Question Dead CPU, Motherboard, or Both?

[quixoticPC]

I'm trying to repair my mother's ancient Dell Dimension 4600. (I am well aware it's old. She uses it as a word processor and to play 20-year-old games on.)

Several weeks ago, it wouldn't turn on. She told me several days prior to that, when she would put it to sleep, it would shut down completely. I replaced the PSU with a known good one, as the PSU was the cause of pretty much all problems in the past. No life, other than a green light on the mobo.

I tried:

• Removing the GPU, sound card, all but one stick of RAM, and testing.
• Leaving the CMOS battery out for over an hour and replacing it with a new one.
• Using another power cable and a different outlet.
• Pulling the connections to the HDs and DVD drive from the mobo.
• Checking the USB ports (front and back) to make sure they weren't grounding to the case.
• Testing and reseating the RAM in different configurations.
• Jumping the 20 pin ATX, and connecting back to the mobo.
• Starting the PC by shorting with a screwdriver.

Finally, I pulled the 4 pin connector on the mobo–the one powering the CPU–and aha! I got a blinking amber power light on the front but no diagnostic lights.

I ordered a new-old mobo with a new-old CPU off eBay from a highly rated seller, and swapped everything out. Still dead. Argh! I tried securing all the connections, and pretty much went through the above list again. Then I took out the heatsink and checked that the CPU had been installed properly by the seller (which I should've done first). Sure enough, there were two damaged pins. So I swapped out the old CPU for the new-old one. (To forestall any questions–yes, I used thermal paste in reattaching the heatsink.)

So, the PC is now back to taunting me with a blinking amber light, no diagnostic lights on the back, and a green light on the mobo. At this point, I'm thinking it's a CPU problem, but I don't have enough experience with this. Could all this be symptomatic of a dead CPU? Did I get sent a bad mobo in addition to a damaged CPU? Is there anything else I should try that I haven't already?

 

[stonecarver]

Is the amber light on the power supply. It's been years ago but I remember a mod with these old dells that you could do to get past not booting but sorry that trick is lost. to long ago.

First sorry for all your troubles. You have did just about everything we would have had you do to fix.

Depending in how bent the pins are on the Newer to you CPU if your VERY LIGHT HANDED and gentle you can try to bend just enough to still work but they will snap if over torqued.

The only thing I did not see you have tested is the GPU but as it's most likely AGP not a lot of them still around. If it's pci-e than test in another machine.

I would clean the memory metal fingers with a Q-tip and rubbing alcohol same with the GPU metal fingers.