What are the odds I fried my processor?

[MrBond]

Tried a new heatsink on my Tbird just about an hour ago. But now I've got problems .

The PC starts up, all the fans spin up and USB devices get power, but I get no video.

There's a faint smell that seems like it's coming from the PS, but it should be fine. I cleaned off the core, but it doesn't look burnt or chipped.

The PC was never on without a heatsink, so I'm not sure what could be causing this. Any ideas? I've tried shorting the cmos solder points (the a7v lacks a jumper to do that) and reseated my cards. There are no error beeps at all.

 

[drewis]

hmm. try disconnecting all of your devices in your system except for your video card, ram, cpu, monitor and keyboard.. if to no avail, try resetting the CMOS by taking out your battery.. if this still doesnt fix your problem, then try replacing the power supply... wouldnt mind some more info on your system.. its possible that you dont have your heatsink on properly and your bios is locking your cpu out due to overheating.. who knows.. more system specs would help =)

 

[MrBond]

It's an Asus A7V with a 1.1 Tbird at 1.3ghz. 256mb crucial ram. 3 HDDs, DVD, CDRW, 3 USB devices.

The heatsink should be installed correctly. I'll try sticking the old one on and seeing if I can boot like that. I've had this heatsink on before and it did boot. It's possible I installed it backwards, so I'll double check that too.

Edit:

OK, tried the old heatsink, no go. I pulled the cpu out, and got the melody of error beeps, which I assume is the no cpu warning.

 

[Rootaah]

This might sound stupid, but have you tried a different monitor? I always do the idiot things like that first just to eliminate the possibility. Do you notice the Floppy drive, Hard Drive, and CDROMs activate like a normal boot? Can you look at the Hard Drive light and tell if the system is booting?? If you turn it on and all you get is power lights, but no activity there is a good chance you fried the CPU. Typically you will get a black screen or simply nothing if the CPU is toast. The fact you have power is telling me the PS should be ok. Try reseating the processor too.

Other than that...don't know what else to tell ya.

 

[Macro2]

Maybe a video card problem or monitor. Try reseating the video card or try a new one. Make sure your monitor is turned up and the cable is secure with no bent pins.
Might want to see if you mobo is brounded properly too, just a thought.

mac

 

[MrBond]

The monitor is good, I tried it with my laptop.

I ordered another 1.1 from newegg last night, it's only $35 and I can always use it in another system if mine is still good. I'm going to tear apart everything this weekend and reassemble my system, I've had problems like this in the past where thats helped. I think my grounding has always been a little flakey in this system, so its possible I misalligned something.

Will I get video if I remove the processor and boot up?

 

[Rootaah]

Originally posted by: MrBond

Will I get video if I remove the processor and boot up?

No. Either the screen will stay blank and nothing will happen other than power or simply nothing will happen.

 

[CTho9305]

have you reseated the ram?

 

[MrBond]

Yeah, several times. I have to pull it so it's easier to get in and attach the HSF.

I'm about to do a full rebuild, hopefully that fixes it, maybe it was a grounding problem or something.

 

[MrBond]

I did a full rebuild, and nothing. The fans all power up with the board out of the system, but there's no beeps or video.

I am expecting the replacement tbird tomorrow. Anyone else have an opinion?

 

[OverVolt]

What kinda PSU is it? sounds sketchy. Bad PSU's can make a system flaky like that

 

[liquidtech]

sounds like a bad power supply or some sort of shorting problem on the motherboard, check your mobo screws for that. If you get no video it is either bad memory, bad cpu, or bad video card or all. Swap out all of those pieces for known good ones and trade them back one by one to find the culprit. If you suspect that it is a bad power supply test it out with a multi meter or one of those quick power supply testers.

 

[MrBond]

It's an enermax PS, under a year old. I'd be very surprised if it went bad this fast. I did notice a strange smell around the processor, but that could have been the chip. All my fans get power, including the one on my GF4.

I suspect the chip might have been fried, but I am not sure. Basicly, what happened was I layed the case down, popped off the old HSF, and just set the new one on top of it. This chip has aftermarket "feet" to protect the core, there's eight, four solid ones the hight of the core, and four "squishy" ones that are a little higher. I figured the weight of the HSF would be enough and I wouldn't need to clip it in (I was only going to do temp testing with the built in probe readout in the cmos). After initial poweron and no video, I pulled everything out again to check. The artic silver looked "thin", like it had melted, it's hard to describe, I should have taken a picture of it. I popped out the cpu and set the HSF on it just to see if it touched the core without being clipped in. It appeared there was a slight gap, but I assumed it'd be filled with artic silver normally.

I have no other RAM or video cards here. If they were bad, would removing them yield a missing video/ram beep? I tried the board out of the system with nothing but the CPU in it and had the same problem.

 

[liquidtech]

taking the video card or ram out would probably yield a beep sound... but theres always the exception. it all depends on the board. check with mobo docs for that. Trying the "table test" as you did usually eliminates the possibility of grounding problems with the board so as you said it probably isnt a grounding problem with the board. i dont think it was a good idea to boot your system up without clipping the HSF since most heatsinks have a clip that makes a greater pressure point right on top of the core. Test the PS with a multimeter so that you can be sure that you shouldnt suspect it.