Computer won't turn on.

[Mansoor]

Hi guys, recently I bought an e6600 (got it for £60) and a foxconn 662mx motherboard along with 1gb of some cheapy value ram. Now when plugging everything in it went ok, but it kept turning off, I had a 420w power supply at the time so I wasn't surprised but I noticed I didnt push down the heatsink and fan properly, before I knew this though, I was moving it around to check the little knobs were pushed down, with everything in place, it wouldn't turn on at all.

Now to make things even worse, I foolishly changed the input from the standard 230 odd volts or whatever it is, to the american one, 113 odd. Which made the psu explode. I was shocked and annoyed, but bought another one the next day, probably for the same price, a trust one (probably crap) with 570w. Still no sign on life as before the explosion, the only sign is that the cpu fan apears to move a tiny tiny bit for less than a second before it stops, you hear the psu click into gear for a milisecond too but other than that, no sign of life thanks to the lack of motherboard lighting. No beeps, no going into the post or bios screen, nothing.

I tested my graphics card which survived the pop, but I'm not sure if anything else is alive, I'm really worried it took out my cpu, and I have a feeling it may have taken my motherboard. But the odd thing is that you can see it twitching when trying to turn it on. I've tried everything I can think of, clearing the cmos/bios with the jumper, pulling out the battery, checking for shorts on the motherboard, putting it on the desk and trying it, everything. I checked the cpu too, but nothing I can think of. One thing I guess I should mention is that I didnt add any thermal paste as it was second hand, but I doubt that's the problem. Plus the old one seems to have melted back into its original form.

What can I do guys and what do you think has bitten the dust? Either the motherboard has a failsafe for something and automatically turning off or the cpu and mobo are completely dead.

I hope I've given enough information for you to help me with my problem, I'm not made of money so you know...

Thanks for your upcoming replies.


- (do I really need to type in my forum name?)

 

[Matthew DeCarlo]

So many beginner mistakes in one post . If you don't have any thermal compound on the CPU, apply some.

Too hard to tell what has "bitten the dust" over the Internet, but, odds are the motherboard is definitely shot if you still get no response after applying the thermal compound. Start there with your replacements and work your way up. Hopefully it's not too bad .

 

[Mansoor]

Heh, this isn't my first motherboard and cpu upgrade I've done, but I'd say it's the one that's been the most problematic.

 

[Matthew DeCarlo]

...It certainly will be problematic if you ignore proper CPU heat dissipation and try and force your PSU to convert a voltage that it's not configured to.

 

[Mansoor]

Fair enough, the voltage change was a stupid thing to do but I thought it may have copped out plus I was on the verge of just ripping the thing to shreds. As for the thermal paste, I haven't really needed to use it in the past, I know what it is and why it's used, come to think about it, I didn't apply any to my old amd 64 3000+ and it ran fine.
But to be honest, it should run fine on its own anyway, and it DID run, even when I didn't have the damn heatsink in properly, which it showed by turning off when it got too hot thanks to the motherboad cpu protection.

On a second note, inspecting the cpu there is some metled thermal paste, obviously from the previous owner, how much of the stuff would I need to apply to it?

 

[Matthew DeCarlo]

You would need to remove that thermal compound (off both the CPU and heatsink) with either Isopropyl Alcohol or something such as ACN-60ML.

Then, put a dot of thermal compound somewhere between the size of a grain of rice and a pea in the center of the CPU's heatspreader. Then seat the heatsink on top of it.

I would never let a modern CPU run without thermal compound...

 

[Mansoor]

Ok I'll try it. But what I still don't understand is how it happened before the first psu's failure, to make matters worse both the cpu and mobo were fine when I got them as they were working for a while (if shutting down due to the lack of power or overheating thanks to heatsink not put on properly). I really do hope that it's the motherboard over the cpu And I really doubt that a splodge of thermal paste will solve it as it's still doable on its own, plus it had roughly the amount you mentioned. Nevertheless I'll try it anyway and who knows, maybe you were right!

 

[Matthew DeCarlo]

I am not guaranteeing that it will solve anything in your particular case because, your motherboard may very well be fried (as noted in my first post) and it's not going to make any difference whether or not you apply thermal compound if that's the situation.

However, in the future, I would strongly suggest that you use thermal compound on any CPU you install. It does matter and it does make a difference, I'm not pulling this out of my a** go look around for yourself.

 

[Bruce2]

I really doubt that a splodge of thermal paste will solve it as it's still doable on its own

Mansoor, if you don't believe Zen, the second problem next to bad cooling on the cpu is like a short between the board and the case. Next thing you can try is take the mobo out the case, set it on an insulated surface, and fire it up with minimum hardwares to see if there is any life left. The explosion may have taken out the mobo along with rams.

Reseting CMOS is another noobie mistake. Man, I would imagine I am looking at a big pile of crew up here.

As a lesson learn, so, next time when something goes wrong and without an immediate solution, don't panic, turn off everything and come back the next day. The answer usually comes to you. Good luck and let us know how things turn out.

 

[Mansoor]

Mansoor, if you don't believe Zen, the second problem next to bad cooling on the cpu is like a short between the board and the case. Next thing you can try is take the mobo out the case, set it on an insulated surface, and fire it up with minimum hardwares to see if there is any life left. The explosion may have taken out the mobo along with rams.

Reseting CMOS is another noobie mistake. Man, I would imagine I am looking at a big pile of crew up here.

As a lesson learn, so, next time when something goes wrong and without an immediate solution, don't panic, turn off everything and come back the next day. The answer usually comes to you. Good luck and let us know how things turn out.

I've done that already, I practically took everything out except the cpu and its fan+heatsink and it didn't even beep, the fan didn't whir into life or anything, on an insulated surface and in the case.

I know that thermal paste can really cool down a cpu, also I forgot that most intel cpus come with some pre-applied, so that kind of solves that mistery.

 

[Mansoor]

Sorry if I sounded a bit ****ish and unwilling to listen there zen, I now understand that it was probably because it had some preapplied but theres a good chance theres not enough on the cpu now, I shall definetaly try it. Silver Thermal paste ok?

 

[Matthew DeCarlo]

No problem, really. Yes, "Arctic Silver 5" is fine, but, be sure to remove the old thermal compound prior to applying it.