Here I am again with another RFM problem. After reseating fan with thermal paste

[Dazzat]

I pulled out my RFM PC today and reseated the cpu fan with some top of the range arctic silver thermal paste.
(I just installed a antec 80 series water cooler in my home PC and had plenty of arctic silver left over)
anyway stuck it back in and turned it on, graphics went spastic, so I took out the PC again checked all wires and cables...
All fine, plugged it all back in and then left it for a while, came back 2 hours later and switched on.
PC and power boots up but does not show graphics or go thought the power test with the BONG noise... No signal at all... Prism card does not flash but has constant light and only shows no signal on my LCD monitor
I've been dealing with PC's as a tech for years and always follow safety procedures so no problem there with static, earthing, or just being rough
Might be because of such hot weather today? Unsure but this was just a simple swap of thermal and nothing else

[Homepin]

Being a PC tech you would already know that anything that uses a PC to operate spells trouble.

Embedded is the ONLY way to go with this type of equipment IMO (as are all other pinballs and most arcades)

Over the years ANYTHING I have been involved with that has used PCs to control them has been a massive headache - industrial equipment, arcade stuff, anything!

- flame away!!

[Marty Machine]

Being a PC tech you would already know that anything that uses a PC to operate spells trouble.

Embedded is the ONLY way to go with this type of equipment IMO (as are all other pinballs and most arcades)

Over the years ANYTHING I have been involved with that has used PCs to control them has been a massive headache - industrial equipment, arcade stuff, anything!

- flame away!!

.....additionally, any pc/industrial controller that still persist with using WinBlows as it's system......sheesh!


Regarding the fault, is it simply a matter of you interrupting a connection on the Video card while tending to the fan issue?
Did you need to remove any connectors to gain better access to reseat the fan. and forgot to put something back in place.
As a seasoned PC tech myself, it's COMMON to leave a fan connector off while doing overhauls....it happens to all of us.

On some PC's they won't bootup if they don't detect the cpu-fan is plugged in, is that your problem maybe?

2c  ;-)

[Dann36]

Remove the Prism card and boot the computer, If the Computer is ok it will display all the POST info . Reseat the Prism card and reboot if you get nothing on the screen then there is an issue with your Prism card.
While running the computer without the Prism card on the original chassis you will get a double image, nothing to worry about.

Considering all was ok before you played around, it is most likely a connection problem. Also keep in mind some of these thermal compounds ( not sure about the one you used) are conductive so you should check that nothing has been shorted by this stuff.

[Dazzat]

Thanks guys.
So far the problem is the pci slot, maybe in the past it had been taken out way too many times.
Under closer inspection the pci slot is very loose on the pins, when the graphics was going crazy I moved the prism card and the graphics became fine straight away.
Unfortunately it moved again when turned off and have not been able to seat it in a position where it will boot again.
I will be sending it up to beaky to repair.
If anybody knows of someone who has a spare RFM PC floating around I would love to buy it off them as a spare

[Caveoftreasures]

PM sent....I know someone who has 2.......He may sell....details sent......Hope it helps...

Brett