installed a new CPU cooler and now something is dead

[wonglf]

I installed my Tuniq Tower yesterday and started up my system. when it loaded up first i thought it was taking a bit longer than ususal, and then was quite slow when it started. i opened TAT and my core temps were 20c lower than they used to be so i figured i installed it ok.

i then restarted my computer to have a bit of an overclock, every time i changed something in BIOS it would freeze as soon as i pressed enter to change another setting. i saved it after each change and changed my ram timings and then my vcore (increased slightly, still <1.4v), booted it up just to see the difference in temp, then when i pressed the stress button on TAT to see the change in temps it froze. i restarted it and then came back a few minutes later and it was frozen on my screensaver. i restarted it again and nothing happens. the lights turn on and it spins up a bit (not as loudly as normal), but my monitor stays blank (on standby so its not receiving a signal). i put a jumper on the cmos reset but still nothing happens. I took out the CMOS battery for a few minutes and stil nothing. Finally i left the battery out all night and removed all non essential hardware and this morning still nothing.

I've read elsewhere that these are the symptoms of a dead board but i cant figure out how putting a better CPU cooler on would have that effect. the only thing i could think of would be because the Tuniq screws down quite tightly.


Specs:
Motherboard: Gigabyte GA-965P-S3 (rev 1.0)
Motherboard BIOS: F9
CPU: Intel E6600 (stock speed)
Memory: 4x512 Corsair Value S. PC4200 DDR2 1024MB
Memory Latency: 5-5-5-15
PSU: Tagan i-Xeye 420W
Graphics: XFX Geforce 7300GT
Graphics Driver: latest
Sound Card: Creative X-Fi Xtreme-music
Sound Driver: latest
Operating system: Windows XP SP2

[doubledragon5]

Remove the heatsink/fan again and make sure the cpu is fine.. You have to remember that by installing a after market heaksink/fan you void your cpu warrant. Try reinstalling the original cpu clear cmos agian and reboot. If all fails then you might have a faulty mb.. Also try one stick of ram at a time and see if that makes a difference.. Faulty ram can also cause freeze up problems...

[wonglf]

i tried the ram already, still no response. i reseated the HSF and still no joy. i can figure out how i could have damaged either of them though, i didnt really do anything to either. my CPU was running colder than before so the HSF was obviously on right, i didnt touch the motherboard. the only thing i can think of is if the cooler was on too tight but i only screwed it in with my fingers.
how can i tell if its my MB or CPU thats broken???

[doubledragon5]

My next suggestion is to run memtest anyway on that ram. You might want to loosing up those screws a little bit it might becausing it to short out. You don't want the screws to the mb to tight, because you can crack the board as wel.. If this doesn't help then you may have to rma the board...

[wonglf]

how can i memtest the ram, my computer wont start??? the screws are a bit looser now but they werent amazingly tight to start with, theres springs on them to stop you screwing too much and they're not completely compressed.

[doubledragon5]

I forgot sorry If all else fails then rma the board..

[LeftyAce]

Try this: http://forum.pcmech.com/showthread.php?t=132409
Take the motherboard out of the case for testing. That'll help us narrow down whether it's a motherboard installation problem or a hardware issue.

[wonglf]

ok i'll give this one a try, thanks for the help