Possible bad CPU?

[jhguitars]

hi,
computer shut off, would not restart. was full of dust, capacitors looked bad.
replaced the the mobo with an exact match. still would not start. moved the memory sticks around, left 2 memory sticks out and it started right up, seemed to be working great, then it stoped again and won't start up??

 

[nforce4max]

If the cpu is dead it won't power up, you can remove the cooler and place your finger on the ihs on the cpu then try to power up the system. If it is dead you will not feel any heat. If you do feel heat quickly hit the switch on the back of the psu. That trick sometimes helps on ancient systems where it can be tricky to figure out if there is any life left in old boards.

 

[jsc]

If capacitors look bad, why are you worried about the CPU?

Clean the system out (be careful not to let the fans freewheel).

Check all of the wiring.

If still inoperative, work systematically through our standard checklist and troubleshooting thread:
http://www.tomshardware.com/forum/261145-31-read-posting-boot-problems
I mean work through, not just read over it. We spent a lot of time on this. It should find most of the problems.

 

[jhguitars]

If capacitors look bad, why are you worried about the CPU?

Clean the system out (be careful not to let the fans freewheel).

Check all of the wiring.

If still inoperative, work systematically through our standard checklist and troubleshooting thread:
http://www.tomshardware.com/forum/261145-31-read-posting-boot-problems
I mean work through, not just read over it. We spent a lot of time on this. It should find most of the problems.

Bad mobo replaced with exact model and rev #.

Started up after moving memory around. Now it can get to bios but all I get on the monitor after that is flashes or streams of colors???
A local computer geek(wish I was one) said that a bad cpu is one cause of the multi-color streams. After replacing the mobo, started thinking about the onboard graphics, bought a decent graphics card in hopes that might be the problem, will reset bios from onboard to PCI and give that a try.
Yes, I will go thoroughly through your checklist, I'm at work and on call, can finally post questions but cannot work on the computer for a few days.
Thanks very much for your reply. You guys do a really great job and are the only source that friends have recommended to me, I hear only great things.
So, thanks again,
Jim

 

[jhguitars]

If the cpu is dead it won't power up, you can remove the cooler and place your finger on the ihs on the cpu then try to power up the system. If it is dead you will not feel any heat. If you do feel heat quickly hit the switch on the back of the psu. That trick sometimes helps on ancient systems where it can be tricky to figure out if there is any life left in old boards.

Are you saying that I should feel(touch) the heat sink and NOT touch the cpu directly??
Sorry, I used thermal paste a fews times and read a warning about skin oil, but I truly don't know if harm can be done.
Thanks

 

[jhguitars]

If capacitors look bad, why are you worried about the CPU?

Clean the system out (be careful not to let the fans freewheel).

Check all of the wiring.

If still inoperative, work systematically through our standard checklist and troubleshooting thread:
http://www.tomshardware.com/forum/261145-31-read-posting-boot-problems
I mean work through, not just read over it. We spent a lot of time on this. It should find most of the problems.

fans and "freewheel", are the fans subject to break??

I am truly trying to learn something here and not just take this to have someone else fix it or worse, just buy a new one.
This is a 2 year old HP pavillion, AMD phenom x4 9150e.

Thanks for taking time to help.

 

[nforce4max]

Are you saying that I should feel(touch) the heat sink and NOT touch the cpu directly??
Sorry, I used thermal paste a fews times and read a warning about skin oil, but I truly don't know if harm can be done.
Thanks

Just the cpu directly and no skin oils won't ruin anything. The ihs has very very thick nickle electroplate so nothing can hurt. You can clean up the old compound after or slap the cooler back on for testing until you get everything running well again then change the compound.