CPU problems?

i was excited to get a amd xp 2700 over christmas break, but when i went to install it bad things happened. the heatsink didnt really quite fit, or it fit a little to snug and one of the transitor looking things on the top of the cpu cracked. i was wondering if this could have caused my video card to fry too, or will video not boot at all if there is a major CPU problem?

so i guess what im really asking is if you have a bad CPU will video boot at all, or even recieve any power (ie GPU fan spinning)?

 

Nope. If the CPU is dead, there is nothing to process the information. Sometimes fans will spin, but not always. If you have another CPU, you can install it to rule out any further damage. ie....Motherboard, Video card, Memory, bla bla bla.