what could have killed my processor?

[CyberGhost]

i have Dell Dimension 8250, and yesterday i wanted to appy a thermal paste - arctic silver 5

put my wrist strep on

opened the case, removed the heat sink, cleaned it with acetone, removed the cpu cleaned it(only the heat spreader) with an aceton too, applied the paste, very carefully with a piece of plastic from floppy disk's latch, installed the cpu, heat sink, triple checked that everything is fine, started the computer and band 11 beeps, dell's code = cpu dead

i just don't get it, how the hell? i even touched the metal(do remove the static electrocity) before i started to work and put my antistatic band on, i didn't bend any pins on the cpu, it was on my desk and none of pins were bent

any ideas?

[Bovon]

Take the cpu back out, clean it up again, look carefully at the edges of the cpu core (assuming it is an AMD cpu) and see if you see any chipped edges/corner.

I am not familiar with Intel cpu's, and if there is no exposed core, then I donno..but, chipping the edges of a core is the most prominent cause of killing a cpu when removing and reinstalling a heatsink inside the case... and not using a shim to help protect the cpu.

[thekingofpain]

Heatsink isnt on backwards or fan unplugged by any chance?

[butch81385]

heatsink backwards? as in the fins facing the processor?????

[DVNT1]

Originally posted by butch81385
heatsink backwards? as in the fins facing the processor?????

I would expect he meant rotated 180degrees. If so, the processor would quickly overheat because of the lack of contact with the heatsink.

[Gettinbye]

When you applied the thermal compund, did you apply it ONLY to the CPU core? Arctic Silver has this posted in reguards to Arctic Silver 5:
" Arctic Silver 5 should be kept away from electrical traces, pins, and leads. While it is not electrically conductive, the compound is very slightly capacitive and could potentially cause problems if it bridges two close-proximity electrical paths.)"
If the CPU core is not chipped or cracked, try cleaning the thermal compund off of everything but the CPU core...

[CyberGhost]

no, the heatsink is correct, fan is connected

i applied the paste to the heatsink but then wiped it off cleanly, then i applied paste to the cpu, to cover the whole heatsink(not a sick layer)

i can't see the cracks or anything, the cpu has it's own heatspreader on it, i can't take it off, and i don't see/smell smoke

[thekingofpain]

Id say its a P4 or Northwood Celeron since it has a heatspreader on it---I doubt it is fried, its probably not installed properly, bent pins, or malfunction of the mb...

----->Its a 3.06 P4 (hope it aint dead, 250$ cpu)---is it still under Dell's warranty?

If you covered the entire h/s

then i applied paste to the cpu, to cover the whole heatsink

with AS you did get alittle wild with it, it only needs to be applied to the metal spreader---(actually using AS voids your Intel warranty, retail pad only on those babys)

[CyberGhost]

mobo works

it's installed properly! no pins damaged, i checked it

yes, it's under the warrenty, but i was just interested what happened

i only applied to the spreader