No post on cooler installation

[kot0starr]

I recently ordered a new bracket for my old NZXT Kraken M22 to re-install it into my system. I took out the old (Cooler Master Hyper 212 Black), cleaned off the thermal paste on the cpu, let it dry for about an hour, installed the M22.

 

On first boot, it took me to the American Megatrends screen saying no cpu_fan was detected. Simple fix, it was plugged into cpu_opt. I switched these and now my LED indicator on boot is orange/yellow which I believe is DRAM. I never touched the memory but thought maybe I got unlucky and tested a different stick. I am still not getting a post after trying all the ram configurations (which I still believe not to be the issue). The fans stay on full blast continuously. It was working perfectly fine with the old cooler installed. 

 

I’m worried that somehow my cpu got damaged during the cleaning of the thermal paste even though I was very careful. 

 

Specs:

CPU: Ryzen 5 3600

Motherboard: ASUS ROG STRIX B450-F

GPU: NVIDIA GeForce RTX 3060

Case: NZXT H500

Cooler: NZXT Kraken M22 

RAM: Corsair Vengeance RGB 2x8GB 3200

OS: Windows 10 Home x64

BIOS: updated within the last 4 months (I can’t access it now to check)

 

Note: all CASE fans are connected to an NZXT fan hub however I doubt that’s the issue.

 

 

 

 

[RONOTHAN##]

Just now, kot0starr said:

let it dry for about an hour,

Did you use water? Isopropyl should've taken maybe a minute or two to dry at most unless you used like a quarter bottle of the stuff.

[kot0starr]

12 minutes ago, RONOTHAN## said:

Did you use water? Isopropyl should've taken maybe a minute or two to dry at most unless you used like a quarter bottle of the stuff.

70% isopropyl on the top and sides. I didn’t intentionally dry for it an hour I was just preoccupied with TV.

[RONOTHAN##]

1 minute ago, kot0starr said:

70% isopropyl on the top and sides. I didn’t intentionally dry for it an hour I was just preoccupied with TV.

Just making sure. Water damage would've been a pretty easy thing to diagnose.

 

Just to make sure, did you clear the CMOS when you first started getting memory errors? Also, look to see if the motherboard is at all bowed, it's possible that the mounting screws were tightened a little too far which can cause issues.

[LOOKTheMagician]

Did you try remounting the cooler?  I've seen some wonky pre-post behavior from non-ideal cooler mounts.