My computer is dead! [Hardware]

clsCorwin

So yea, computer is dead. It started out with persistent random reboots. Eventually, it wouldn't even boot up, dying right after it displayed my hard drives during POST.

specs:
500w power supply
ASUS A7N8X-E deluxe mobo
AMD Athlon XP 3200+ (Barton core, socket A)
2GB GSkill PC3200 DDR
256mb Radeon 9600XT
2 IDE hard drives, 1 SATA drive.

I've tried powering up with nothing but CPU and vid card, I've tried a different CPU, I've tried a different power supply, and I've tried 2 different mobos.

What the fuck. HELP!

eternalbl

I think I saw something similar lately. The power switch had a short so the computer would shut off a few moments after it was powered on. I ended up just switching the power switch for the reset.

clsCorwin

I considered that too, however the 3 mobos all shut off at different times, which are consistent for each board.

And I switched power and reset and get the same problem.

clsCorwin

Ok, so my newest board, which came from a working system (so they say on ebay) with an Athlon Xp 1700. Has the same problem. But, with no CPU in, it doesn't restart, but I get no video signal at all.

Board #2, which was another ebay landmine, shuts down immidiately regardless of what is installed.

My original board behaves like #3. Both will shut down regardless of which CPU is installed.

clsCorwin

Copied from my sister-post in Moes.

Ok, so I have 3 mobos, called 1, 2, and 3. 1 is my original.

Mobo 1 cases:
no CPU, with video card: power will stay on, but I get no video output.
Athlon XP 3200, with video card: power comes on and immediately shuts off.
Athlon XP 1700, with video card: same as with the 3200.

Mobo 2 cases:
No CPU, with video card: power comes on and immediately shuts off.
Athlon XP 3200, with video card: power comes on and immediately shuts off.
Athlon XP 1700, with video card: power comes on and immediately shuts off.

Mobo 3 cases:
no CPU, with video card: power will stay on, but I get no video output.
Athlon XP 3200, with video card: power comes on and immediately shuts off.
Athlon XP 1700, with video card: same as with the 3200.

Tried resetting CMOS, no luck. Tried barely connecting power switch and pulling it right after I power on in case power and reset are both fucked, and still dies. I get about 5 seconds of the power supply fan moving before it loses power and starts winding down.

Halp!

urahonky

Have you tried taking all the memory out and then booting it? Does it give you a beep code at all?

clsCorwin

Every combination of motherboard, RAM or no RAM, and CPU or no CPU has been tried, and none of these combinations has booted, or even remained powered for more than 5 seconds.

No beeps.

Movitz

I'd bet some good money on the RAM. I had some trouble with my sticks a while ago and it was somewhat similar but not as bad as for you. It just gave me random blue screens and rebooted. Try running Memtest86+ and see what happens. It's a program that just reads and writes to you RAM modules and when write doesn't match read (i.e. they're broke) it gives you an error.

Good memory will give you no errors whatsoever. Bad will quickly produce a lot of red text.

urahonky

Sounds like a PSU to me... You've pretty much isolated the problem to that.

underdonk

urahonky wrote: »

Sounds like a PSU to me... You've pretty much isolated the problem to that.

...or a bent case, which is making contact with the MB in some way. Sounds crazy, but I've seen it.

Erandus

So, when you try multiple different motherboards with multiple different CPUs, you see generally similar problems? Have you tried a different case? :P Maybe your case is causing a short somewhere. Otherwise you're basically telling us that essentially 3 different computers are having the same problems. Case or power supply. It wasnt clear if you changed PSUs from your previous posts, or I missed it.

clsCorwin

Did I mention that this was my thought at the very first, so I bought a brand new 500W PS that I have since metered and confirmed that it is working, and this problem still occurs?

And the bent case is a no go, since I'm doing all my testing outside the case on foam and static bags.

Also, the case isn't bent.

clsCorwin

Yes, thats exactly what I'm saying. And the case doesn't factor in at all, I'm testing outside the case.

It could just be 2 bad mobos that I've got from ebay, but my newest one came from a stable, working system (so they say).

Erandus

So 3 different motherboards, with 2 different CPUs and you can't get 1 working system between them.

Make sure the PSUs are set to 110v power and not 220?

clsCorwin

The PSUs are set to 115v.

Erandus

At this point I would probably honestly put the whole pile of shit on Ebay and buy an entirely new pile of shit from Not Ebay. And by Not Ebay I mean Newegg.

If you have 3 motherboards, 2 cpus, and 2 power supplies, and you cant make 1 working PC out of them, I can only assume that they are cursed by some sort of powerful witchcraft, and you should abort this evil spawn and start anew.

clsCorwin

Well I was already planning on building myself a new computer, but I was going to give this one to my son.

Erandus

It's vaguely possible that the motherboards you purchased have some extremely aggressive overclocking configured on them which is incompatible with the CPUs. Pull the battery off the motherboard, use the jumper to clear the CMOS, and when you boot the system back up (put in a cpu and 1 stick of ram and the video) hold down the Insert key until the POST beep, if it makes it that far. On many motherboards, holding the insert key will load fail-safe defaults. This may get you to the point where you can get to the BIOS and set the clock and voltage settings properly.

The only other real possibility is that you have some combination of bad motherboards and cpus - possible more than one of each - and that all the viable combinations of compatible hardware contain a bad component. You could have the components tested by a repair shop, but it would almost certainly cost more than they're worth.

I would really honestly unload them on ebay. You would probably have to sell them under a disclaimer of "i have no idea if these actually work or not" and hope you at least get a few dollars out of them to put toward fresh components for your son's system.

clsCorwin

Mobo 1 does a good job of yammering No CPU installed when I have no CPU in and speakers hooked up. Mobo 3 as I just noticed has broken USB ports.

clsCorwin

It wouldn't even get to that point, and I have tried to clear CMOS.

One board was guaranteed working, so I'm sending it back to the selling. One board from ebay I'm SOL on, and my original. Might be what I end up doing. Make a POS board look attractive with RAM & CPU.

Erandus

Try the battery/jumper/insert button thing with motherboard 1 with just a cpu and video card, onboard video would be ideal if it's available. The fact that it can recognize its lack of CPU is a good sign. Start with the lower clock speed cpu. Make sure you go the extra step of yanking the battery off the board before you try again. Getting it to POST is a victory.

My vote is still to purge this voodoo evil from your household before it offends your ancestors.

clsCorwin

No onboard video. I just tried that, but with the 3200. Ill try the 1700 now.

clsCorwin

Same deal, no dice.

Erandus

You're making the swaps pretty quickly, I do hope you're putting the heat sink back on?

clsCorwin

I haven't bothered with the heatsink, considering its not staying on for more than 5 seconds.

clsCorwin

And as someone pointed out in Moes, upon inspected, the capacitors on Mobo 1 are bulging out, but not leaking quite yet, but definitely bad.

Mobos 2 and 3 are fine, regarding the caps though.

Erandus

But 3 has damage around the usb ports?

clsCorwin

3's USB ports do not work, they do not look damaged though.

Erandus

How do you know they don't work? And one non functional part could indicate more damage somewhere on the board.

clsCorwin

The speakers I was using are USB powered. Board 1 powers them, they light up, and poof, sound! Board 3 does not power them, from any of the 4 ports.

clsCorwin

Unless someone comes up with a miracle solution, I'm just going with the ebay solution. Already contacted seller of mobo 3 saying I want a refund.

Now, do you think I get more $ selling one board with the 3200 CPU, and one with the 2 gigs of RAM, or 1 board with the CPU and RAM, and one bare mobo?

Erandus

I think you would actually get more selling everything seperately, especially because if some of the motherboards and cpus really don't work, you won't have to get a bunch of shitty feedback and bitching about money from the people you sell the working components to. Just whichever pieces actually don't work.

And in the interest of not ripping people off, you will really have to disclaimer your sales with a "I have no idea if these work or not, and I can't be bothered to find out, you are buying them as is".

clsCorwin

And then what should I do about this guy?

clsCorwin

Oh, I planned on definitely mentioning that disclaimer.

Erandus

If you're buying components with the same socket form, you can just hang onto the heat sink.

I'd hold onto the harddrives and possibly ram if you can find another pc to test them in, and they're roughly as good as what you'd buy anyway.

clsCorwin

I planned on building an AM2 socket system, so unless that lil buddy lil work for that, I'll end up selling it. Consequently, the mobo I'm looking at for the AM2 build would use DDR2, so this RAM would be useless to me anyway.

The hard drives I am definitely hanging on to.

Erandus

Sell the heat sink with the cpu then. Or by itself.

eternalbl

So when you test all these systems, what components are being used in all scenarios? Are you using the case's switches even though the mobo isn't physically in the case?

Goofball

clsCorwin wrote: »

I haven't bothered with the heatsink, considering its not staying on for more than 5 seconds.

This is BAD.

CPUs heat up VERY FAST and even if the system doesn't POST there may still be power going to the CPU generating heat that needs to be removed. That is what the heatsink is for and it needs to be on there at all times. That CPU you have may not have any kind of thermal protection and will quickly overheat and damage itself instead of shutting down like a newer P4 or Core or i7 CPU will. Even if it does have thermal protection it won't stay running for more than a few seconds before it overheats and shuts down without a heatsink.

I'm guessing at this point that any of the CPUs you are using to test are likely toast due to overheating.

clsCorwin

Yes, I have been using the case switches.

Well, I'll keep that in mind for the future, didn't realize they would heat up that quickly.

eternalbl

clsCorwin wrote: »

Yes, I have been using the case switches.

Well, I'll keep that in mind for the future, didn't realize they would heat up that quickly.

Is anything else shared between the systems?

As for the switches, to test that just use a screwdriver or something to short the 2 pins for the power switch on the motherboard instead. You'll have to hold it on there for about 3 seconds and then let go. And probably won't wanna use a magnetic screwdriver.