TR Forums

So I'm not exactly pro when it comes to computer repair, but I thought I would give switching a socket 478 celeron with a slightly better P4 chip that I bought used in one of my old computers a try. I was overconfident in my abilities however, and removed a thin strip of aluminum like metal stuck to the bottom of the heatsink when I was cleaning the old thermal paste off, for no good reason at all.

At any rate, I put new thermal paste on but am lacking this thin strip of whatever it was on the heatsink, and I'm thinking that's why my new p4 chip won't POST. .. The computer powers on and the fan starts running, but no calculations are done whatsoever as the processor isn't working.

Solutions?
Thanks so much.

If you removed the thermal pad, and any adhesive under it, you should be OK. Check the compatibility of the new CPU at the OEM or motherboard manufacturer's website and see if there are any BIOS updates you can install. Also check for bent pins.

It is very likely that you will need a bios update for your board. Most likely it doesnt have the info about the chip and has no idea what it is, thus no post. Put your old chip back in and get the bios updated to the newest one.

You've also (probably) gone from a 533MHz FSB to 800MHz. If the northbridge is 855 or older, it won't like that one bit.

A piece of advice for any future CPU upgrade attempts is to double-check with the board manufacturer, either for a CPU support list (preferably*), or failing that, match up the FSB, multiplier settings, etc, with the processor you're planning on using. If possible, double-check the processor's requirements by googling for its model number. I also tend to read through the BIOS updates for the board to see if there's anything about processor support upgrades. Also, check the board for jumpers and find out what they do. Most boards these days (from the last five years at a guess) are pretty much jumper-less so you don't have to change multiplier settings by hand though.

* - CPU support lists sometimes aren't kept up-to-date.