My PC stopped working a while ago. Replaced PSU no luck . When I took the heatsink off the thermal adhesive seemed to be melted, is this normal? I was able to take the heatsink(zalman) off the cpu without any effort.Is there a way to check by looking if the cpu is good? What should I replace, check next? Thank you in advance

If you replaced the PSU and still had no luck, I would suggest you try swapping the CPU and RAM. It would be hard to tell if your CPU is damaged if there aren't any obvious defects. Did the fans turn on at any point? The thermal pastedoes get mashed but it should not ooze or leak. Avoid touching it at all unless you have extra handy. http://hosting03.imagecross.com/ima...

a lot of stock HSF units come with a tab of thermal paste stuck on it, and once the HSF is mounted on the CPU and the machine turned on, the tab does seem to "melt" and cover more area more evenly. you can treat this the same as you would if you had applied the thermal paste yourself - scrape off with something that won't scratch the cpu/hsf (like a credit card or something), and then use a non-lint cloth and >=90% rubbing alcohol. you usually cannot tell just by looking if the CPU is good. you should describe your symptoms in more detail though. how far into the boot process does the PC get? any beeps? do fans spin at all? any LEDs turn on? was there anything that happened prior to the PC dying, like a lightning storm in your area or anything? i would be surprised if your CPU ended up being the problem, and there are a lot of pieces that are a) more problematic, and b) easier to swap out and test.

Thanks for the reply. Nothing happens when I turn it on, not even the PSU fan or any lights, absolute silence even with a new PSU.

if you see the issue with 2 PSUs, and they power up when you short the pins and plug it in, it could be an issue with your motherboard. i'm surprised you don't get at least SOME activity though, from fans or something at least. i would also double check the silly stuff: Have you tried a different power outlet? is there a power switch on the PSU and a button on the case? is the case's power button wired to the motherboard correctly? I've hit the power button on my case plenty of times and freaked when no boot, only to roll my eyes and remember the switch on the back on the PSU. Make sure that's set to "|" instead of "O". Also make sure that you're PSU is set for the right country - if you're in the states, the little red toggle switch should should be set to 115, not 220.

Yeah I checked all of those, different outlet, I shorted the PSU and it worked so it's most likely the motherboard. I took it down to a local PCW computer see if they can fix it as I loose my patience very quickly and don't really have to time to play around with it. Thanks for the help