I have a home built computer, bit over a year old now, running asus p6t mobo and an i7-920, a 9600gso gpu, etc. All has been running fine except the temps have been a bit on the high side, and when I was running all 8 cores for CFD calculations, realtemp was saying that it was up around 90-100c. So obviously that is an issue, which means I've always had to only use 3/8 cores max to keep the temperature reasonable.
After some research I thought the heatsink (stock intel) might not be seated properly so I opened the case up and fidgeted around with that a bit but it seemed okay. I vacuumed the case out and went to turn the computer back on and to my dissapointment not much happened. Basically what happens is while the fans start up and the general "whir" of the computer is going, there is no power to any USBs or any communication with the monitor (I can't get into bios). As far as I can tell, there is no communication with the hard drive either - there's no clicking and the hd activity light remains blank. However, the motherboard power light and all fans are running, as well as the video card fan, etc. I've taken the video card out, two sticks of ram, unplugged both the optical and hard drive, and still have nothing. By nothing I mean there is no beep from the motherboard. I've also taken out all sticks of ram and tried to start up, because from what I understand the mobo should beep if there is no ram, but it did not. I think it is a cpu or motherboard that I've fried? Not sure how to diagnose the problem because I don't have extra i7 cpus, or i7 mobos just lying around...
Also, I have taken the cpu out and all the pins seem okay, I've cleaned the thermal paste off both the cpu and heatsink and am waiting for an aftermarket heatsink/paste to get here so I can put the cpu back in and fire it up. Could I have unseated the heatsink even more when I was messing with it, and then the cpu wouldn't fire up because of temperature reasons?
Also I think when I applied the thermal paste the first time I put too much on because when I cleaned it off it seemed too thick and that would help explain the weirdly high temperatures.
Any ideas on what I could do to figure out what is wrong? There is a microcenter near where I work so I could pick up another i7 tomorrow and try it... but I'm not sure what happens if it doesn't work - I don't really want to be stuck with an extra processor if i can help it. Could I return the cpu?
It is worth noting that there are no burn marks anywhere on the motherboard or cpu that I can tell. Everything looks to be inorder and I do get power to the mobo etc when I start up. I feel like it is the cpu, but I don't know whether or not I actually fried it, or if the heatsink was simply not properly attached and it won't turn on.
I really would appreciate any help you guys could give, I do have a multimeter so I can measure voltages if necessary though I kinda broke one of the tabs on my stock heatsink when I finally took it out to clean so that's another reason I'm waiting for the aftermarket one to try starting the computer... Therefore I can't turn the computer on until it gets here.
Worth noting: PSU is corsair 550w, real nice power supply... has had no issues and seems to be supplying power to all drives/fans etc. fine so I really do not think this is the problem.
After some research I thought the heatsink (stock intel) might not be seated properly so I opened the case up and fidgeted around with that a bit but it seemed okay. I vacuumed the case out and went to turn the computer back on and to my dissapointment not much happened. Basically what happens is while the fans start up and the general "whir" of the computer is going, there is no power to any USBs or any communication with the monitor (I can't get into bios). As far as I can tell, there is no communication with the hard drive either - there's no clicking and the hd activity light remains blank. However, the motherboard power light and all fans are running, as well as the video card fan, etc. I've taken the video card out, two sticks of ram, unplugged both the optical and hard drive, and still have nothing. By nothing I mean there is no beep from the motherboard. I've also taken out all sticks of ram and tried to start up, because from what I understand the mobo should beep if there is no ram, but it did not. I think it is a cpu or motherboard that I've fried? Not sure how to diagnose the problem because I don't have extra i7 cpus, or i7 mobos just lying around...
Also, I have taken the cpu out and all the pins seem okay, I've cleaned the thermal paste off both the cpu and heatsink and am waiting for an aftermarket heatsink/paste to get here so I can put the cpu back in and fire it up. Could I have unseated the heatsink even more when I was messing with it, and then the cpu wouldn't fire up because of temperature reasons?
Also I think when I applied the thermal paste the first time I put too much on because when I cleaned it off it seemed too thick and that would help explain the weirdly high temperatures.
Any ideas on what I could do to figure out what is wrong? There is a microcenter near where I work so I could pick up another i7 tomorrow and try it... but I'm not sure what happens if it doesn't work - I don't really want to be stuck with an extra processor if i can help it. Could I return the cpu?
It is worth noting that there are no burn marks anywhere on the motherboard or cpu that I can tell. Everything looks to be inorder and I do get power to the mobo etc when I start up. I feel like it is the cpu, but I don't know whether or not I actually fried it, or if the heatsink was simply not properly attached and it won't turn on.
I really would appreciate any help you guys could give, I do have a multimeter so I can measure voltages if necessary though I kinda broke one of the tabs on my stock heatsink when I finally took it out to clean so that's another reason I'm waiting for the aftermarket one to try starting the computer... Therefore I can't turn the computer on until it gets here.
Worth noting: PSU is corsair 550w, real nice power supply... has had no issues and seems to be supplying power to all drives/fans etc. fine so I really do not think this is the problem.