PC won't boot - CPU or mobo gone? 1

[Kelanen]

Hi all,

My home system is a 1400 Athlon, 1Gb DDR RAM, ATI Radeon Pro, and all the usual stuff in it - it's 2 years old. It has sound baffling fitted (which makes it run hotter), but also the big flower heatsink, and extra and more powerful fans). Nothing has changed in the box in over 6 months however.

I leave my PC running 24/7 and it worked fine last night, but I got no response this morning (and monitor said no input). After a number of cold boots there was still no response. When powered up, the fans run, power goes to the CD-ROM drive (but not a PS2 Keyboard), and a couple of LED's on the mobo light up, but there is no clicking of a RAM check, no beeps or anything. Opening it up, the hard drives and heatsink are stone cold.

My guess is that either the motherboard, CPU or possibly CMOS chip is fried - there's no smoking crater, so can anyone help me to diagnose which it is?


Thanks,



Jonathan Challis
IT Manager

 

[ski]

Make sure that the RAM, CPU, and all cards are fully inserted(especially the video card), and all cable connections are secure.

If that's ok, then install/connect only the power supply, MB, CPU, case speaker, and power button, and make sure that the PS connection to the MB is securely seated.

If you do not hear any beeps, then check the PS either with a voltmeter(system turned on & PS connected to the MB, yellow and black wires +12V, red and black +5V, orange and black +3.3V), or install a different PS. If you do not get the above voltages or the other PS fixes things, then your PS may be bad.
If the PS is ok, then place the MB on a piece of cardboard.
If it starts up, then check for a short on the MB(metal standoff contacting a MB circuit trace, piece of metal under the MB, etc.).
If that does not fix things, then swap out the MB and CPU to find the culprit.

If you hear beeps, then reinsert the RAM.
If the beeps are the same, then remove and reinsert the RAM a few times, or try it in different slots.
If no good, then try different RAM.
If the beeps are different after reinserting the RAM,then reinsert the video card, making sure that it's fully inserted(sometimes they need a healthy push to fully seat).
If no good, then try a different video card.

 

[Kelanen]

Hi there, thanks for the reply...

I've double chicked all cables and cards, and they are properly seated.

The motherboard is a Gigabyte GA 7VTX Dual BIOS. I've switched BIOS in the boot utility plenty of times with no problem, but I don't know if it would failover in the case of a hardware fault - it does lessen the risk of this being the culprit in my mind however.

As originally stated, there are no beeps, no spinning of disks, etc which would point to power supply normally.

I am unsure because the fans are working (running off mobo and PS direct), there is an LED lit on the motherboard, and the write light on the CD is lit. The speed adjuster for teh main fan also works just fine.

Is it possible for a power supply to 'partially blow' so that it can trickle enough power out to power fans etc, but not to power up the whole PC?

I've got the original PS and Video card which I will try tonight to eliminate those.

Jonathan Challis
IT Manager

 

[ski]

The PS can fail, and yet certain electrical components will still run.