Changed things around, now pc can't boot

[Ulti]

I was swapping some fans around in my case to see if they help temperatures a bit and as I was swapping one that was at the top of my case, I had to remove my CPU heatsink. After removing it and swapping the fans around I thought it would be better if I reapplied thermal paste so I took the processor out and cleaned it as well as the heatsink before putting it back into the motherboard and reapplying thermal paste and reattaching the cooler.

However, after turning the PSU back on and trying to turn the pc on, the pc only turns on with no output nor any message on the LED debug post code thing. All the LEDs on the RAM light up and so do all the LEDs on the motherboard too. I've tried the force reset button on the motherboard as well as the clear CMOS on the back and removing the CMOS battery and even tried reseating the memory as well as reseating the CPU too. I've also tried booting with 1 stick of RAM only but the pc is still the same with only the LEDs turning on and all fans (including graphics card) spinning but no output and no post code (which I'm guessing means that the motherboard has not began to even manage to post)

Anyone know how to solve it or is the motherboard somehow screwed?

EDIT: Reseated graphics card, even took the fans out incase they did something and also reconnected the power connectors to make sure they're connected properly.

[g8ina]

U didnt bend a pin on the cpu did u ?

[Ulti]

Nope, checked twice and they're perfectly fine. Just reconnected the power connectors and reseated the graphics card right now to see if it'd make a difference but it didn't.

[g8ina]

Have u got a multimeter handy to check the power supply voltages ? If fans running then 12V + seems OK, but Im not sure how the mobo derives the low volts for the LEDs and RAM.

[Mithrandir]

Have you checked all PSU cables are plugged in firmly (24 pin, 4/8pin, etc).

Try switching everything off. Unplugging the power cable from the PSU, leave for a minute and then plug in again and switch on.

[Ulti]

Well if it helps the 3 LEDs on the motherboard are on meaning that:

"DRAM Power leD:
The LED lights up indicating the system is on or the
system is staying at S1 or S3 sleeping state.

+5V standby leD:
It will light whenever the power supply that connected to
the motherboard is switched on.

DIMM3 sPD Detect leD:
The Normal status is on. When the DDR in DIMM3 is not
support SPD address in DIMM3, the LED will turn off."

Also, all 3 RAM modules are lighting up meaning they are receiving electricity, however, they are not blinking which indicates that there is no activity.

Yup I reconnected the power supply cables including the 8pin 12V connector, 24 pin 12V as well as the 6 pin PCI-E.

[Domestic_Ginger]

Jonnyguru helped me. I unplugged my IDE DVDRW and then it worked ok. (wonders if you still use IDE...)

My unhelpful advice is turn it off at the mains and then switch on and off a few times on the PC PSU, Leave it off. Have a cup of tea and find something to do for a couple of hours and then try it. Usually works for me. You can abuse me now if it helps; only verbally of course!

[Ulti]

Here's some images of the motherboard, I don't see anything burnt out and the pins look perfectly fine to me, also the heatsink was getting warm so I'm guessing the CPU is receiving power too.

[Ulti]

Seems the socket was really temperamental, I sort of blew on it a bit and lined it up neater than it already was and it worked.. Odd really as the pins weren't bent and there was nothing trapped in it. Glad I finally sorted it out after hours.

[TAKTAK]

Seems the socket was really temperamental, I sort of blew on it a bit and lined it up neater than it already was and it worked.. Odd really as the pins weren't bent and there was nothing trapped in it. Glad I finally sorted it out after hours.

Did you never have a Ninty console?

Blowing things should be the first point of call

[Ulti]

Not with a motherboard, I heard my friend blew on his and accidently spat on it a tiny bit and it ended up destroying his LAN ports or something haha.

[CAT-THE-FIFTH]

[g8ina]

Cat unmasks him/herself as a tog maybe ?

and welll done you, very pleased u sorted it

[scaryjim]

Seems the socket was really temperamental, I sort of blew on it a bit and lined it up neater than it already was and it worked.

I knew there was a reason I was suspicious about LGA I just never felt it was as secure as a good old PGA CPU. I'll be sticking with AMD for now then