Broken CPU or Broken Motherboard?

[Karpl]

I feel like such a heel! Helped a friend get an old W98 machine running. Working great for a couple weeks but needed a new cpu fan - AMD K7 Socket A. So I swapped them out. The old one was a pain to get off and even worse putting the new one on. Now after putting back together and booting up, nothing! Fans all work, but nothing showing on the monitor. The green power light now doesn't come on - yellow standby light does. I'm afraid I might have broken the motherboard trying to pry the heatsink clips on, but how can I tell? Everything feels snug. Any way I can troubleshoot this to figure out the problem? Thanks!!

 

[btcomm1]

If I had to pick between CPU and motherboard I would pick it 99 times out of 100. If you are sure it's one of those 2 most likely it is the motherboard.

 

[ch33zw1z]

pull the cpu and see if the mobo returns POST errors, if it doesn't...you found your problem.

 

[Karpl]

Originally posted by: ch33zw1z
pull the cpu and see if the mobo returns POST errors, if it doesn't...you found your problem.

Thanks for the replies!

Are you saying boot up the machine with the cpu completely removed? This might sound dumb, but where would I see the post error, on the monitor right? Right now, I'm getting nothing on the monitor anyway. So I don't see how this could change?

I forgot to mention before that the cpu was removed and replaced in the whole process. So is there some kind of cpu reset procedure that has to be done any time you remove it and put it back in?

 

[btcomm1]

No, post errors are beeps that would signify there is a problem, you would not get video without a cpu.

 

[RadiclDreamer]

Between cpu and mobo, its almost always the mobo. Ive only seen 1 non manhandled cpu die in my 10+ years of doing IT stuff

 

[imported_Baloo]

Check the corners of the die of the CPU (the little rectangle in the center of the cpu that the heatsink sits on) see if there is any chipping. If there is, the cpu is probably dead. if there is not, try reseating the CPU. a dead CPU will produce the result you are getting, since with no cpu, there is nothing to process cmos data to give you post codes - you don't get post codes without a cpu.