Wow my machine died?

[EVGAndy]

I cleaned out my computer, specifically cleaned out dust from the GPU and reapplied new thermal greese. After doing this and trying to restart the computer fires up but only shows a blank screen.

I tried swapping out my 680 with a different card. nothing. Tried a different slot, nothing.

I just can't believe this is happening. The only possibility I can come up with is that the mobo somehow got damaged during messing with the cpu heatsink.

 

[mikerockett]

How did you clean out the dust? Sometimes you can build up static while cleaning out that can damage components.

Also i would check you have reseated the heatsink correctly on the CPU.

 

[EVGAndy]

I should add my system specs

i5 2500k
asus motherboard
corsair hx750
16gb g.skill ram
EVGA GTX680

I suppose its possible I shorted something. How do I determine what it is? I think it may be the motherboard.

I do not think it is the heatsink because even if the heatsink wasn't on, the machine would still start right?

I noticed that the 2 internal fans on the Asus board do not run at all while the machine is on, but when I turn it off one starts up. very odd..and so very frustrating. I paid a lot for this machine and it looks like Im going to need to spend even more.

 

[mikerockett]

Run through the trouble shooting tips in the link below and we can narrow down the cause.

http://www.tomshardware.co.uk/forum/288241-13-buyer-guides-troubleshooting-tips

 

[Guest]

i've had same issue before, cleaned dust out of pc, stripped down then rebuilt only to find when i turn pc on i just had black screen no beeps nothing, i stripped motherboard back out removed cpu etc, then re-built it, reset the bios again, this time it worked, dont ask me why or what 1st problem was but it works again now, maybe my cpu was not seated correctly the first time although i cant really say.

 

[EVGAndy]

Tested psu and backup graphics card in another machine. Works fine. Will attempt to swap the Intel processor from old machine to new and see what happens...

 

[EVGAndy]

Hey guys, my computer is BACK. Apparently the last ram slot is damaged. Took out that unit and it ran fine.

 

[mikerockett]

Glad you found your issue. Good luck getting your build sorted

 

[RetiredChief]

On that ram/slot, try reseating it a couple of times.
Make sure you are gounded, Winter time = LOW relative humidity which means you can easily build up a charge. <1KV probably would never notice, but ram is 1.5V. Contrary to popular belief, you do NOT have to touch an exposed pin, just getting very close can induce a charge imbalance on an IC.

On the HSF being on correctly, you are correct, it would not have prevented initial power on as it would take a 20-> 60 sefor the CPU to reach "Shut down" temps (around 95C)