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OK,

Yesterday I decided to take my power supply and heatsink fan out for a cleaning, becuz it was soundin pretty bad. I put everything back together and started it up. literally 2min after i started it ( and it's beginning to start windows ) the comp shuts down without warning... the weird thing is, the comp shuts down (all fans, motherboard, monitor, cd roms, harddrives, everything ) but the blue led power light stays on... i'll hit the switch at the back and it takes maybe 30 sec for the light to turn off... i'm soooo confused... like i cleaned the fans like i normally do... didn't do anything different...

i'm just trying to find out what might be wrong with it... i know there's the chances of it jus being the thermal compound, or the power supply. any other ideas?

how much does that thermal compound run for anyways?

gawd this is so confusing and frustrating, i'm stuck with my lil sis's comp. 256 ram, YUCK...

Help PLZZZZZ

Murda,

Welcome to Techspot!!

So you didnt clean an reapply thermal paste? If not I think this is causing your problem. You're asking how much thermal paste cost? Or how long it will last?

both, cost, and how long it'll last. also what kind do i buy? does future shop or a store like that carry it?

if it's not the thermal compound, what could it be?

lol no, i didn't reapply it... i didn't even know what it was...

Artic Silver is not expensive. Don't know how long it will "last", I have computers that I have never had to replace the thermal paste on. Never heard of future shop. If I were you I'd replace the thermal paste first before I worried about "what else" could be the problem.

hi tntmurda,

your problem is almost certainly your CPU overheating due to improper re-installation. once you remove the heatsink from the CPU, the thermal compound is no good anymore and must be replaced.

1. remove your heatsink
2. clean all old compound from the CPU with isopropyl alcohol
3. clean all old compound from the heatsink with isopropyl alcohol
4. let both surfaces dry
5. apply new compound per instructions (click here for AS instructions)
6. re-mount heatsink

good luck