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Solved Replaced CPU Cooler and re-mounted smaller heatsink; now fans LOUD and display is blank!!

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I have a HP Compaq Elite 8300 USDT pc- the reeeealy small one. I have it running 24/7 as a media server, and I wanted to upgrade the cooling a little bit. Since the form factor is so small, and a replacement/larger case is out of the question (as well as liquid cooling for now), I purchased the Noctua Low-Profile NH-L9I heatsink and fan.

While I was inside the PC, I thought it would be a good idea to remove the smaller heatsink with the Z-clip and replace its thermal paste. I didn't realize this was not a regular paste setup, but it's actually glued on. I believe this heatsink is for the chipset/northbridge (correct me if I'm wrong?) but I did the best I could and applied paste and clipped it back on. It moved a little, but seemed like it would be okay.

Moving on to the cooler, the 8300 USDT has a passive cooler mounted to the processor and a small PWM fan in front and back of the case for cooling. I had to modify the case slightly to accomodate the new setup, which included hammering down the pieces of the back/bottom of the case that the OEM cooler mounted to, effectively removing my ability to go back to stock without figuring out how to re-mount the old cooler.

Anyway I get the cooler mounted, and use a PWM fan cable splitter to wire in the new fan with the front fan. I get everything all zip-tied up and perfect, and plug the beast back in. Immediately I notice that my monitor isn't doing anything (LCD tv connected by a DisplayPort-to-HDMI converter dongle) and then all three fans start spinning so loud it sounded like a jet engine taking off! This PC is quiet as heck, so this caught my attention real fast! I immediately shut it down. I remove the new fan and splitter, and just keep the two original fans connected to see what happens. Turn it back on, and the same sequence of events happens- nothing on the screen, and just eventually the fans go crazy.

I wonder if maybe the CPU cooler is not making good contact with the processor? So I take it allll apart, remove the cooler and look at both sides- the TIM is perfectly spread, and I could tell it had made great contact. So it isn't that, and the PC barely had time to heat up! So then I wonder if I effed-up with putting the TIM under that small heatsink; so I take that off, clean the TIM off it and the exposed die underneath, and place it back on. I also pressed the BIOS reset button just in case, and tried it again. SAME THING!!

Tonite after work, I plan to hook up a monitor to the VGA port and see if anything can be seen on the monitor that way. But does anyone else have any suggestions? I really rely on this PC and don't have a lot of money to keep buying stuff to try and see if it fixes the problem. I've googled and I can't even be sure that the small heatsink is really on a chipset or northbridge, and HP's technical illustration identifies everything else BUT that; could it really be for the integrated graphics instead, and that's why I can't see anything on the monitor? Any help is appreciated greatly. Thanks in advance!!!

edit: added this link to the illustration PDF
 
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To clarify..did you get the heat sink off and did you take that sticky pad off>
@Evan Omo @jmarket @phillpower2

Thanks for your response. To clarify:

Yes, I did take off the heatsink and when the sticky material didn't come off with alcohol like TIM would, I realized it wasn't right. But it was too late, so I scraped it off the heatsink with a screwdriver and picked it off the die with my fingernail very gently. Then I applied the TIM and re-seated it.

Then after the boot issue, I thought maybe it was a mistake to use TIM there (even though a quick google search showed evidence of it not being a problem) so I cleaned both the heatsink and die with isopropyl alcohol and re-seated it on the die bare. Same result.
 
Ok..just got to ask..you didn't over apply the paste correct?
You're supposed to squirt a marble-sized amount on there, and then press the heatsink down till the paste squishes out the sides, right?
/s
No, I have gotten pretty good at applying thermal paste. Just a very thin layer, as I know it is only supposed to be just enough to compensate for imperfections in both surfaces. However as I said, right now, the smaller heatsink is on the die bare until someone tells me to do otherwise.
 
Hi Evan,
When I got home last night, I took someone's suggestion and first changed the CMOS battery. No change. I then tried re-seating my RAM. No change. So then I took it all apart and 'breadboarded' it out of the case. No change.

I then took off the heatsink to re-seat the processor, and that's when I found it. Not only were about six of my socket pins bent, but there was actually a bit of paper towel in there that was bigger than a couple pins!!! I don't know how I didn't see that, or notice that somehow pins had gotten bent. I don't know if I damaged them somehow while the processor was out, or if it's even possible that when I first tightened the heatsink with a screwdriver that maybe the pressure bent them?? But I would think that wouldn't be able to bend random pins like this. I should have taken a picture, but I didn't.

Anyhow, after a search for a magnifying glass (which wasn't that great!) and snipping the point off of a sewing needle, and an hour of poking and prodding, I got all but one of them looking okay. There was just this one that i could not get right, because it looked like it had crumpled onto itself. And my eyesight isn't too good as it is. But I figured what the heck, I'll give it a shot.

I put the processor back on, and just sat the heatsink and fan on it, plugged in a monitor, and sure enough it POSTed. So I started putting it back together, and every step of the way checking to see if it would still boot to Windows.

It's running okay (I'm typing this on it now) so I don't know if that pin is somehow making contact, or if it was a superfluous pin, like a ground or power pin, etc. One thing I do know is, I'm probably going to pick up a spare mobo just to have on hand, just in case!

Thanks everyone for your help. Mark this one SOLVED!
 
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