I'm in a bit of a panic here! I recently replaced the thermal paste on my Ryzen 5 3600 CPU, and now my PC won't boot up at all. I checked and the CPU doesn't have any bent pins; everything seems to be in place. I've reseated the RAM, GPU, and the CPU itself multiple times, along with the 24-pin cable, but no luck. One thing I'm worried about is that the CPU was stuck to the cooler when I removed it, and I couldn't lower the locking mechanism properly. Could this have caused a motherboard issue? Please, any tips would be greatly appreciated!
2 Answers
It sounds like the locking mechanism is essential for making sure the CPU pins have solid contact. Without it, you might not get a good read, which could lead to a short or damage when you try to power up. You should try redoing the install properly, but be careful—hopefully, you haven't damaged anything!
Did you forget to lift the locking arm before putting the CPU in? If you placed it in the socket without that, it won't work. You need to remove the cooler, lift up the arm, properly place the CPU, lower the arm, then apply thermal paste and remount the cooler. Just make sure you didn't damage the pins while inserting it! Here's a helpful video: [link](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1m80GXqA8oE)
I followed those steps, but it seems completely dead now, not even the fans are spinning. When you say damaged pins, do you mean a pin could be broken off entirely? Because I checked for bends already.
I broke a piece of the locking mechanism too, but it still works. I reseated my CPU several times, but it still won’t boot. I noticed a few pins were slightly bent, but I've fixed them. Do you think that could be causing the issue?