Let the stress begin! :(
A friend of mine asked me to take a look at her laptop due to recent overheating issues. She said that whenever it was running a movie or mp3s or a game, it would restart itself. She had managed to figure out that if she boosted it up on a cookie rack or something of the sort, it would cool better and not have the problem. However, she wanted me to see if I could fix it altogether...
This was the first laptop I've attempted to fix. First I downloaded some diagnostic utilities to see what her temps and fan speeds were. Everything seemed to be pretty normal to me, so I just blew everything out with a can of compressed air. After that, I decided to open it up and apply some Artic Silver 5 to the CPU/heatsink.
It was pretty simple to open it up, but in my lack of laptop experience, I forgot to take out the battery. As I was putting the CPU/Heatsink back in, the metal of the Heatsink touched the mainboard, and a small spark jumped between them! :(
Now the computer won't power up for more than a few seconds... When it is plugged into the wall, the front lights will flash on real fast, then flash off, and it doesnt show it as charging. When I turn it on, only the fan will start.. then it shuts itself off.
Do you think it is a bad mainboard? Or could it be the CPU?