[SOLVED] Red cpu light after applying thermal paste and another fan

[YB_1]

I made a new gaming pc which was working well but I got concerned after seeing 90 degrees celsius while gaming. I opened up my pc to re-apply thermal paste and to add another exhaust fan to the top which went successful. When booting up the pc everything inside was working, fans spinning, rgb working, however there was no display on the monitor and the red cpu error LED was on. I have no clue why this is happening as I didn’t make a mistake when installing the fans and applying the thermal paste, which brings me to write this thread.

What I‘m thinking now is that maybe I have pressed too hard on the stock wraith stealth cpu cooler when trying to screw it back on. The cooler always gives a challenge when I try to install it, also requiring someone to help since tightening the screws into their spots needs a lot of strength and pressure. I hope I haven’t damaged the cpu or motherboard this way by pressing too hard. I have loosened the cooler just a bit incase if it was pressing too hard or was too tight for the cpu.

for your info:
I have already checked for any loose cables and I found none. I haven‘t touched a cable from when it was working.
I didn’t take the cpu out when applying thermal paste, so I doubt paste in the socket.

specs:
MSI TOMAHAWK MAX B450
AMD RYZEN 5 2600x
the stock Wraith Stealth cpu cooler
GIGABYTE GeForce RTX 2070 SUPER GAMING OC 3X 8G
Corsair TX550M 80 plus gold semi-modular 550 watt
x2 RAM Corsair vengeance LPX 2x8 GB 3200MHz.
2 Terabyte hard drive
250gb SSD

the added thermal paste:
Thermal Grizzly Kryonaut

The fan I added:
be quiet! Pure wings 2 120mm 1500 rpm

 

[getochkn]

You can try removing RAM and trying with 1 stick. Try removing and reseating GPU.

Baring that, you could have bent a CPU pin. Common when people try to remove a cooler and put new thermal paste on and wiggle stuff back and forth and bend a CPU pin. I've done it myself with a cooler that was really stuck to the CPU, so I couldn't get the cooler off, but yet couldn't release the CPU rentention arm because it's under the cooler. Kind of puts you in a catch 22 situation.

 

[YB_1]

You can try removing RAM and trying with 1 stick. Try removing and reseating GPU.

Baring that, you could have bent a CPU pin. Common when people try to remove a cooler and put new thermal paste on and wiggle stuff back and forth and bend a CPU pin. I've done it myself with a cooler that was really stuck to the CPU, so I couldn't get the cooler off, but yet couldn't release the CPU rentention arm because it's under the cooler. Kind of puts you in a catch 22 situation.

Thank you for replying, This was very useful! Thank you so much for helping me, my pc is fine and well now. I tried one stick which didn’t work but then I reseated the gpu and checked my cpu for any bent pins. I found one that was a little slant and tried to fix it with a needle. I put the cpu back again seated the cooler, and turned it on, and it made my day to see my pc back. Keep up this great work and I hope this will also be useful for others experiencing similar problems.

 

[getochkn]

Thank you for replying, This was very useful! Thank you so much for helping me, my pc is fine and well now. I tried one stick which didn’t work but then I reseated the gpu and checked my cpu for any bent pins. I found one that was a little slant and tried to fix it with a needle. I put the cpu back again seated the cooler, and turned it on, and it made my day to see my pc back. Keep up this great work and I hope this will also be useful for others experiencing similar problems.

Good stuff. It's the little things, and like I said, I've done it myself removing a cooler that was bound with dried thermal paste and pulled the CPU right out with the rentention clip still closed.