Memory upgrade attempt gone bad

[stalkingturkey]

Hi,

I recently became tired of having only 2gb of ram so i decided it was time to upgrade to 4gb. I purchased 2 sticks expected 2gb DDR2 800 Ram (4gb total) and expected a quick and simple switch. After removing the original memory and installing the new sticks, i started my computer only to find that it didn't post, boot, beep, or do any such action to indicate it would do so. The PSU appeared fine, all internal fans and LED's were working, and HDs were still spinning. However, i was getting no video signal on any of my 4 monitors (i run a project studio), and there is typically a bright blue LED that flickers on my motherboard, which indicates activity from my 2 Raptor HDs while they run through the onboard RAID.

I immediately thought that these were signs of bad RAM, since no display or posting is common with those problems. I decided to place the new sticks of Ram into the other DIMM slots (i have 4 total) and ensured they were matched correctly to run in dual channel). Still same symptoms. I tried to use one stick, still same result. I then placed the original Ram back, but this time, expexcting everything to work as normal. However, i experienced the same symptoms. I also tried to alternate DIMM slots just to make sure.h

I am beginning to think that this could be either a problem with the CPU or the Motherboard, even though the system had absolutely no problems before hand and i take care of it well. There is a chance that the CPU could have fried, since i then remembered a small error on my part: My cpu is watercooled, with a reservoir, and i made a mistake when i started the computer while it was still on its side (after installing the new ram) I then heard gargling in the loop, and i realized that the reservoir probably isn't filled to have enough water to fill the loop when placed on its side. It was on for about 5 seconds before i turned it off again, although i know that quad-cores tend to heat up very quickly. Honestly I woudn't know, since I've never fried a CPU before or had any such problems

My specs are as follows:

MSI P6n Diamond Motherboard
Intel Q6600 CPU, B3 stepping
     Overclocked to 3.2ghz
OCZ Flex XLC DDR2 800 RAM (Original)
     Voltage: 2.25V
     Timings: 3-4-4-15, 1T
     Speed: 800mhz
G-Skill Pi DDR2 800 RAM (New)
2 RaptorX 74gb HDD in RAID 0
     Silicon Onboard Hardware RAID
OCZ Gamextreme 800W PSU
M-Audio Delta 1010 Sound Card (recording)
Onboard Creative X-fi Sound (Playback)
Nvidia Geforce 8600 Video Card (1 CRT monitor, VGA, one LCD monitor, VGA)
Nvidia Gefore 6200LE Video Card (2 LCD monitors, 1 VGA, 1 DVI)

Thanks again for your help

[DaveLembke]

Might have cooked the CPU given that the 2.4 ghz was overclocked to 3.2 and the possibility of a cooling failure due to being on its side. Most CPUs have Thermal Throttling to protect from a burn up, but if overclocked I am not sure of the chips temp control can act fast enough to avoid disaster. If you had a spare CPU to use I would swap CPUs and see where that brings you with original Ram in it.

[stalkingturkey]

I asked my friend if i could swap out his Q6700 for mine. I tested it with both the original and new RAM, and it worked fine both times. We didn't want to try my 66 in his build to avoid having to clear the CMOS or any difficulty, but I think this is a pretty good indication that the CPU was fried. Oh well, i got 3 good years out of it, and my stupid mistakes were the only thing preventing me from squeezing another 3 or so out of it.

Thanks for the quick reply btw, your help was much appreciated