Computer won't start, serious problem

[BastardX]

I installed windows 2000 yesterday and the computer was working fine more or less fine. Today before I started it up again I put it in a network card and another stick of ram (there was 1 stick of 512 before now there were 2) and I messed with the heatsink a little. I was trying to unlatch it but it seemed like I wouldn't be able to get it off unless I took out the mobo. I decided to wait on working with the heatsink and hooked the comp back up and now when I turn it on the standard beep that I heard before is now really really long and it keeps doing it, the computer won't turn on and I seriously even smelled something burning.

I thought it might be the cpu so I reinstalled the cpu and heatsink, didn't change anything.
It keeps doing the same long beep again and again, what the beeps mean isn't covered in the manual but does anyone know what that means usually?

Also... when I first built it I put on a little too much arctic silver. There's some of it on the non-core part of the cpu and even a little bit of arctic silver residue touching the pins on the bottom of the cpu (don't laugh at me I was just trying to wipe some off and it smeared to the bottom). Would that kill the cpu- is the cpu even the problem?

Thanks.

[Confused]

Continous beeping can be ram. Have you tried booting by taking out the second stick you added.
Chas

[Cricket]

Hi BastardX,

The long beep could also be an over-heat alarm.

Cricket

[BastardX]

Yeah I tried taking the ram back out, it's not it. I had all 1024 mb in when I first booted up but took out a stick to install the OS.

Overheat huh... crap. K there's a big mess of wires I'll try to unscramble them a bit... errr

[andyms18a]

you may have burnt out the cpu remove it and look for burn marks

[catfishjoe_1]

Ok this is gonna seem harsh and don't do it until the very last thing you get info on from here. And if this is wrong someone please YELL. With the artic silver off the core and on the pins it is possible you are shorting the pins and this could be part of the problem. Remember do this as a last resort/hope! Find a can of electronics parts cleaner that will not carry a charge. You can sometimes find this at a tv repair shop. And if you have a friend who works on electronics the friend will probably know where to get it. Take the cpu out and spray it very well with the parts wash, until it runs off this will rinse the artic silver away. Repeat until no more A S comes out. Let the cpu dry thoroughly and cross your fingers. Remember, this is a last resort and if it don't work you probably have an expensive (useless) peice of plastic and gold/copper/platinum. Good luck
cat