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PC Not working after reapplying thermal paste

Bill_Bright said:
So you didn't unplug the power supply from the wall before even thinking about reaching inside the case? Did you touch bare metal of the case interior to discharge any static in your body before touching the cooler or reapplying the new TIM (thermal interface material)?

I would not recommend that. Lighter fluid is a petroleum by-product and therefore, will leave a residue film. And if accidently spilled, could easily eat away at many plastics (such as the CPU socket or materials in many components) or the protective resin coatings applied to PCBs.

I recommend 91-93% isopropyl alcohol - available at most pharmacies - for cleaning off old TIM.

***

Why did you feel the need to apply new TIM in the first place? Unless the cured bond between the mating surfaces is broken, there is no reason to replace it just because it is X number of years old. Not one TIM maker, cooler maker, CPU maker, motherboard maker recommends replacing TIM just because a certain amount of time has passed. TIM can easily last 5, 10, 15 years or long AS LONG AS the cured bond is not broken.

And it is important to remember the purpose of TIM is to fill the microscopic pits and valleys in the mating surfaces - pushing out any insulating air. The only reason TIM comes in a semi-liquid form is so it can easily be squeezed out of the tube and evenly spread across the die. So even if the TIM dries out, the solids left behind are still occupying those pits and valleys, preventing any insulating air from seeping back in.

If you "need" the few degrees a fresh new layer of TIM might provide to keep from crossing over thermal protection thresholds, you have bigger cooling issues to deal with - like insufficient case cooling.
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I actually did unplug my PSU, i turned it off and completely unplugged the cord. it turned on for half a second afterward when i was plugging in my 24pin, I decided to reapply new thermal paste as it has been a while and my temps were starting to increase.
 
Maybe you just loosened a connection somewhere when you went to put the paste on? Go through everything and make sure it's seated correctly both on the motherboard and psu side. Make sure your Ram didn't come loose as well while you're at it. If that fails it might not be a bad idea to take out the cpu (carefully) and inspect it to make sure no pins are bent and it's not damaged. If that fails again then you either caused an isue with your motherboard or your psu has gone bad. You didn't include your ram specs by the way, how many sticks do you have?

Edit* nevermind about the ram actually, that could cause boot issues but it shouldn't cause the system to not turn on. Also, someone mentioned this already but have a look at your power switch, it could have come loose from the case if not the board, in which case like someone also mentioned; you could try jumping the board headers with a screwdriver to be sure
 
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The other day I did the same thing, I cleaned my old chip of paste, with alcohol, then put it together.
Turned it on, CPU fan didn't spin. I went nuts thinking I shorted the board with alcohol or I put the
F panel connectors on and THAT shorted it (which can't happen apparently). Luckily, before I
got too crazy, I realize I missed plugging in the 2nd connector to my PSU ATX (it's modular and there are 2 connectors on the wire, I forgot 1).
Go over everything and make sure all is plugged in correct. Hopefully it will turn out to be something minor. Good luck.

The above poster pretty much said the same. Hopefully it is something minor. And get a good workbench/case
I have one and it helps a lot. I have a nice Lian Li, can't find it anymore but they have similar.
 
Secret Rival said:
I realize I missed plugging in the 2nd connector to my PSU ATX
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Also be sure not to mix up the ATX +12v 8-pin with the video card PCIe 8-pin.

Sorry I don't know the official names for those plugs. They're not supposed to be interchangeable (different key notches) but I've actually seen it done.

Also do you happen to know what brand/model your motherboard is?
Last it might be worth trying to see if the machine turns on with the video card pulled out (your Ryzen 3200G should have integrated graphics) just to rule that out.
 
xrror said:
Also be sure not to mix up the ATX +12v 8-pin with the video card PCIe 8-pin.

Sorry I don't know the official names for those plugs. They're not supposed to be interchangeable (different key notches) but I've actually seen it done.

Also do you happen to know what brand/model your motherboard is?
Last it might be worth trying to see if the machine turns on with the video card pulled out (your Ryzen 3200G should have integrated graphics) just to rule that out.
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it is an MSI X570 GAMING EDGE WIFI (i know it’s overkill i plan on upgrading

if this helps anything my xbox controller plugs which is plugged into my motherboard receives power when it is plugged in

Also i just wanted to mention if i messed up the cpu that is fine. If it works or if it doesn’t i was planning on buying a new CPU this week.
 
AlexKedz said:
MSI X570 GAMING EDGE WIFI
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Oh wow yea that's crazy newer than I was expecting! lol

Looking at the manual, MSI does have a weird "ATX 8pin + an additional ATX 4pin" 12v on this board.

Like, apparently they expect you to jumpstart your car from the USB3 ports or something, but it is unusual to me and something to check!
 

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Like Altcapwn said "Happenned to me once; my friend had a AIO liquid cooler and I tightened the screws too much. You can try to un-tight the screws a bit. "

It is most likely I think the screws on the heatsink are too tightened down or not enough tightened.
It's happend to me many times, on my z87 z97 boards.
 
There is no need to replace TIM unless the system is old (4/5/6+ years - you're 3200G only came out about 1.5 years ago) or you're swapping out a new heatsink or one of those guys (maybe some gals are into, too???) that wants to delid and lap to squeeze the most out of a CPU and it's overclocking potential.

If temps are starting to rise a little there can be a number of things that are causing it, such as:
1) you introduced some new hardware and more heat is being generated
2) your system has dirty fans, radiators or vents - thus preventing optimal air flow
3) perhaps a fan isn't working like it used to and needs to be replaced
4) ambient room temperature is higher than normal
5) you're utilizing the system more than you usually do and it just creeps up a little hotter while in long extended high usage

My guess is, since you mentioned the system "turned on for half a second" when plugging in the 24pin cable.....I'm going to guess you shorted something and the MB is shot, but hopefully that's not the case.

First things first - double check all power cables are connected to the MB. This means the 4/8pin power cable for the CPU and the 24pin for the MB.

If everything is connected properly and things still won't power on.....
What you are left with doing is bring the system down to the basics. Remove everything from the case, set the motherboard on top of a cardboard box, insert 1 stick of RAM, make sure the CPU has the 4/8pin power cable plugged in, make sure the MB has the 24pin power cable plugged in, then plug in the PSU (make sure you have the power switch set to ON) and power on your motherboard. If you MB doesn't have a power button on it, you'll need to use a flat head screwdriver to trip the power switch (google if you're not sure how).

Hopefully you see the CPU fan spin up and the MB lights come on. If you made it this far and things are working, you'll want to power off the system, connect your HDD/SSD and GPU with monitor, mouse and keyboard. Double check the cables, make sure everything has power plugged into it and then turn the system on. If everything boots and you get into windows, power it off and move everything into the case.

If things aren't working, it could be a MB issue or PSU issue or as others suggested that the heatsink is screwed down too tight or not tight enough.
 
neatfeatguy said:
My guess is, since you mentioned the system "turned on for half a second" when plugging in the 24pin cable.....I'm going to guess you shorted something and the MB is shot, but hopefully that's not the case.

First things first - double check all power cables are connected to the MB. This means the 4/8pin power cable for the CPU and the 24pin for the MB.
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This was my first thought too.
With the PSU unplugged and turned off, the motherboard shouldn't have turned on even for a split second.
It should be safe to connect the 24 pin connector even with a small residual charge remaining.
Check the front panel wiring as you may have the reset and power buttons swapped over.
 
altcapwn said:
1. Do you have light on your motherboard? You should have little light that is on where there's power.
2. You can turn on your PC manually, if it's an issue with your button, with just a screwdriver. Take a flat screwdriver and make a short with the 2 power pins.
View attachment 167865
3. Have you untight the screws?
4. At this point, if nothing works, I always tell my friend to unplug everything, then do the job to zero, even unscrew everything and screw back. There might be a short somewhere.
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I'm almost sure you are 100% correct. The OP should check the case leads to motherboard, ie check the pins are aligned correctly to the motherboard where it says power, reset & LED front panel.
 
delshay said:
I'm almost sure you are 100% correct. The OP should check the case leads to motherboard, ie check the pins are aligned correctly to the motherboard where it says power, reset & LED front panel.
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Question for everybody saying my motherboard is short circuited. would that still mean everything is getting power that’s plugged into USB, my xbox controller and mouse still work when plugged in. I’m almost positive this is my CPU.
 
AlexKedz said:
Question for everybody saying my motherboard is short circuited. would that still mean everything is getting power that’s plugged into USB, my xbox controller and mouse still work when plugged in. I’m almost positive this is my CPU.
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Clear the cmos.
 
AlexKedz said:
My CMOS has been having issues.
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If your CMOS has been having issue, you most likely need to replace the CMOS battery. Unplug the computer from the wall, touch bare metal of the case interior to discharge any static in your body BEFORE reaching in, then pull the battery and get another. You can get a new battery for a couple dollars at just about any battery/watch/camera counter at your local home improvement or discount store. Most likely it is a CR2032 or equivalent but take the old battery with you as many battery counters recycle. Do NOT touch the new battery with your bare skin as skin oils promote corrosion and attract dust. I put a clean sock over my hand. Be sure to touch bare metal again before reaching in. Upon first boot, go straight into the BIOS Setup Menu and check/reset your date and time, and verify your drives are detected and the boot order is correct. Then Save and Exit to boot normally. The "Save" part is very important.
 
Just to make sure. if everything is getting power but my pc isn’t turning on that would be my processor. Not the motherboard itself right?
 
AlexKedz said:
Just to make sure. if everything is getting power but my pc isn’t turning on that would be my processor. Not the motherboard itself right?
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No. It could still be the motherboard.

How do you know everything is getting power? I know of no way to determine that if the computer is not turning on.
 
Bill_Bright said:
No. It could still be the motherboard.

How do you know everything is getting power? I know of no way to determine that if the computer is not turning on.
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When hitting the power switch from everything plugged in via USB turns on, my mouse keyboard controller.
 
So that tells me your +5VDC is working and being distributed to some points. What about the required +12VDC and +3.3VDC?

Have you tried another PSU?
 
AlexKedz said:
No, I don’t have one but it’s working perfectly fine from what i can tell
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Just because you think it is working fine, doesn't mean it is.

Faulty PSU can cause lots of issues. Without a spare known working PSU to test it's hard to pinpoint if the problem is the PSU or something else.
 
neatfeatguy said:
Just because you think it is working fine, doesn't mean it is.

Faulty PSU can cause lots of issues. Without a spare known working PSU to test it's hard to pinpoint if the problem is the PSU or something else.
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Well, if you are right how should i test it? Or if there are any signs
 
AlexKedz said:
Well, if you are right how should i test it? Or if there are any signs
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If you don't have any spare hardware to use to test with you have a few options:

1) see if a local friend/relative has any hardware you can borrow to test with
2) purchase new hardware (this can get expensive if you're just buying parts because you don't know what needs to be replaced).
3) find a local repair shop/computer shop that can help diagnose the problem

First and foremost, I suggest you take your system down to the basics and build it outside of the case. Move the MB to a box, use one stick of RAM....see my first reply to your thread.
 
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