No beep, no power LED, fans work

[ccwild]

Hi all, I hope I'm posting in the correct forum. If not please redirect me.

My computer died on me yesterday. It is not a new build (I built it 9 mos. ago). Being that I use the comp mainly for music production, it satys on almost all the time. Yesterday when I returned home, the computer was off. I tried to turn it back on and didn't get a beep and the Power LED wouldn't light up.

the HDD light stays on and all fans are working. the MB light is also on.

Could this be the psu, mb, or cpu causing the problem.

While trying to troubleshoot, I noticed that the cd and dvd drives wouldn't open unless the ide cables were removed (mb problem maybe?). And when I removed the heatsink from the cpu I noticed that the thermal paste was dry and chalky to the touch (is that normal).

I tried to boot without heatsink and the cpu did'nt warm up at all (bad cpu, or mb?).

After that I tried to boot without the 12v p4 connected thinking maybe that part of the psu had failed being that it is a cheap so-called 500w psu that came with the case, I had the same response (no beep, no power LED, fans were working and harddrives spinning, and of course no heat from the processor). This led me to believe that the psu had failed in some sort of way.

oh, and i also tried clearing CMOS

here are my specs:

AMD 64 3200+
ASUS K8N-E mb
1 gig Crucial ram
Thermaltake heatsink
4 160 gig 7200 RPM hdd (for audio storage)
Promise 133 ATA controller

sorry for the long post, but I was just trying to answer some questions that might come up.

Any help or suggestions would be greatly appreciated.

[Cricket]

Try another compatible power supply first.

You really should never try to power up a computer without the CPU heatsink installed, especially the newer processors as they run pretty hot. You can actually fry a CPU dead in just a few seconds (if the thermal protection circuit can't respond fast enough).

Cricket

[jfk]

I'd bet on the PSU having gone bad.

[Alfie]

I would suspect power supply,if it was a cheap one it may have taken other components with it.
Starting a computer with no heatsink attached to cpu spells death to the cpu,if no heat was produced,cpu is either dead or it's not getting power.
Start with the power supply and try to get a quality supply.

[ccwild]

Thanks for the quick replies.

I'll order me a new psu tonight, hopefully that's the prob.

[ccwild]

I just plugged in my new Antec 500W psu (ATX and 12v p4 only) and I heard the post "beep" and I also had a Power LED light.....I'm estatic!!!!!

I'm about to hook up all other drives and things now...wish me luck.

oh BTW, as I mentioned before, the thermal paste on the underside of my thermaltake heatsink is dry and chalky (I think I remember it being wet and gooey upon first install). Will this be sufficient for now or should I just use the AMD heatsink with the thermal pad (the one that came with the processor)

Thanks again

[sgtspector]

Clean it and apply a new thermal compound, either the paste or a pad. You may very likely have heat problems now that you have moved the heatsink from the processor. There will be air gaps. Play it safe and re-apply

[ccwild]

Thanks sgt, I just put the OEM heatsink on for now until I can get some thermal paste.


Everything is working fine now......whewwwwww (now I can get back to making music)

Thanks for all of the insight, you all have been great......

[glc]

Just use the OEM heatsink - the Thermaltake isn't any better.