My computer is not starting up.The power cable and other accessories are ok.I took out the heat sink to clean it but accidently I broke its pins.so it is loosely fitted on the processor.is it the cause that my computer is not starting up or there are other reasons? I would be very much obliged if you would suggest something.
Problem with heat sink
- Thread starter frizern
- Start date
cliffordcooley
Posts: 13,141 +6,441
Technically your machine will still boot up without a heat-sink at all. The purpose in the heat-sink is to prevent over-heating. With that said it takes a few minutes for one to get too hot. And until that point the machine should run just fine. If your machine is not booting there is something else wrong.
captaincranky
Posts: 19,684 +8,825
It really could be overheating even before POST. It's a contentious subject at best, and there's plenty of info available with a Google search
But, until a working heat sink is installed, you can't completely rule out overheating as the cause anyway, so why bother to try and start the PC?
cliffordcooley
Posts: 13,141 +6,441
If that were the case there would not be any power savings by turning your machine off. Nor would the CPU fan stop spinning.
captaincranky
Posts: 19,684 +8,825
Like I said Cliff, it's a rather contentious issue. Still, the overall operating principle is simply this, "you broke it, you bought it". So. leave it turned off until you have a heat sink on it.
As far as being willing to wonder, speculate, or take wild guesses as to how many seconds difference there is in the time required to overheat a 140 watt 4/8 beast versus a 35 watt Celeron in the same socket size package, I'm not. (Or do you think there's no difference)?
I do know, when you power up a PC, the CPU fan seems to be spinning at full RPM until it stabilizes. The same is pretty much true after resume from standby. I think "current inrush" may have something to do with it. As does how many startups are loading, etc.
captaincranky
Posts: 19,684 +8,825
To go any further on your own, you would need a, "digital multi-meter", so as to check PSU voltages at the 24 pin board power connector. (Or directly from the PSU output cable). Plus you need the diagram from the mobo instructions to tell you which pin is which. In some cases, I believe that can also be found on the mobo itself.
I honestly think the power cable, (and by that I'm assuming you mean the AC line cord), is one of the last things likely to go bad. Mind you, you could have dirty contacts at the PSU, or even a bad house receptacle. But really, a bit of jiggling at the pc or a move to another AC recptacle would eliminate those variables. But here again, you could use a meter, (resistance or "Ohms" scale), to read continuity through the cable
It's sort of a Kamikaze way of doing things, but I suppose you could put a finger on the CPU case after trying to fire (pun intended), the thing up. (Be prepared to possibly get a bit of a burn blister from doing so). Plan "B" is beg or borrow an infrared remote thermometer, which you would simply point at the case.
Now, here's the big problem. We've determined you sometimes make mistakes. One of them could be, having the CPU in wrong. You could have maybe bent a pin or something. Did you unlatch the socket?
It is sort of counter intuitive to imagine that while you were screwing around with the CPU, the power supply suddenly decided to give up the ghost, as it were. Or, the very opposite could be true, the PSU has gone belly up, (which happens from time to time), and you were mistakenly goofing around with the heat sink. PSUs do give up sometimes, and your PC generally won't do squat when that happens. The last one I had go bad fried one or more of the low voltage terminals, and all I got were the fans spinning, as the 12+ was still working.
Now, how can we put out heads together to figure out which one is true?
The simplest would be to swap in a known good power supply from another PC but first you need to replace your broken heat sink. While your power supply could have coincidentally failed, simple logic leads us to look first at the thing you fiddled with and broke. Even if your power supply did fail, you still need to replace that heat sink to restore function to your PC anyway.
captaincranky
Posts: 19,684 +8,825
That won't cut it, and good luck trying to buy a pin by itself.. A "little loose" doesn't cut it either, period. So, fix the heatsink, or get off the phone.
All right. lets suppose that my PSU is working and heat sink is the culprit. how would I ascertain this ??or the vice versa may be true..And unfortunately I dont have any other PCs nearby, so it would not be possible for me to test my PC by bringing items from other computers..
:-(
:-(
One more time. Regardless of whatever else might be wrong with your PC you need to replace your heat sink. You already know it's broken. You said so yourself. Whether is it a little bit broken or a lot broken, it's still broken (!). You don't have to ascertain if it is the culprit. It's broken. Fix/replace known broken parts first before looking for other possible bad parts.
captaincranky
Posts: 19,684 +8,825
How about if instead, we "suppose" you've been given all the information necessary to diagnose and repair, (if possible) your computer already.
And how about if we further "suppose" that Techspot, its staff, and/or members, is not responsible for your physical location, or financial status. Thus, we can't (or won't), rectify either of those situations.
But yes, it is a conundrum. You can't get the PC up and running without a properly fitted heat sink, ergo, you can't know which part is causing the problem without the computer being able to boot.
So, the only thing I can suggest is to buy a new heat sink and PSU, and go from there. You can always keep the PSU as a spare. Or, if you buy one big enough, you can use it now, or in the future, to "upgrade your PC with say, a heavier hitting video card.
If you feel you haven't been given sufficient assistance or sympathy, you could also join "Anandtech", or, "Tom's Hardware", and see if you can float your repetitive nonsense past them.
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