My PC won't boot - have I destroyed it

[bruce123]

My computer was not booting up and freezing the whole time so I decided to try and clean it. During cleaning, I removed the heat sink and the CPU chip that resides beneath, I then replaced it back as I had found it. I then removed the battery that sits on the board and replaced it, I then removed what I think are the two processor boards, cleaned them and replaced them back.

 

All the cleaning was done with a soft cotton cloth.

 

I then plugged the computer back up and now it won't boot, it is like the start up settings are lost. It just says that a read error occurred, press control-alt-delete to restart.

 

Please help - what can I do to get it going without losing all the data on my hard drive.

 

Thanks

[BeeCeeBee]

Hi Bruce and welcome!

 

I am not sure where to begin because there are a number of things that may have happened so I will deal with the most likely. Removing the CPU was not a good move. There is a very good likelihood that you bent one of the many pins and even one bent pin will cause the PC to fail.

 

What you are going to have to do is remove the CPU again (and you really should be properly grounded when you do any of this.) BUT before you do you should have a very strong magnifier or glasses available. Look at the pins closely and try to find any that are out of line.

 

Look from the top sides etc. You will need to move them into alignment with a small device of some kind. If you do it right and you are sure you are putting it back in the right direction, it should give almost no resistance.

 

Next remove the memory again (what you referred to as the processor boards) and make sure they are seated perfectly. They should be installed with equal pressure from above and not rocked in one side at a time. In fact, as I think about it, you may want to try this first and reboot the computer and hope that it works.

 

As far as your data is concerned, what you have done probably has not effected the surface of the hard drive and hopefully all is still safely there.

Edited December 30, 2008 by BeeCeeBee

[bruce123]

beeceebee,

 

thank you - it seems to have worked!! It's amazing! I am now booting it in safe mode and have all my fingers crossed that it will be ok.

 

Thank you so much, I was reading another post about a similar error to mine and it was suggested that the hard drive was broken.

 

Thanks also for correcting me on the memory boards - I'm a novice.

[Tootech]

When you removed the heatsink did you clean off all the old heatsink paste from the mating surfaces - ie the underside of the heatsink and the top surface of the CPU. Did you then apply a new layer of heatsink paste during reassembly?

 

If not, you need to do that this before powering on your PC again.

 

It's really important because if you havn't and attempt to power up it's possible your CPU cannot dissipate the heat it is generating and that can lead to almost instananeous CPU failure.

 

 

Let us know and we can take it from there.

[bruce123]

That sounds terrible! Yes I did clean off the heat sink paste, I was reading a few posts on that issue.

 

I will try and get some more paste and apply it.

 

Many thanks

[Tootech]

Is it running without heatsink paste at the moment?

 

If so, switch it off until you have some.

[BeeCeeBee]

thank you - it seems to have worked!!

 

Could you please let us know what IT is that worked. Thanks!

[bruce123]

beeceebee,

 

it was the pulling out the memory boards and replacing them that got it going again.

 

And I have now turned the computer off to save the CPU from failure.

 

many thanks

[Tootech]

Thanks for the info.

 

You've got this far, last thing we want is for your CPU to overheat.

 

:)

[blulite]

just a quick bit of advice,lol, the next time you want to clean the guts of your pc. especially the cpu, nip down to your local pc shop and buy an air duster. an air duster is a can of compressed air that squirts air into all the nooks and crannies. thus blowing away all the nasty crap. :D

[jamesbrown]

also

 

Hi There,

 

Also, make sure you are really careful about static. Shocks can happen without you even realising it, and before you know it, you're components are fried.

 

I use an antistatic wrist band, really really cheep and worth it.

[Dalo Harkin]

just a quick bit of advice,lol, the next time you want to clean the guts of your pc. especially the cpu, nip down to your local pc shop and buy an air duster. an air duster is a can of compressed air that squirts air into all the nooks and crannies. thus blowing away all the nasty crap. :D

 

 

And only use this in short bursts as it can cause condensation on components

[DirtyPolo]

Just commenting also,

 

That depending on what CPU you have, AMD or Intel, you may not have to worry about pins and only AMD processor chips use pins, whereas intel chips use... well... chips! :)

 

Also, on some chips you can actually break off one or two pins and it will still work, because not all chips are needed all the time,

 

However I am not recommending if you break a few pins, you carry on using that processor, you should still rpelace it :P