New comp first boot failed - burned CPU?!

[wongb18c]

First boot up failed miserably - burned CPU?!

Here's the situation

I just spend about 3 hours putting together a new comp...

Intel Core2 Duo E6600
Gigabyte board
GF7900GS video card
Antec 500W PSU
2GB Corsair XMS

I boot it up for the first time and everything seems to get have power, including the video card. However, I get no picture, then after about 20 secs, the comp shuts off and I smell an awful burning smell coming from the CPU. I never encountered such a situation before.... so I desperately need some help and assistance.

It's going to really hurt if I just burned up a $315 dollar CPU......... I don't even want to think about it.

I was going to take the sink off and examine the CPU and the socket, but the stock sink was SUCH a pain to put on (almost bent my MB putting it on) I'll have to disassemble everything to get it off, including the MB.

What did I do wrong?! I built many comps in the past and never had this kind of problem. I really need some help bad, so any suggestions or comments would be appreciated.... thanks.

 

[Coke27]

i probably would suggest you checked the cpu just my suggestion

 

[wongb18c]

I took the sink off...... and the smell seems like is originating from the thermal paste.....

It's a long shot but, could too much thermal paste be counter productive and cause the CPU to overheat and cook the paste?

 

[rokza]

Dude,
with such minimal details no1 can help!
All we can do is give suggestions....

 

[jonny_uk]

was the sink and fan installed correctly? if it wasnt that can cause overheating

 

[Ethereal_Dragon]

Re: First boot up failed miserably - burned CPU?!

I was going to take the sink off and examine the CPU and the socket, but the stock sink was SUCH a pain to put on (almost bent my MB putting it on) I'll have to disassemble everything to get it off, including the MB.

Well, perhaps you damaged the CPU with the installation of the heatsink. At this point, you REALLY don't have much choice but to remove the Head sink & CPU, unless your just going to chuck out the mobo too.....

What kind of thermal pad/paste did you use (if any, HOPEFULLY you did) on the CPU?

I burned an AMD 2600+ XP when they were in the $300ish range back in the day with a thermaltake HS&F, and didn't use thermal paste.... REALLY stupid move... the CPU core FUSED itself to the Heatsink... I literally had to chisel it off, then tossed out both, and got an AMD 2400+ XP to replace it.

 

[alexsabree]

yeah some cpu fans are a ****** to put on, and sometimes they may look like they are, but really arent on all the way.

What heatsink/fan did u use?

 

[SYL\X/3K]

try pulling out the PSU connector and see if theres any burn marks there. wow that would suck if the Cpu fried, but did u buy it off someone or was it from retail? the heatsinks come with thermal paste on it already when u buy a new CPU.

 

[Mantis-X]

I do believe too much thermal paste can hurt instead of help.... Only supposed to have a paper thin amount on there.

 

[Ste]

RMA it. And next time only put a cooked grain of rice sized dot of Paste on..