No Video After Reapplying Thermal Paste

[ethanpurdy]

I reapplied thermal paste to my cpu/heatsink and after reseating the heatsink I get no signal to my monitor. I did not take out the cpu when I did this. All of the fans spin, the light on the motherboard is on and I can hear hard drives spinning and the disk drive will open.

Some diagnostics I've tried already:
- I checked and made sure all cables were properly connected
- I reseated the RAM sticks
- I removed the heat sink and CPU to to ensure no pins were bent. I'm confident I placed the cpu back down properly. I reapplied the thermal paste when I put the heatsink down.

Is there anything I can try? At this point it seems like my motherboard is the issue.

 

[RaDiKaL_]

Sounds like a shorting issue, try these troubleshooting steps:

http://www.tomshardware.com/forum/261145-31-perform-steps-posting-post-boot-video-problems

I suggest you start with the breadboarding method, described after step 23 I think, and then apply the
steps mentioned above.

 

[ethanpurdy]

Thanks for the response. I'll give that a shot. I should add that I've attempted to remove all sticks of RAM and never got any POST beeps.

This is probably not a great sign for CPU/Motherboard.

 

[EastCoastCanadianMrFixIt]

You must have at least one stick of ram onboard or it wont do anything.
Dont get any thermal paste on Any components as it is likely a conductor especially Arctic Silver.
clean with 99% alcohol.
Where exactly did you apply the paste and did you remove the cpu to do so, if you did, did you lock it back in place and push downwards prior to locking. Check for bent pins on cpu if it were removed.
Always come back and leave feedback
thanks

You may not have ram seated completely or dirt in one of its slots or you knocked a wire off somewhere.