I decided to clean my heat sync and fans before I attempted to unlock my Athlon to make sure that the cooling I got was sufficient.

I removed all the IDE cables and unplugged all the power cables, took my motherboard out of the case so I could get at things more easily. Then I detached the sync and fan so I could use the vacuum cleaner on them and wiped the old heat sync compound from my processor with cotton Qtipps and rubbing alcohol.

When I came to rebuild the computer I put fresh compound on and put everything back as it was, connected all the cables and try'd to boot up the computer to check the temps but the monitor stayed in standby mode. I’ve try'd a different monitor and no luck.

When I boot up the HDD light comes on for a while then goes off, all the fans spin and it seems as if its booting normally can anyone suggest what might be wrong.

Does the mobo beep at all?

Not that I remember, but I'm writing this at a friends house so I can't double check.

You could have killed it! Vacum cleaners generate a lot of static (bad for PC components), which components did you have the hose next to? If it was just the fan and nothing else, I would say you're OK but if you used the hose on the motherboard itself it could be bad!

One thing you can try is clearing the CMOS, it is a jumper setting that is usually near to the motherboard battery. Just switch the jumper for a few seconds and return to original setting. Check with the manual for correct use for your board.

Thanks, I didn't go as far as to vacume clean the mobo It was just the sink and fan. I'll give that COMS flash a try as soon as I find my manual.

The flash didn't work, and to answer an erlier question I am getting the beep when I try to boot up. If I can't fix it could anyone atlest tell me what is most likley to be broken so I can buy a replacement? I susspect it's the mobo?

Do you have a spare known working video card that you can swap in for a test?

I have a geforce 4, but unless I use a hdd with the drivers already on wouldent it just do the same?

No, you'd get a blocky 640x480 display because of no drivers (actually it would be using the default Windows display drivers) but you would then know that the video card is the problem.

No, its not just that. With no video card installed the monitor goes straight to standby, I haven't try'd it with my graphics card (mainly because its in Leeds, 140miles away).

I do have a crummy 64mb Rage pro turbo somewere but I suppose trying to use that can tell me if there's a problem with my onboard graphics?

With no video card installed you have no hope in troubleshooting your problem because you will never get past the monitor/standby issue - that's completely normal for that message to appear if you have no video card installed.

Edit: I just noticed you mentioned on-board graphics - d'oh! :)
Had you possibly disabled that to use an add-in card?

Nope, I tried using two old AGP graphics cards and neither helped so I'm clueless as to what is wrong once again :(

Did you mention if you are able to access the BIOS? Does everything look OK there i.e. you can see all hard drives, settings look correct..

I can't see if I can access the BIOS because its before then that the monitor doesn't work.

God, I can be such an idiot some times. <sigh>
Of course you are correct.

Well trying different video cards would be pointless if the onboard video was not disabled and you can't do that 'cause you can't acess the BIOS so it's looking like chipset (video or other) blown on the mobo.