One of my friend's desktop suddenly crashed and is throwing up random symptoms. The following is how the issues have taken place:
- The Operating System (Windows 7) abruptly crashed with a BSOD error (my friend didn't take a note of the error message)
- The "computer" refuses to boot. No beeps. No initial start-up screen.
- We tried pugging out all cables and RAM. We plugged all wires again and re-seated the RAM onto a different slot, and it didn't work.
- The power supply unit continues to work fine (considering a steady RPM) and the motherboard flashes a LED, indicating steady power input.
- The next day, we try and the computer easily boots, but stops at the startup screen with the processor thermal trip error.
- We unmount the processor fan and processor, we discover the processor is very hot.
- Now, the processor fan starts and stops after 1 second. And continues this on a loop.
- We apply a thermal paste, the thermal trip error goes away, but still, the computer won't boot.
- The processor fan still continues the start and stop after 1 second, on a loop.
What should I do next to troubleshoot? What hardware do you think might be causing the trouble? I strongly feel the motherboard has gone faulty and might be causing these problems. Would that be the case?