So, I thought I would check on on my Northbridge and it's heatsink because I thought it was running hot. However, I failed. So while I was at it, I thought I'd reapply thermal paste on the processors.
When I put it all back together, 3 red LED's came up and the system showed only 10GB RAM. Cold sweat immediately poured all over me thinking I messed up my machine.
So, I remove heatsink above CPU A, since that's where the red LEDs appeared and also check the ram slots and clean them up. I power the machine on again to find out now it has 14GB, but that utility still shows up. Anyway, I think to myself: "Nice! Only one is probably faulty now"
So, I now only clean the ram slots and power up again. And darn, I'm just on 8GB. How come? Slots 1,2,3,4 Don't show anything and 4 red LEDs are up on the board.
Now, no matter what I do, I'm still at 8GB and all those slots seem dead. I tried swapping the sticks around. No avail. I tried cleaning the slots and even vacuum cleaned them. Nothing...
Some points
1) Heatsink Above CPU A was kind of hard to screw in, especially the very bottom right screw. But then I checked the Land Grid Array and no pins are messed up. The CPUs are working fine and I've put them under heavy test
2) I also used isopropyl to clean stuff around the board.
3) I unscrewed all those huge phillips screws so I could get between the metal part and the board itself to check on the plastic retainers with springs that hold the Northbridge heatsink. I did nothing with them. I don't know if I could mess anything up in this step. Touch stuff I shouldn't touch, such as solder joints?
4) I can't run the Apple hardware test no matter what. I hold the "D" key for as long as I can during startup and I always get to my login screen
I hope I haven't messed up my computer
What could I possibly do wrong?
I'll be grateful for any advice
When I put it all back together, 3 red LED's came up and the system showed only 10GB RAM. Cold sweat immediately poured all over me thinking I messed up my machine.
So, I remove heatsink above CPU A, since that's where the red LEDs appeared and also check the ram slots and clean them up. I power the machine on again to find out now it has 14GB, but that utility still shows up. Anyway, I think to myself: "Nice! Only one is probably faulty now"
So, I now only clean the ram slots and power up again. And darn, I'm just on 8GB. How come? Slots 1,2,3,4 Don't show anything and 4 red LEDs are up on the board.
Now, no matter what I do, I'm still at 8GB and all those slots seem dead. I tried swapping the sticks around. No avail. I tried cleaning the slots and even vacuum cleaned them. Nothing...
Some points
1) Heatsink Above CPU A was kind of hard to screw in, especially the very bottom right screw. But then I checked the Land Grid Array and no pins are messed up. The CPUs are working fine and I've put them under heavy test
2) I also used isopropyl to clean stuff around the board.
3) I unscrewed all those huge phillips screws so I could get between the metal part and the board itself to check on the plastic retainers with springs that hold the Northbridge heatsink. I did nothing with them. I don't know if I could mess anything up in this step. Touch stuff I shouldn't touch, such as solder joints?
4) I can't run the Apple hardware test no matter what. I hold the "D" key for as long as I can during startup and I always get to my login screen
I hope I haven't messed up my computer
What could I possibly do wrong?I'll be grateful for any advice
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