Cleaned processor, now got power, but screens blank

[seefresh]

I have a dell, pentium 4 HT 2.8ghz. I just added another 512 of ram yesterday and everything was running fine. Today, I decided to clean the processor area because a friend recommended it. He came over and we removed the processor which was attached to the heat sink pretty good and cleaned it. My friend tried to put the processor back in while being attached to the heatsink. He tried to turn it on and there was no power. Needless to say, a few pins got bent. I straightened the pins up and put the processor in the proper way then clamped it down and put the heat sink back on. Now we have power and all the fans run but nothing shows up on the monitor. Any ideas?

Here a couple of side notes:

1: I've never done this before and regret letting my friend show me.
2: The power plug was still in when he removed the processor the second time to check the pins, he checked, bent them back into shape, put the processor back in and the power plug was still plugged in the whole time. This was the first time the fans were working but nothing on the screen.
3: he left, I took the processor back out, checked some pins, straightened a bit, put back in and still the same thing. I made sure to unplug the power cord this time.

If the processor is broken, can I just buy another identical processor off the web and replace it?

 

[SNGX1275]

Well that sucks. Bending pins may have killed the processor, but before you do anything, check to make sure that while you were pushing down to get the heatsink installed you didn't unseat something a little like the video card - I've had that happen to me before. Next take out that new RAM you put in and try with just what you had in there before. Make sure those are properly seated.

Google for how to reset the CMOS on your computer and do that.

Then if it still doesn't work I'd say you broke the processor. Yes you will be able to buy a new one and slap that in, but you (or someone else that knows) will have to tell you which ones will work with that motherboard provided you don't buy the same one (pin #).

On a side note, and this isn't important now, but how did you/your friend bend the pins? Isn't it clear that they only go in 1 way, and when put in that way they go in very easy.

 

[CMH]

I can answer that last question:

Have you tried putting it back in with the heatsink still attached? Its pretty darn hard, cos I've tried. I was sensible enough to call it quits before I bent any pins though.

I'm betting your processor's fried. You should always switch the computer off before meddling with anything in it. Leaving the plug in is good for grounding, but make sure the computer itself is switched off (on at the plug, fans are all off).

Bending pins usually won't permanently destroy the CPU. I've bent pins before via other methods, and unbending them back, and its all good. I suppose its not the case all the time, but I haven't gone bending pins to find out if it'll work all the time...



And yes, getting the same processor type will work. If its a socket 478, get a socket 478 processor. Yours would definitely be a socket 478, because there are no pins on the 775, the heatsink is clamped, and P4 2.8ghz only comes in socket 478 or 775 flavors. So just look out for processors which say "Socket 478".

 

[seefresh]

All is well folks, processor was fine. I didn't realize the clamp really CLAMPS down on the processor, I thought if I just pushed it down all was well. Load off my shoulders, thanks for the response though!

 

[SNGX1275]

Good to hear. I too have heard of people being able to unbend things and having them still work, thats why it took me 3 paragraphs to say its broke.