I have a DELL PC - P4-1.4 GHz, 128 MB, 40GB

I accidently happen to remove my processor from the motherboard. ( just out
of curiousity how does one look like). When i removed it, the heat sink was glued to it and it came off as a single piece.

I tried to put the processor back with the heat sink still attached, following the proper pin convention (after identifying the notch). But the computer wont boot. Also the lever on the CPU socket was still in horizontal position while i tried to put the processor with heat sink on it back in position.

Do i need to to detach heat sink from processor before I can put the processor back ?? and then apply silicon thermal glue and heat sink ??


The computer right now is DEAD, there is no signal to monitor, the SMPS and CPU fan do not work. There is no power to HDD, CD ROM or Floppy drive. However the Ethernet card LED and one LED on the motherboard glow ( which say no problem with SMPS). Also LED on POWER ON switch in the front panel glows AMBER, which means internal power problem.

Kindly suggest me the correct way for putting the processor back into its place.

Thanks in advance
Jayesh

The proper way to install a cpu is to lift the socket lever, align the cpu pins properly, gently drop the cpu in(don't force it, it should be easy), then latch the lever down, apply a small amount of thermal material(like artic silver 5), then mount the heatsink.

Make sure you don't have any bent cpu pins from trying to put it in incorrectly. If you do, try to carefully bend them back in place.

Edit: Welcome to Techspot by the way.

vnf4ultra couldn't have said it better

Hi

Thanks for the warm welcome!!!

Just a little doubt. I know but just want to be double-sure.

Do I have o detach the processor from the heat sink and then fix the processor back in the place ?? Can't i fix the processor with the heat sink attached to it.


Thanks
- Jayesh

I suppose you could, but it might be harder to see what you're doing when the heatsink's attached.

Just a thought: If you're already fiddling around with the heatsink/CPU you might as well separate them and re-apply the thermal paste. You probably have OEM gunk on there, and that stuff doesnt stay working good forever. Put a high quality paste like Artic Silver or something on it just to be sure your CPU is cooling as much as it can! Routine maintenance on your critical parts can keep you from paying an extra wad of cash down the road!

Get them dust bunnies out too!

putting my cpu together with main board

Hi all, I have the same problem as the guy in the first post has...

Althou, the reason I took my cpu out, was that my computer would turn on and start beeping really loud and wouldn't turn on...

So I thought it could possibly be two things, either the computer doesn't "know" the ram is installed or the cpu is installed...

now I know it isnt the cpu, because without it, it doesnt beep... so it must be the ram...

Do you guys know anything else it might be?? and why would the computer be working fine and all of a sudden do this??

Also, where and what kind of that glue do I buy??

Thanks,
Louis

Well, you don't use "glue", but I think this is what you mean.
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.asp?Item=N82E16835100007

Has anything changed recently on your pc? Installed any new hardware? Doing anything in the case recently? Do you get any video signal? Do the fans spin? Leds light up?

Hi, thanks for the quick reply.

Well...

My system is a P4 24.Ghz with 256 ram. It's an IBM system.

It has a power thingy of 230 Watts max.

So I bought a new video card, that says it recommends me to have at least 300W power supply.

It was working fine for a while, then it gave this problem. The leds light up, and both the fans, the cpu ad video work...

But now, I put everthing back together, and it seems to be working again... I guess my computer was in one of those days... or do you think it might be something related to the power??

The beap it does when it doesn't work is repeatedly, which in the other thread about beep for different mother boards, says it either is a problem in the power or system board failure...

But anyway, now, it seems to be working... I guess everytime it happens again I'll just get my wonder hammer and beat on it for a while...

Thanks

Ohh... do I really need that "glue"? for now I'm not using any...

Yeah, usually you'd put thermal paste on the cpu so that there's a good interface between the cpu and the heatsink, so the heatsink can effectively remove the cpu's heat. I suppose however your heatsink probably has a "thermal pad", which is a small square of material that oem manufactures use instead of thermal paste. I'm not sure if you can reuse a thermal pad or not. If you do put some paste on, use only a tiny amount, and be sure to remove the "thermal pad" first, if you have one.

If your power supply would be underpowered, your system would likely crash/reboot sporatically, especially if you ran something demanding like a 3d game, or other intense program. Do you have any rebooting issues if you'd play a game or something like that?

vnf4ultra, what kind of thermal paste do you use? I remember when I last built my PC, I used some paste but I forget what brand it was. Where did you get yours?

can too thermal paste on top of cpu make it not work?

If you put thermal paste or the sticky thing that comes with a new cpu on top of the cpu (the side that faces up when installed - not with the pins obviously) can it damage the cpu? It said to put it only where the heatsink will touch and I did that... I think maybe I should have put the sticky side of the sticky cushion up towards the heatsink and not on top of the cpu where the thermal paste was.... is this what could've fried my mobo? I tried installing a new cpu (athlon 3200 xp) and now neither my old or new one work (old was xp 1900).

I've used the paste that comes with coolermaster heatsinks, as well as the "thermal pads" that come with retail amd and intel cpus.

I hear artic silver 5 is the best though.

I think as long as you don't put a load of T.I.M. on the cpu(enough that it oozes out and gets in everything), it should be ok. If anything inproper thermal paste application could make the cpu overheat, but I doubt it'd hurt the mobo.

This is how my problem got resolved.

You can not put the processor back into the slot with heat sink glued to it.

The CPU was stuck hard to the heat sink. I had a hard time separating both of them and got hurt myself several times. The best way I found out to separate them is to keep one of the CPU's edge on the table's ledge and then try to twise the heat sink and separate it. Be careful though you should not damage the CPU nor get urself hurt.

Inspect the CPU pins closely through various angles and focus your vision after removing the parallax error. A slight bend in the CPU pin can give you tough time.

Open the latch for CPU slot

Put the CPU in the slot, it should be easy movement without any force. If it does not get in then one or more pins are bent ( I hope you can identify the notch for pin-1 and other things for putting CPU in right way)

Close the latch.

I advise to go for thermal glue ( and not Thermal PADs) if you are not putting in the brand new CPU because otherwise you have to clean CPU's metal surface with alcohol or other chemicals to remove the resident glue of the thermal PAD completely from CPU and heat sink surface.

Put a little glue on the CPU's metal surface ( so that the drop radius is a little as 0.5 cms).

Now put heat sink on top of it. There is very little space for movement for the heat sink. Try to move it slightly in all directions so that the glue gets spread.

Fix the Heat sink notch.

Keep the CPU box in a position so that the heat sink remains on top of the CPU metal surface facing skywards for couple of hours.


Just another point I dont know if it will help u or not, if u ever find that ur PC shuts down automatically after successful boot and loading of OS, then in most probable cases ur HEAT sink is misaligned.

Cheers
Jayesch

Can heat sinks be reused, or if a CPU is being replaced must a new heat sink be purchased?