Help Wanted: PC won't power up

[LadyMC]

Cleaned the system, connected peripherals and now when power's applied the fan just jerks and stops. I think I isolated the problem, cause when I checked, some of the heat sink paste had gotten into the CPU socket. I tried cleaning the socket and the processor to the best of my ability, but it still wont power up. Any suggestions??? They are all welcome. Thanx

[Kirby]

Check the power supply that could be it

[LadyMC]

Not the power supply, cause I tried with another board and it powered up. When I try with the original board the keyboard light comes on.

[Kirby]

ok hmm maby the boards messed up then.

[D0c]

yep sounds like that thermal paste @#$% your CPU socket.

[blindz]

yep sounds to me like the thermal paste could have cause some damage, worst case scenario, static electricity

[Electrotechnic]

Ok guys....i have the problem still....but i asked LadyMC to post it for me.....
Gave it a thorough cleaning. I had the the chassis in my lap the whole time and sometimes the board in my hand but my skin was always in contact with the board so i'm hoping that that was enough pre-cautions to ensure a static free cleaning. Cleaned the fan, the power supply...the memory...the works...all using a small paint brush and i blew out some of the dust with my own breath. No blowdryer!
Connected up the PC....powered up and got a jump start of the fans then nothing. The first time it happened, the power LED blinked. The keyboard and mouse lights come on because I have a wireless keyboard. This means that power is still going through the board i hope and the receiver still picks up keystrokes on the keyboard so I'm hoping and praying that problem is isolated to the processor and is solvable. When i checked, some the thermal paste over-flowed unto the socket. I have tried to clean it up and clean the pins to the best of my ability. Still nothing. I'm hoping that I haven't cleaned it properly. I really don't want to make anymore drastic moves and cause subsequent damages. PLEASE HELP!!! POST SOME HOW TO'S or soemthing.....but I need my PC. All my notes are online. My comsci quizzes are online. I need it to practice....i'm freaking out....help!

[Gillion]

I suspect that some brands of thermal paste is electrically conductive.... if it shorted out the pins of your spu by spilling to where it should not... then that may stop the system

also try this

take out all periphis and leave only the mainboard and cpu in the machine... nor ram not video

i want you to tell me if you hear the beep beep beeeeep sound that a comptuer makes when it does not find video.


once you do that put in the video card


then start again


tell me if you hear a slpwer beep

that should be for the ram

if both tests fail... it could be the board or cpu.

[Electrotechnic]

how will i achieve all this? It wont power up? Just a flicker of the fans...thats all...so i cant trouble shoot nor run diganostics. The power supply is functional because it powered up another board..... Everytime i unplug and re-plug in the power cord...and power up....i get the same result....the fans spin then stop....

[Gillion]

if you have a short circuit device or a bad hard drive this will happen

ergo REMOVE the peripherals including memory and video


then powerup the board and see if the fans run

How the boards work is they have a on off circuit that functions wether or not the boards are alive. This circuit is independent and will always work EXCEPT when you have a short circuit on the board on alone the power cords to the devices you have... thus... remove all these leads and tell me if the board powers up

without memory, video and NO floppy,harddrive or cdrom connected.


if it fails to do so your MAIN board is bad

Boards are also designed to pwoer up even if the CPU is removed... so you might want to do that alos... that being said... if you power up the board and it runs without the cpu... you see what I saying ?