Mac mini upgraded; will not boot.. suggestions?

Question

Hello all,
There are other threads with upgrade problems, but they've all been 'answered' and I'm still stuck. I've just attempted an upgrade (1.5 solo to T5500; core 2 duo 1.66, FSB 667), and I seem to be having problems. I've zapped the pram, but when I attempt to power on, the system doesn't boot. My led turns on and I can hear some hardware (though I think its just the fan), but no screen image and no peripherals. The physical installation wasn't perfect, but it went ok.. (I broke one of my nylon posts, like many others; able to replace it with a fix thanks to frantic google searches.) The unit appears to have power, but there's no chime, no disk sounds, and no boot screen. I can't find any solutions posted, so I'll ask. What should I do?

Answer 1

damfair,
(thanks for your help, by the way) Well, here's what I did:
2 weeks prior to upgrading my CPU I decided to upgrade my RAM. I bought some apple-brand 1 GB (x2) modules on craigslist from some guy upgrading his MBP; he didn't need his old sticks, and he was selling them cheap. I 'cracked' open my mini, installed the new RAM, took a quick look around, closed it up, and rebooted. After a soft pram reset, everything booted fine and the computer worked great for the next few weeks. Then, confident from my successful RAM upgrade, I decided I'd up my processing power as well and starting looking for used but decent core 2 duos on eBay. I found a 1.66 GHz core 2 duo for $75 and won one (out of a lot of 20) for $60. The seller shipped the new cpu quickly and when it arrived a few days later I set to work installing it. The physical installation didn't go as smoothly as I'd hoped (I, like many other people, ended up breaking one of my heatsink posts. I was able to find a great fix online though--4-40 nylon screws work almost better than the stock fixtures--and I thought I'd overcome my problems with the upgrade.) After the processor swap, I relocked my cpu socket, "zapped the pram" by pushing the small silver button next to the processor, reconnected ALL of my wire connections and screwed my chassis back together. I left the cover off for a test boot, and I was disappointed to find a non-working computer. I rechecked my connections, even reseated my processor, and combed the forums for possible fixes. All to no avail. To make sure I hadn't damaged my mainboard during the install I even reinstalled my old cpu, and the thing booted fine; no problems whatsoever. I've been in contact with the ebay store that sold the processor and they don't seem to think its busted, but they can't be sure. I was static-safe during the installation and I've even tried reseating my new RAM (thanks to everyone in this forum for the help.) I really don't know what to do next. I'm thinking of asking the ebay people if I could send them this cpu, they'd send me another one (there were a few remaining in the lot after the auction), and I could try another. If the one they sent me IS broken, then they needed to give me another anyway, and if it does work, then no harm sending them back a working processor. I'll update if I can get a new cpu sent to me. Thanks again for any help.
rob