Welcome guest. Before posting on our computer help forum, you must register. Click here it's easy and free.

Author Topic: Just cleaned the heat sink..now nothing!  (Read 5633 times)

0 Members and 1 Guest are viewing this topic.

octoberman

  • Guest
Just cleaned the heat sink..now nothing!
« on: October 01, 2007, 06:34:09 PM »
I believe my computer was overheating (kept freezing for no reason, tried everything from various scans to driver updates to all hardware replacement except processor, opened it up, put a fan on it and seemed to remedy) so I took the little fan off the processor, cleaned off the excess dust there and from the heat sink, put them back on...now nothing!  What did I do?  It gets power, the fans spin on processor and case, the drives start spinning, I can see the little light on the motherboard, but it won't go out of the standby mode "yellow light" situation, the keyboard & monitor won't come on.  Did I do it this time?  Was trying to help myself hurt me irrepairably?  I've got:

Gateway 1.3Ghz P4
1.2G RAM
Windows XP SP2
40G HD & 20G slave drive (storage)

Obsolesce

  • Guest
Re: Just cleaned the heat sink..now nothing!
« Reply #1 on: October 01, 2007, 06:42:39 PM »
Turn off the computer (disconnect everything) and pull out the battery on the motherboard for 30 seconds and put it back in. (looks like a pancake) Then turn on your computer.

Let me know if that works or not... if not I have a few more things to do.

The Saviour

  • Guest
Re: Just cleaned the heat sink..now nothing!
« Reply #2 on: October 01, 2007, 06:50:55 PM »
BTW...what did you use to clean the heatsink?

matt

  • Guest
Re: Just cleaned the heat sink..now nothing!
« Reply #3 on: October 01, 2007, 09:41:48 PM »
Did you remove just the fan or did you also detach the heatsink from the processor/motherboard?

octoberman

  • Guest
Re: Just cleaned the heat sink..now nothing!
« Reply #4 on: October 02, 2007, 10:07:02 AM »
Removed the battery, put back in...still no go.  I took the heat sink off of the processor, took the fan off of the heat sink to clean out both.  The heat sink only goes one way onto the holder on the motherboard, well, one way or the other, and I tried both ways.  You can see the spot where the heat sink rests on the processor.  There was a good bit of dust on both sink and fan, having not cleaned it out before now, and used a small dry soft brush to get down between the blade tines of the heat sink...o.m.g.!  You don't suppose I created static with the brush do you?   :o

The Saviour

  • Guest
Re: Just cleaned the heat sink..now nothing!
« Reply #5 on: October 02, 2007, 11:26:15 AM »
Nope...you just broke the thermal paste seal between the heatsink and the processor.

Now what you need to do is remove the old thermal paste compound and apply a new thin layer between the processor and the heatsink...being careful not to add too much...or too little.

Once you've done that...carefully put it back together and try again.

WillyW



    Specialist
  • Thanked: 29
  • Experience: Experienced
  • OS: Windows XP
.



octoberman

  • Guest
Re: Just cleaned the heat sink..now nothing!
« Reply #7 on: October 03, 2007, 09:48:48 AM »
Ahhhh, now that you mention it I do detect some residue on the processor and under the heatsink.  Well, I'm off to the computer store for some thermal grease, I'll let you know how it goes.  Hope I haven't already messed it up by turning it on without the grease, one of those help pages said that having it for as little as 10 seconds without the grease may hurt the processor.    :'(

Thanks a ton for all your help guys.  Here's hoping...

The Saviour

  • Guest
Re: Just cleaned the heat sink..now nothing!
« Reply #8 on: October 03, 2007, 09:55:32 AM »
You're welcome...

Please keep us posted...

octoberman

  • Guest
Re: Just cleaned the heat sink..now nothing!
« Reply #9 on: October 06, 2007, 01:22:20 PM »
Well, I'm afraid it's still a no go after the thermal compound procedure.  You know, I'm one of those guys who knows just enough to get himself in trouble, and I've had the freezing problem for quite a while and after trying every remedy known to man I'd thought I'd finally got a handle on it by thinking it was an overheating problem, but now I've got nothing and right now the intermitent freezing problem looks pretty good.

But thanks again for your help and suggestions!

patio

  • Moderator


  • Genius
  • Maud' Dib
  • Thanked: 1769
    • Yes
  • Experience: Beginner
  • OS: Windows 7
Re: Just cleaned the heat sink..now nothing!
« Reply #10 on: October 06, 2007, 02:53:31 PM »
Swap in a known good PSU of the same or greater wattage and see what happens...
" Anyone who goes to a psychiatrist should have his head examined. "

octoberman

  • Guest
Re: Just cleaned the heat sink..now nothing!
« Reply #11 on: October 07, 2007, 10:52:30 AM »
Swap in a known good PSU of the same or greater wattage and see what happens...

Actually that was the last change I made, hardware-wise, before I decided it was probably an overheating issue...I'd gotten a higher wattage power supply.  The thing is the freezing problem was so intermittent and everytime I thought I'd gotten a handle on it, it would come back.  This was through 2 OS changes, various driver updates, scans for worms, virus, trojans and other various malware, and as I said, upgrading every piece of hardware (cards, drives, power supply's, etc.).  There'd be times when it would behave for weeks after I did something I thought corrected the problem, then it would start again.  At times I thought I was going insane, esp. when at one point it seemed it would only crash during the week and would run normally on Saturday and Sunday!

Just making a long story longer, I installed a program that Intel has that monitors core temperature, and as I said, when I opened up the case and put a regular table-top fan right on the processor it tended not to do it.  Having tried everything else I was thinking that was finally the solution.  At any rate re-booting would always bring me back, but now I got nothin'.

Spero-T

  • Guest
Re: Just cleaned the heat sink..now nothing!
« Reply #12 on: October 08, 2007, 05:30:50 AM »
Check every thing you removed is seated...

Other than that i would say power supply....

Is it a dell by any chance ?

octoberman

  • Guest
Re: Just cleaned the heat sink..now nothing!
« Reply #13 on: October 08, 2007, 11:00:11 AM »
Check every thing you removed is seated...

Other than that i would say power supply....

Is it a dell by any chance ?

No, it's a Gateway, and that might be another issue.  Now I hate to be one of those who slags off on one particular brand cause I know there are those who'll have problems with just about any brand, but over the course of trying to get a handle on this I've seen into quite a bit of discussion on the Web about Gateway...I mean there's a lot out there who have issues.  I've even seen something about there being issues with certain motherboards and CPU's of a certain time period that Gateway had.  Funny thing, when I was in getting the thermal compound I stopped by to take a look at the new systems, cause you know, ultimately that's what I'll end up having to do (the old thing about if I'd'a used the money sunk into trying to fix the problem I could'a bought a new one by now) and I overheard a salesman steering a customer away from one of the few Gateway systems they had there...ha!

patio

  • Moderator


  • Genius
  • Maud' Dib
  • Thanked: 1769
    • Yes
  • Experience: Beginner
  • OS: Windows 7
Re: Just cleaned the heat sink..now nothing!
« Reply #14 on: October 08, 2007, 04:30:11 PM »
Quote
Just making a long story longer, I installed a program that Intel has that monitors core temperature, and as I said, when I opened up the case and put a regular table-top fan right on the processor it tended not to do it.

This leads me to believe it is indeed a heat related issue.
" Anyone who goes to a psychiatrist should have his head examined. "