Tecra 8100 No Power

 

So, I purchased a working Tecra 8100, with baseline specs (P3 450Mhz, 64MB RAM, 6GB HDD) off of craigslist, and then found out it could be upgraded, maxed the RAM @ 512, working good. Got a free 100GB HDD from a friend, working good. Drop in a 850Mhz P3 (SL4AH), and it booted, and hung on the splash screen. Now, a little backstory on what it could be, maybe someone can clarify...

 

When pulling the OEM CPU out, a few of the cpu fan screws got stripped (totally my fault, but the motherboard risers were stuck to the screws holding the fan on). So, I reinstalled the fan, re-assembled with just three screws, it turns on, and sticks @ the boot logo. I push the power button and it beeps rapidly until shut down, so... I took it apart again, and this time, stripped two more screws because of the risers. So now, it's only being secured by one screw. I then re-assemble. Nothing. No AC LED, no battery LED, nothing. No indication that it's working at all. Which leads me to my question.

 

Could the fan screws *really* be the problem? This is my first attempt at fixing a laptop, so it's more or less a project. I decided to buy this laptop and fix it up because it has lots of old ports for testing older peripherals (which is what I was aiming for). Any help is greatly appreciated, and sorry for such a winded explanation, but the more detail I give up front the less questions I'll be asked later. I DID order a screw kit from eBay for it though, so it'll be here in a few days (20-26 July).

Well, the CPU was 'tested' from the company I bought it from, and it turned on with it in the socket, but as the screw count diminished the worse the problem got. So HOPEFULLY this screw kit will help. If not I'll do a reverse swap and go from there.

 

This is so disheartening, but it's a learning process, I just got to remember I'm doing this as a project and not get in a hurry with it.

 

Also, while we're on the subject. The CPU came with like a paper/foam like covering with no thermal paste to make contact with the heat sink. And since the heat sink is old, I'm guessing it's made out of aluminum, would taking this 'cover' off and applying Arctic Silver help with heat?

I guess it'd be thermal tape, I've never seen anything like it, it's got like foam around the edges and a white piece of paper in the middle covering the processor with a hex-type pattern on it. Where would I get another one of these or would thermal paste work?

Alright, got the screws in today, got everything screwed in and viola! It works. Now I'm having USB issues. It's like devices want to work, they power up and kick right back off. Could it be because of the CPU draining too much juice? My wireless dongle use to work as did my thumb drives.

Suggestions?

I've broke this thing down three times and still can't get the USB to work.

 

Device Manager sees the USB controller, and when I plug in mice and keyboards it starts installing and the mouse is getting power (the laser is glowing) but it fails to install saying it's not recognized. Maybe something simple I'm over looking?

I'm debating on replacing the USB/S-Video circuit board or the main board. Both are less than 20 ea. on eBay. I bought a Xircom CEM2 card and am having a time with it picking up the LAN on it, modem it picks up fine...