PC stopped working after I cleaned it

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nyxanna

nyxanna

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Apr 16, 2011
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I cleaned a PC today via air spray.
There was a ton of dust in the CPU cooling so I decided to take the fan and heatsink out.

I managed to get the heatsink and fan out which were stuck together. Then I noticed that the CPU was stuck to the heatsink. On the mainboard there was this area with dots which the CPU goes into.

When I was done the PC stopped working. I tried another GPU but that didn't help. When I power up the PC everything runs. All fans, including on the mainboard, run and make noise but the screen stays blank.

I assume that I somehow broke the CPU or didn't insert it back properly. Is it possible that I maybe didn't put the CPU perfectly into the holes?

What I really want to know is, how do I get the CPU off the heatsink? It was stuck on it because of the thermal paste. I have a thermal paste (arctic silver) and a cleaning kit but I can't clean the paste if it's stuck to something else.
 
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Jaxem

Jaxem

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Jul 22, 2013
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grasp the cpu between your thumb and forefinger by diagonal corners and gently twist it back and forth, it will come off, if not heat it up a bit (however necessary) and the thermal grease will loosen. If your CPU is PGA, check all the pins for bending/breakage, and clean out the socket very well. If not LGA, check your socket very well.
 
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Z

Zooshooter

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Feb 8, 2013
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To get the cpu off the heatsink, get some nail polish remover (acetone based) and some rubbing alcohol. The higher the concentration of rubbing alcohol you can get, the better. Also get some q-tips if you don't have any, or cotton balls; I prefer q-tips. Soak the head of one q-tip in the nail polish remover and moisten around the edges of the CPU with the wet q-tip. Re-soak the head of the q-tip as often as necessary to make sure that you're leaving a bit on the heatsink. This will soak into and loosen up the dried thermal paste.

Once the old thermal paste is loose you should be able to rotate or slide the CPU until it comes off the heatsink. Once it is off you should clean the CPU AND heatsink with the rubbing alcohol. You may need to clean them repeatedly until the q-tips or cotton balls you are using come up clean after scrubbing them on the heatsink/CPU. Once you have that done you will be ready to put the new thermal paste on.

As far as putting the CPU back in to the motherboard correctly, there is really only one way that the CPU will fit in the socket (in most cases). You can take the CPU back off of the motherboard to check. If you see any pins that are bent/not sticking straight down from the CPU board, then you put it in incorrectly. If the pins are bent badly enough you may not be able to fix them. If you do remove the CPU and find bent pins, take a picture and post it here and we will be able to determine whether or not trying to straighten them will be likely to be successful or not.
 
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J

jitpublisher

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May 16, 2006
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You can most certainly ruin the cpu, and the board too by pulling cpu loose from the socket while it is locked into place. You should first warm it up by doing something cpu intensive, then remove the heat sink by gently twisting back and forth. Dont try to lift until you are certain it has come loose.
Removing the fan from the heatsink will let it warm up faster and get hotter, just dont let it get too hot.
 
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Z

Zooshooter

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Feb 8, 2013
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To get the cpu off the heatsink, get some nail polish remover (acetone based) and some rubbing alcohol. The higher the concentration of rubbing alcohol you can get, the better. Also get some q-tips if you don't have any, or cotton balls; I prefer q-tips. Soak the head of one q-tip in the nail polish remover and moisten around the edges of the CPU with the wet q-tip. Re-soak the head of the q-tip as often as necessary to make sure that you're leaving a bit on the heatsink. This will soak into and loosen up the dried thermal paste.

Once the old thermal paste is loose you should be able to rotate or slide the CPU until it comes off the heatsink. Once it is off you should clean the CPU AND heatsink with the rubbing alcohol. You may need to clean them repeatedly until the q-tips or cotton balls you are using come up clean after scrubbing them on the heatsink/CPU. Once you have that done you will be ready to put the new thermal paste on.

As far as putting the CPU back in to the motherboard correctly, there is really only one way that the CPU will fit in the socket (in most cases). You can take the CPU back off of the motherboard to check. If you see any pins that are bent/not sticking straight down from the CPU board, then you put it in incorrectly. If the pins are bent badly enough you may not be able to fix them. If you do remove the CPU and find bent pins, take a picture and post it here and we will be able to determine whether or not trying to straighten them will be likely to be successful or not.
 
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nyxanna

nyxanna

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Apr 16, 2011
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I opened everything up again and took the heatsink, fan and CPU out. It's true. some are slightly bent. I doubt I put it in correctly.
Funny thing is that it was me who built the PC back then in 2004.

There's a picture of it
http://img819.imageshack.us/img819/2184/efui.jpg

I wasn't able to take a good picture of the pins with my 8 mp phone camera. It was always too blurry but you can see at the top that there is one bent.

I guess I'll try to somehow get the CPU off. I tried moving it around but it wouldn't move. If I recall correctly I used a lot of paste back then since I thought the more the better.
 
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Z

Zooshooter

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Feb 8, 2013
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Definitely give that thing a soak. I recommended acetone based nail polish remover but you can also use just the rubbing alcohol, it'll just take a little longer for the alcohol to penetrate and you may need to re-apply it as it is likely going to evaporate before it soaks in far enough. On the plus side, rubbing alcohol is nice & cheap.
 
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