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Did I kill my motherboard? :(

D

d33pblue

Senior member
Well I think I broke my motherboard last night - literally. Before I go out and buy another one I want a few other opinions.

First of all, I just bought a new Q6600 to go in my DFI P35 Blood iron mobo. All was going well, besides the fact the processor was running a little hotter than I would have liked. My previous processor ran hot too, so I think its just a fault of the system more than anything.

Anyhow, I reapplied thermal paste to my heatsink, then put it back on the processor, kind of turning the heatsink as I put it down to kind of squeeze the air pockets in the thermal paste. I have done this before with no trouble, but I think I put too much pressure on the board.

Once I restarted the computer, it POSTed up to the processor listing, then just stopped. Normally it would have listed all of the hard drives, CDROM drives, etc, but now it just listed the processor and froze.

I turned the computer off, set it back up vertically (I had it laying down with the side off to work on it). I tried starting it again and this time the computer wouldnt even post. The monitor was completely black and the hard drive light came on for a few seconds and turned off.

After this all subsequent attempts to revive the computer have failed. I cannot get the computer to POST at all. Removing the processor doesnt help, neither does removing the RAM. Is there an off chance that too much thermal paste would cause this? I noticed a little thermal paste oozed off the sides of the IHS (but none got on the mobo). I wiped the excess off the processor but nothing changed.

Any ideas?
 
Make sure thermal paste didn't get on the bottom of the processor.

Also make sure you plugged all you power cords securely.
 
Did you try resetting the BIOS by clearing the CMOS? I know it seems way too obvious, but I've found many, many boards will not boot if you remove any components and replace them, even if they're the exact same components. Actually happened just a few weeks ago on my current board when I went to reapply the thermal paste. Board wouldn't boot without resetting the CMOS.

Make sure your board isn't shorting to your case somehow. I know most people think it can't/wont' happen to them but you'd be surprised. I finally had to retire my trusty Lian-Li PC-61 because it was shorting my backup rig and I was too lazy to find the contact with the board.

Check for any physical damage to traces, noticeable bend on the board. You didn't hear any cracking or stress noises when pushing down on the CPU did you? I have noticed on a few of my older boards that there is a slight warp to them over time.
 
There is no thermal grease on the bottom of the processor. I checked very closely for this. Also all of the power cords are connected securely.

The case shorting the motherboard is a possibility. I havent really checked closely for this. I have had this happen before and taking the board out and putting it back in fixed things. I do notice there seems to be a bit more flex to the board now than there was before. This is really hard to quantify though.
 
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