Fried my motherboard?

[Santiago]

Hello group, I need your help & wisdom.  I built my own computer - Antec case, Gigabyte GA7N400 motherboard, AMD Athlon XP 2400 processor, 1gig ram, ATI All-in-wonder AGP card, Sony DVD player, Sony DVD burner, 3 hard drives, Windows XP Home SP2.  It was working great, then I decided to install a rear cooling fan in the case.  I had an 80mm fan with a heat sensor lead on it for variable speed, connected to a power lead from the power supply.  Somehow I pinched the sensor lead and when I tried to restart the computer, it would not start.   So I opened the case, found the problem, repaired the sensor lead, and restarted the computer.  Worked ok.  Then my monitor started to go black intermittently.  So I tried another monitor, worked ok, then it started going black.  Opened up the case and found the cooling fan for the CPU was not working.  So I changed the CPU Cooling fan.  Still didn't work.  Re-installed the original cooling fan, and hooked up the fan to a power lead rather than hooking it back onto the motherboard.  Fan worked ok.  but system still unstable.  Now the question -  do you believe I fried the CPU (?), the motherboard (?), both (?) or do you have any other ideas?  Any help would be appreciated.

[squirrel]

find another compatible processor and switch it with your own.

then come back and report the results.

[soybean]

Since you "Opened up the case and found the cooling fan for the CPU was not working", I believe you may have fried the CPU.  Based on numerous comments I've seen in forums on AMD CPUs and their vulnerability to rapid damage in case of CPU fan failure, I understand they can be ruined within seconds of operating without a fan.  

Do you have any idea why the CPU stopped working?  It had prviously been working, right?

[Santiago]

No, I don't know why the CPU fan quit working, but the CPU was still working, the machine would just go blank, sometimes reset itself.  So I don't know if the Power Supply was damaged when I shorted the case fan sensor leads, or if that took out something on the motherboard.  I also have read of AMD processors being "fried" if you don't have a heatsink on them, but my heatsink was still on the CPU, with the CPU cooling fan not working.

[GX1_Man]

AMD processors will fry within a second or two if the cooling fails. Intels have thermal protection so the machine will turn off to protect it.

[Santiago]

OK, but does the CPU control the CPU cooling fan operation?  Did I also fry the motherboard? And/or did I damage the power supply?  Thanks for the help.

[GX1_Man]

You'll have to replace it a piece at a time until you see what it takes to get it going.

[sark]

OK, but does the CPU control the CPU cooling fan operation?  Did I also fry the motherboard? And/or did I damage the power supply?  Thanks for the help.

I don't think the power supply is damaged, though I could be wrong.
Most likely it's your cpu and mobo.
GX1_Man is right, you never know what really happened, I'm just going off of my experience.

[Santiago]

Thanks for the advice.  I have ordered another motherboard to try..... Working with a tight budget.  I will try one item at a time and get back to all of you with the results.

Thanks again for your help.

[Santiago]

 Well, I got another motherboard figuring the old one was toast because it wouldn't power up the cpu fan, also hoping that since the heatsink was still on the processor and I do have a case fan close to it, that it wasn't ruined.  Have transferred all items over to the new board, and so far all is well.  Just wanted to update the group.  I will let you know if any more problems.