Repaired the connector on my HP Pavillion. When I reassembled it, I used Arctic Silver instead of a thermal pad on the heatsink. Surface of heat sink appears to be concave rather than flat. When I booted the first time, connector was loose going to touch pad, so I powered down rather than exiting. After that, computer would try to boot (Windows XP Home), I'd get a blue screen and it would shut down. Shut down so fast I couldn't read the message. I decided to let it do this until maybe it would boot. After about 4 or 5 minutes it shut down completely. Now it's completely dead. No lights at all. I didn't know if the CPU went out if this would be the case. Fan seem to run at high speed and keyboard felt warm. Is it possible the Arctic Silver didn't work as well as the pad and fried the CPU? I don't mind trying another CPU, but if it sounds like this may not be it, would like to know. Thanks to all!
What connector did you repair? Heatsink surface should be very nearly as flat as a mirror, but not quite mirror smooth. Certainly no visible concavities. A test is to put a drop of water on the heatsink surface and then place a thin sheet of glass over it and see how far the drop spreads out. Bad Good - so flat it is hard to get glass off again due to suction. Description http://www.techpowerup.com/articles/cooling/air/39
The power connector was what I repaired. Solder joint had broken loose. I put a straight edge in the heatsink and the surface is definitely concave. Can see light under the edge of the ruler.
