Motherboard or CPU dead?

I was switching the cooler on my TBird this morning and it was a tight fit so it took a bit of brute force to get it off. Afterwards there was a bunch of silver chips on the surface of the chip

Anyways, with the new cooler on I switched the PC on and nothing, fnas came on, lights came on but disks didnt spin up and no signal to the monitor.

I took out the RAM and got 3 long beeps, (manual says no RAM) - how can I tell whether this is a MB or CPU problem?

Thanks

Take a look at the CPU- does it appear damaged. Also make sure you didn;t break/bend any pins somehow, and that the motherboard has no apparent gashes. Otherwise, replace teh CPU and see what happens.

U got a problem?! Then dial 1800-328-7448!

Replace the CPU, that will probably fix your problem. Unless, of course, you can see damage on the mobo itself.

The silver chips might have been flaking from the restraining arm (what's the proper term for that piece?) on the heatsink. I've found that when I use a flathead screwdriver on some particularly tough 'sinks, sometimes it scrapes a bit of the metal from the clamp, resulting in silver flakes.

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