Just got a pc and wont power on when pushing the on button, but will power on when I push the heatsink/cpu????

Question

Was trying to figure out what the problem was and when I opened up the case the motherboard is showing a green light. Anyways I tried pushing down the heatsink thats over the cpu, and everything powers on, but I dont get video and no beeps. When I let go of the heat sink, it will shut off. Is this a problem with the cpu or the motherboard? I tried re seating all the parts but that didn't work.

Answer 1

Make sure the heat sink is snug on the processor or try putting heat transfer paste between the heat sink and the processor. I had this same problem once and what happened was one of the mounts for the heat sink was broken and was not allowing the heat sink to transfer heat away from the processor and it got too hot and fried.

Answer 2

Did you remove and reinsert the processor? It may have worked loose and needs to be reseated in it's slot. Remove the clips from the heat sink and there should be a lever or a locking device for the processor. carefully reseat and replace the heat sink. Do not try and wipe off any of the electrolytic grease this helps to keep good contact for the heat sink. If you still don't get any video or beeps then take out the memory entirely. This will definitely give you an error beep. If not there may be something wrong with the system board. Replace dimms one at a time. I'm betting a loose processor but there could be other things wrong too depending on what you find after these preliminary steps.

Answer 3

Just to elate a little bit, on what sgtkast said. processors for quite some time have had a fail-safe feature built in, that when the heatsink/fan stops, or isn't correctly doing it's job, the processor shut's off. Keeps it from burning up! This only takes a cupla' seconds, for it to fry. I would do as suggested, and clean the cpu, and the heatsink, then apply thermal paste. Apply sparingly, it goes a long way!,(a drop about the size of a be-bee.) Obviously the locks for the heatsink aren't holding the heatsink down tight. Either fix it, ot get a new heatsink/fan, or prepare to get a new processor! I wouldn't run it until it's fixed, or as I said bye-bye processor,(and maybe more components!) Sorry to 'horn-in' on ya' sgtkast,(I don't deserve points, and frankly ain't interested)