[MJM]

So I am home Christmas, but I leave tomorrow.
ASRock P4i45GV R5.01 and a Celeron D. Sorry no clue which one specifically.
I decided to clean out my Mum's PC before leaving. At some point I get to the CPU Fan and notice how much filth there is, so I want to take it off. Damn me, it's one of these new Intel ones that doesn't use screws, but still requires a screwdriver... see here. I finally get that thing off only to notice that there is also a lot of dirt in the heatsink. So, I want to take that off as well. Since the CPU is probably stuck to the sink I decided to let the PC warm it up for a bit (re-attached fan). But no, the damn thing still came off with the heatsink. I have no idea how the heck it happened, but I guess I used more force than I realised. Either way, seperated the two and checked the CPU for broken/bent pins. Surprisingly nothing could be seen.
So I cleaned the stuff up and applied new paste and put it back together.
Now the beauty is nothing works anymore. I hit the power switch and what initially happened was this:
Short power on, then power off (my Mum told me that always happens), then it sounds like it starts booting, but no image, then it shut itself off, stars again and just keeps going.
Nothing happens. First I thought, maybe the GFX is a goner, switched ot internal. Nothing still.
Cleared CMOS, nothing still.
Tomorrow I am getting another GFX card (the other's fan didn't spin - so maybe that's why).
The RAM is fine. I don't have another CPU/Motherboard to switch around, so that's out of question.

Now it usually just goes on and on with nothing to do.
It could always be bad capacitors, but like that, all of a sudden? No physical damage can be seen.

[philthomas]

Hate to say it, but it sounds like you have killed the CPU.

I take it you are getting no bleeps at power up ?

[MJM]

Originally Posted by philthomas

Hate to say it, but it sounds like you have killed the CPU.

I take it you are getting no bleeps at power up ?

Yup, no bleeps at all. I have no idea how I maanged to pull this one off. Now I'll have to try and find a cheap socket 478 processor somewhere.

[mcbee]

Which Celeron is it? I have a 478 Celeron but it's only a 1.7Ghz

[MJM]

Yeah, so I tried again today and it booted up just fine. I have no idea what the hell ahppened since I tried several times yesterday.
I was already looking at other motherboards, CPUs and some DDR2 ram to replace this crap.