Upgrading my IBM drive

So I picked up a new IBM, hooked everything up, even went through the whole ritual of pulling the fan off to slap on some thermal paste before putting it all back together. Now I’m trying to install macOS, but when I boot the rig up, absolutely nothing happens. 🤔
I tried plugging into two different monitors, but still dead silence—no signal on either one. Honestly, I'm totally lost on what to do next. 🤷

I have to say, I’m not quite sure how swapping out thermal paste on the CPU relates to installing a new IBM, but what you can try is just going step-by-step. Try plugging the cables and devices back into the motherboard one at a time to figure out what’s actually preventing the PC from booting up. Maybe disconnect the IBM, the optical drive, and everything else—just leave the bare essentials connected to the board. If it powers up then, you can add each component back one by one until you find whatever is causing the hang-up.

It looks like things aren't quite hooked up the way they used to be... Is this your first time putting a build together?
Just double-check all your connections—make sure that 24-pin power connector is seated firmly into the motherboard, and that you've got the 4 or 8-pin CPU power cable plugged in correctly.

By the way, how much thermal paste did you end up using on the processor? I really hope you didn't go overboard—you don't want any of it oozing out and causing a short circuit if it misses its mark. 😁

George Sanders37 said:I have to say, I’m not quite sure how swapping out thermal paste on the CPU relates to installing a new IBM, but what you can try is just going step-by-step. Try plugging the cables and devices back into the motherboard one at a time to figure out what’s actually preventing the PC from booting up. Maybe disconnect the IBM, the optical drive, and everything else—just leave the bare essentials connected to the board. If it powers up then, you can add each component back one by one until you find whatever is causing the hang-up.

Well, the old paste was crusty, so I figured I'd swap that out while I was messing with the hard drive anyway.

Larry Ortiz5 said:It looks like things aren't quite hooked up the way they used to be... Is this your first time putting a build together?
Just double-check all your connections—make sure that 24-pin power connector is seated firmly into the motherboard, and that you've got the 4 or 8-pin CPU power cable plugged in correctly.

By the way, how much thermal paste did you end up using on the processor? I really hope you didn't go overboard—you don't want any of it oozing out and causing a short circuit if it misses its mark. 😁

I didn't touch the drive; a more experienced guy helped me with that part.😁
I just handled the paste. Cleaned things off with some acetone, applied a tiny bit, and popped the heatsink back on.

Now I'm just sitting here wondering if the issue is with the drive or the processor.🤔

So, try this—just connect the power connectors to the motherboard (the 20/24-pin and the 4/8-pin CPU one) and hook up the processor. Nothing else. Just see if it'll boot. If the fans spin up and the LEDs light up, shut it down and add the RAM. Then try again, then add the GPU, and so on—basically just keep adding parts until you find whichever piece of hardware is actually preventing the PC from starting up.

So I just realized there are a couple of bent pins on my CPU. Does that mean the thing is officially dead?
I don't know if that's related, but before I even drop the lever down, the chip sits all crooked—one side is higher than the other, like a seesaw. It's basically wobbling around, and once I actually lock the lever, it’s totally uneven.

Once you lower the lever, the CPU should sit flush against the socket—maybe try really gently aligning the pins.

I managed to get everything leveled out and it’s sitting pretty now, but even so, when I boot the rig, nothing happens—just a total black screen.

Turns out there’s no signal when I boot up because of the GPU, but everything works fine once I swap in a different card.
I don't really get how it's suddenly the graphics card's fault, though. Everything was running smooth before. Then my HDD kicked the bucket, so I didn't even touch the PC for two months. I finally swapped the drive out yesterday, and now the GPU is acting up too. Is that actually possible?
I'm running an AMD Radeon HD 7850

If another card works in that slot, then this XFX one is definitely dead.

What kind of power supply are you running in that rig—and have you dealt with any power surges or lightning strikes lately?

George Sanders37 said:If another card works in that slot, then this XFX one is definitely dead.

What kind of power supply are you running in that rig—and have you dealt with any power surges or lightning strikes lately?

Corsair 430W...
Nah, nothing happened. Honestly, I haven't even turned the PC on in two months, so I'm totally lost as to why the GPU would just suddenly give up the ghost.

Btw, I've got an ASRock FM2A75DGS motherboard—can I run an Nvidia card on that?
Also, do you happen to know where I can grab the drivers for a D-Link DWA-123 WiFi adapter?

Regarding the motherboard—it doesn't really matter if you go with an AMD or Nvidia card—what actually matters is the type of slot available and how much power you have under the hood. Since your board has a PCI-E 2.0 x16 slot, just look for PCI-E cards. That 430W power supply might only become an issue if you decide to pick up a high-end card that pulls a ton of wattage.

As for the wireless adapter:
http://www.dlink.com.my/support/supp...?idProduct=505

The reason I asked about the power supply is because it’s a bit suspicious that two different pieces of hardware—the drive and the GPU—both failed on you. It’s hard to give a definitive diagnosis just guessing here, but I'm leaning toward either the PSU or the motherboard being the culprit. I assume you aren't dealing with any weird issues with the local power grid, like tripping breakers or voltage surges?

Just popped an Nvidia GeForce GTX 550 into my rig—it was sitting in a box from my old PC, so I figured I'd let it limp along until I can afford a proper upgrade.

No issues on my end. I'm out in Chicago and haven't dealt with any crazy lightning storms or anything lately; my laptop and my other desktop are both running totally fine.
Does anyone know if there's a specific way to stress test a power supply?

And thanks for the drivers!👍

I'm gonna try tossing my XFX card into another rig just to be 100% sure it actually kicked the bucket.

A power supply test? Not really—you could maybe check if the actual voltages match what’s listed on the label, but you'd really need to do that while the system is under load. Values at idle can be misleadingly fine sometimes.

Again, I'm just saying, it's pretty tough to make an accurate diagnosis from this far away.