URGENT: Need help ASAP!

Urgent help needed!
I have a desktop setup, and since it was getting pretty dusty, I decided to give it a quick blast with some compressed air. I took everything apart, including pulling out both the large and small heatsinks to blow them out, but now that I’ve put the whole rig back together and tried to power it up...
Absolutely nothing is showing up on the screen. Just total darkness.

Did I somehow fry something? I’m honestly not tech-savvy enough to know if it’s the motherboard, the RAM, or who knows what else.
Or could it just be the cable connecting the PC to the screen? Please, any advice would be a lifesaver right now.

Adam Jackson7 said:Need help ASAP
I have a desktop PC and since it was dusty, I used an air compressor to blow it out. I took the heatsinks off—both the big one and the small one—to clean them, put everything back together, and now when I try to power it on...
Nothing shows up on the screen. Absolutely nothing.

Did I fry something? I honestly have no clue if it's the motherboard, the RAM, or what.??
Or maybe it's just the cable running from the tower to the screen? Please help, this is urgent.

Did you flip the power switch on the PSU? Did you plug all the cables back in exactly how they were before? Make sure every single connection is seated properly, especially the CPU and motherboard power cables...

I’ve already tried power cycling this thing five times now, and it just keeps timing out
But still, absolutely nothing
The screen is technically working, but when I boot up the PC, there’s just total darkness on the monitor

Is it possible I actually fried something major here??

It’s pretty unlikely that anything actually burned out just from some air blowing around. You should probably double-check all your cables—just like our friend over there suggested. Honestly, I once had a moment where I completely forgot to plug the CPU power cable into the motherboard, so I get it. I'm assuming those fans you're talking about are part of the case itself...

Edit: By the way, did you plug in the dedicated power connector for your graphics card? It's an easy thing to overlook.

I don't think I have one, honestly—I’m pretty clueless when it comes to computer hardware

I just shove it into whatever case fits the frame

If you can grab a decent camera, try snapping a few shots of the case so we can actually see what’s going on in there, then post them here; maybe then we can figure out if you missed a connection somewhere.

It’s hard to tell right now, but a buddy of mine is swinging by with a spare screen and a cable so we can figure out if this is just a hardware glitch.

I can't tell you how many times I’ve used an air compressor to blow out a PC—whether it was my own or just helping out a neighbor—and honestly, nothing ever happens. You aren't going to break anything just by blowing some dust out.

You mentioned taking the heatsink off too, which I'm assuming was to deal with the processor, right? If that's the case, did you actually bother to apply fresh thermal paste to the CPU and the heatsink? Or did you just slap that old, crusty stuff right back on there?

It seems you might have missed my point from a previous post: our friend here clearly doesn't grasp the distinction between a PCI-E slot and a RAM slot. Given that level of technical insight, am I really supposed to believe he’s actually going to attempt repasting a processor?

But there is one more thing we haven't nailed down yet, Adam Jackson7—once you actually crack that case open, do you hear anything at all coming from inside? For instance, can you hear the fans spinning up, or see any lights flickering, or perhaps notice the drive spinning?

I mean, I think you should probably pull the processor out and reseat it in the socket—and honestly, since the heatsink is coming off anyway (assuming we're talking about that "massive cooler" being removed), it might be worth just swapping out the thermal paste too.