,
S.

Orion

Reseat everything on the board first of all. That includes gfx card and memory. It's possible something came unseated while you were working on it.

zilog_jones

If you're getting nothing at all when booting, it might just be that your RAM has got loose. If it was anything else like your graphics card you'd be getting some beep code (unless there's some error code LEDs on the motherboard).

Could be the CMOS as well - check the ASUS website for a manual, silly! Or try the easy - take out the battery and leave it unplugged for a few minutes ^_^

You sure the CPU's in correctly? It won't be fun having to reseat that...

Oriel

I already did that.
I reseated RAM, Gfx card processor heatsink etc.

The monitor is not "powering up" (amber light turning green). I've tried a different gfx card too, so it's not that.
The main thing is - I should be able to get some form of feedback with just the processor and graphics card. With no RAM, at least the bios would tell me.

I removed the processor and turned the computer on, exactly the same thing is happening as when the processor is in the machine.

S.

SwampThing

sinecurea wrote:

I don't think I was too forceful in taking off the heatsink, so I don't think I damaged the motherboard.

You sound like you know what you're doing, but did you take the processor out of the motherboard before takign off the heatsink, or did you yank off the heatsink while connected? sounds daft, but stranger things have happened.

Can you get your hands on another processor, just to test the mobo?

Would anyone trust you with it

Oriel

But if the RAM is loose, shouldn't I be able to get into the BIOS at least?

Oriel

No, the processor was fully seated when I took the heatsink away.
I'm trying to get my hands on a socket-A processor in the mean time, but I think all my friends are Pentium.
I've reseated the heatsink several times now, everything's in place.

SouperComputer

pretty much what the other guys said:

Reseat everything, PCI, AGP, IDE, RAM etc etc
Remove CMOS battery
Remove ATX power connector from mobo
Remove AC mains cable from PSU


Is it possible you got too much paste on the HSF\CPU? throw up a piccie if you can.

daywalker

if you take out the ram, you should get a pattern of beeps from the motherboard, if you dont then its either the motherboard or the cpu is at fault.

Oriel

daywalker wrote:

if you take out the ram, you should get a pattern of beeps from the motherboard, if you dont then its either the motherboard or the cpu is at fault.

No beeps

daywalker

Not much you can do unless you have another cpu to try in the asus or else different motherboard to try the cpu in.

Oriel

I've downloaded the motherboard manual, going to strip the whole thing down tonight and put her back together jumper by jumper.

zuma

sinecurea wrote:

No, the processor was fully seated when I took the heatsink away.
I'm trying to get my hands on a socket-A processor in the mean time, but I think all my friends are Pentium.
I've reseated the heatsink several times now, everything's in place.

Are you ABSOLUTELY positive that you didnt bend any pins....ABSOULTELY positive???

Heathen

sinecurea wrote:

No beeps

with RAM removed you dont ALWAYS get beeps.. when i had dodgy ram i got NO beeps just a blank screen... it really sounds to me that its the RAM.. if you have more than one chip try them in the ram slots one at a time.. i had a problem with one stick before and it was preventing the monitor from coming on... when i removed the bad stick and just switched the other stick around it worked fine... or maybe borrow a known working stick from a mate and try it on its own...
worth a shot.. as it worked for me when i had the same sympthons

hope it helps

Wolverine_1999

Definately sounds like the CPU is fried!

From my own experience, any dodgy RAM would normally cause beeps from the computer, and no start up of anything. Fried CPU, means that nothing, including beeps, occur when turning on the computer...

EOA_Mushy

If the only thing you originaly touched was the prosessor.
Per chance were you wearing a wooly jumper or any thing else involved that would cause static?

Heathen

yea good one.. so obvious but i forgot about that... did you wear a static strap when working on the pc??

Oriel

No, I earthed myself as I've done every time I open a comuter. I very much doubt it's static.
What does a fried processor look like? Cause mine looks like it did the day I put it in (3 years ago).

S.

zilog_jones

From my experience, dodgy RAM or no RAM often results in a blank screen and no beeps.

If you can't find anyone with another socket A CPU to test the board with, you could probably get an early Duron (around 600-800MHz) pretty cheap, or even free. Try some other RAM too.

KdjaCL

Sounds like no power is hitting so motherboard so make sure the cable from the PSU to the mobo is correctly inserted.


kdjac

zilog_jones

Are there any lights or anything on the motherboard?