mbru7

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Apr 27, 2012
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Background:

So about two week ago got a Cooler Master Hyper N 520 heatsink and installed it with no problem. I was pleased to see that my temperatures dropped by 40 C. I got this heatsink because my cpu was running hot sometimes reaching 90 C on full load. Since my temperatures were very low after getting the new heatsink I figured I could overclock my AMD Phenom x4 955 BE. I used an Asus bios feature to overclock it. I overclocked it by 10%. My max cpu temperature was getting to about 45 C at max. Sometimes my computer would just randomly restart at it would say overclock error. After this happened 3 times in a week i turned the overclocking off. Also, since my temperatures were lower, I figured I could slow down one of my noisy case fans. Since I didn't have PWM control on this fan I looked up a different method to slow it down. I found that you could mix the wires up and plug it into the power supply so it gets 7 V instead of 12 V. I did this and it worked, the fan was slowed down. Then after about a my computer randomly turned off, I tried to turn it back on but it would power up for about 2 seconds and then turn off again. I disconnected a bunch of things including the fan getting 7 V from the power supply, reset CMOS and reconnected everything but the fan and then it started working again. I then reconnected the fan and it still worked. A couple hours later I left and left the computer on and I came back to see it shut off and not able to boot up.

Problem:

When I try to boot my computer all that happens is the fans spin for a second and then stop spinning and that's it.

What I've tried:

-I shorted my power supply so it could run with nothing plugged in and it ran fine. I even attached a fan to it and the fan ran along with the power supply. I also used a multimeter and tested all the 24-pin connections and received correct readings for all the voltages.
-I also took the motherboard out of the case and put it on a cardboard box, cleared the CMOS, put the CMOS back in. I then plugged in only one stick of ram, the power supply to the motherboard, the processor/heatsink, and the heatsink fan. Again the same thing happened, the fans spun once and it doesn't boot. I also switched between my sticks of ram and same thing.

Additional Note:

-Also after the last and final time that the computer shut down and wouldn't boot up when only the fans spun once, I disconnected everything and when I was taking the heatsink off I kind of yanked the processor out of the socket. I looked at it and a couple pins were bent so i unbent them and it fit in the socket just fine. I don't think this killed the processor since after this happened the computer wouldn't boot up the same as before this happened.
-Also there is a tiny bit of thermal grease on some of the cpu fins, it's a very tiny amount, I don't know if it matters.
-My motherboard is a M4A785T-M

I don't know what's wrong with it... Is it the CPU, mobo? Or maybe power supply?

Thanks for any help
 
I have a revelation here... Somethings wrong
a few more systems specs could help... got AMD Phenom x4 955 BE, Asus M4A785T-M mobo, and a CM Hyper520 cpu cooler... what else? HDD's, ram, GPU, PSU all that good stuff - off hand I would think PSU issues but, if tested... not so sure
 

mbru7

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Apr 27, 2012
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GPU: XFX GTS 250
RAM: Kingston HyperX 8GB (2 x 4GB) 240-Pin DDR3 SDRAM DDR3 1600 (PC3 12800)
PSU: Thermaltake PP-550PL1MC 550W
HD: Hitachi Deskstar 7200RPM, 500GB
 

mbru7

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Apr 27, 2012
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I was thinking it might be the motherboard too. However, I don't know if this matters but there is an LED light on the motherboard that lights up when it's plugged in. So the motherboard is getting power. Could it still be bad?
 

egilbe

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Nov 17, 2011
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Yep, it could still be bad. It it's getting power, doesn't mean that the power is being used correctly.
 
You could try and RMA the board but I'm thinking that if the CPU pins left marks on the socket (from when they were bent - I missed that earlier) or find thermal paste there, they might not accept it.
Contact Asus customer support... they'll ask what you did (you might want to neglect the yanking of the CPU part) as far as trouble shooting, maybe suggest something or another, then direct you how to RMA the board