Damn. 2 dead CPU's and 2 dead motherboards. Help?

[Heathen Mind]

OK first of all when I boot my PC the monitor will not fire up.
Originally I was having loads of problems with the computer starting up
in the morning to begin with and I put this down to the cold weather.
Then for about a week or two I had bad random hanging especially when
starting applications. Then the PC died completely and will not fire up
the monitor on boot.

The hard drive spins up and the processor fans spin up but that is all
that happens. I bought a replacement Duron 800 secondhand and tried
that, thinking that with the crashing the CPU might be blown. The
monitor kicked into life but the screen was garbled like the output of
a corrupt printer buffer. Then I rebooted it and the same thing
happened as before - the monitor didn't burst into life. I think that
might have blown the new CPU because I just got a replacement
motherboard and I am not getting any response from it at all.

So now I am in a dilemma. I may have 2 dead Duron 800's and 2 dead
motherboards. I have swapped video cards, memory, drives and power
supply and still it's the same the monitor won't fire up during the
boot sequence.

I am thinking the new motherboard is OK because the second Duron blew
in the old motherboard. Shall I get another secondhand Duron 800 and
sacrifice it or could the dud CPU have ruined the new motherboard in
any way? I have tested both of the Durons and they are still cold after
five minutes in the machine. Shall I buy another Duron800 or what?

 

[Erick]

I've seen a few cases where a dead CPU will take out a motherboard and vice
versa, and all were AMDs. It's one of the reasons I won't buy AMD chips.
However, it is only a small possibility. At this point I would assume both
CPUs are dead, as a bad motherboard is much more likely to kill a CPU than
the other way around. Try another CPU in the believed-to-be-good board,
ditch the known dead board and both CPUs.


OK first of all when I boot my PC the monitor will not fire up.
Originally I was having loads of problems with the computer starting up
in the morning to begin with and I put this down to the cold weather.
Then for about a week or two I had bad random hanging especially when
starting applications. Then the PC died completely and will not fire up
the monitor on boot.

The hard drive spins up and the processor fans spin up but that is all
that happens. I bought a replacement Duron 800 secondhand and tried
that, thinking that with the crashing the CPU might be blown. The
monitor kicked into life but the screen was garbled like the output of
a corrupt printer buffer. Then I rebooted it and the same thing
happened as before - the monitor didn't burst into life. I think that
might have blown the new CPU because I just got a replacement
motherboard and I am not getting any response from it at all.

So now I am in a dilemma. I may have 2 dead Duron 800's and 2 dead
motherboards. I have swapped video cards, memory, drives and power
supply and still it's the same the monitor won't fire up during the
boot sequence.

I am thinking the new motherboard is OK because the second Duron blew
in the old motherboard. Shall I get another secondhand Duron 800 and
sacrifice it or could the dud CPU have ruined the new motherboard in
any way? I have tested both of the Durons and they are still cold after
five minutes in the machine. Shall I buy another Duron800 or what?

 

[Noozer]

OK first of all when I boot my PC the monitor will not fire up.

Turning on the power is not necessarily booting the PC. If the POST doesn't
run, the PC ain't booting.

There is not any fire located in any PC monitor that I've seen. I asssume
that the screen stays blank, power LED doesn't come on and it never gets
warm. Nothing to do with the PC.

Originally I was having loads of problems with the computer starting up
in the morning to begin with and I put this down to the cold weather.

"Cold weather" has nothing to do with a broken computer. Computers may crash
more, depending on tempurature, but being cold is not a reason for a working
computer to fail.

The hard drive spins up and the processor fans spin up but that is all
that happens. I bought a replacement Duron 800 secondhand and tried
that, thinking that with the crashing the CPU might be blown. The
monitor kicked into life but the screen was garbled like the output of
a corrupt printer buffer. Then I rebooted it and the same thing
happened as before - the monitor didn't burst into life. I think that
might have blown the new CPU because I just got a replacement
motherboard and I am not getting any response from it at all.

Sounds like something is broken. What parts do you actually have? If the CPU
is a Duron 800 my bet would be a worn out power supply, possibly killing the
mainboard/CPU connected to it.

So now I am in a dilemma. I may have 2 dead Duron 800's and 2 dead
motherboards. I have swapped video cards, memory, drives and power
supply and still it's the same the monitor won't fire up during the
boot sequence.

I am thinking the new motherboard is OK because the second Duron blew
in the old motherboard. Shall I get another secondhand Duron 800 and
sacrifice it or could the dud CPU have ruined the new motherboard in
any way? I have tested both of the Durons and they are still cold after
five minutes in the machine. Shall I buy another Duron800 or what?

A system based on a Duron 800 is cheap enough to toss and replace. Duron
800's should be cheap enough for you to pick up half a dozen - but I doubt
that's going to help.

 

[kony]

OK first of all when I boot my PC the monitor will not fire up.
Originally I was having loads of problems with the computer starting up
in the morning to begin with and I put this down to the cold weather.

??? Are they outside?
A properly set up system will start at any hospitable temp.
That is, if you can stand it without a coat on, so can the
system.

Then for about a week or two I had bad random hanging especially when
starting applications. Then the PC died completely and will not fire up
the monitor on boot.

Are you using generic power supply(s)?

Did you consider telling us about these systems but then
decided not to? Details are really important, otherwise all
we know is you have systems that don't work, while other
systems, do. The details won't always help but often...

The hard drive spins up and the processor fans spin up but that is all
that happens.

Classic failure to post. The post likely culprits are a
failed motherboard or power supply. It's certainly possible
to be something else instead but in a system that remained
undisturbed, these two are it over 80% of the time.
Sometimes it's really simple, like a dead battery- check
yours.

I bought a replacement Duron 800 secondhand and tried
that, thinking that with the crashing the CPU might be blown.

CPUs don't just "blow" unless something tragic happens like
the heatsink falls off or the fan stopped. Well, maybe less
than 1% do, but if we're going to consider such remote
things, it'd take forever to get to the more common things
which are usually the problem.

Also, this secondhand CPU, how confident are you that it
really worked/works? Is it the same speed?

It's really really useful to start out a problem thread with
a concise list of all major system components, and it puts
the rest of the entire thread in context. Doing it later
never does as well as right at first as too many posts go
off on a tangent they wouldn't have otherwise. Second to a
concise description is a brief history of the system such as
how long it had been running as configured when it failed
and whether anything, even moving the system from one side
of your desk to the other, had changed.

The
monitor kicked into life but the screen was garbled like the output of
a corrupt printer buffer.

Could be extremely instable or could be video card- check
that video card is seated properly and inspec the contacts.
Could be poor power too, check the voltages with a
multimeter.

Then I rebooted it and the same thing
happened as before - the monitor didn't burst into life. I think that
might have blown the new CPU because I just got a replacement
motherboard and I am not getting any response from it at all.

We dont' even know if the CPU was good in the first place?
I mean, you may but we don't.
Too many variables, no way to isolate anything.

You didn't tell us about the replacement board either.

It is not common to blow a CPU with a bad board, not one
that had worked and just stopped working in same system at
least. You might be jinxed and it happened but I wouldn't
assume it just yet.

Did you clear the CMOS? On the first board? On placing the
second CPU in first board? On the second board?

So now I am in a dilemma. I may have 2 dead Duron 800's and 2 dead
motherboards.

Actually you don't know if any of them are dead, at least
not by the details provided.

I have swapped video cards, memory, drives and power
supply and still it's the same the monitor won't fire up during the
boot sequence.

Did you check the original board for failed capacitors? It
was fairly common but then you didn't tell us the makes and
models of parts...

Did you clear the CMOS after swapping the video card?
If not, do it, after trying the other things.

I am thinking the new motherboard is OK because the second Duron blew
in the old motherboard.

It is unlikely that either CPU is dead unless the heatsink
wasnt' installed right or the fan wasn't running for a
period of time.

Shall I get another secondhand Duron 800 and
sacrifice it or could the dud CPU have ruined the new motherboard in
any way? I have tested both of the Durons and they are still cold after
five minutes in the machine. Shall I buy another Duron800 or what?

Why did you get the first secondhand Duron? I mean, it's
not like that's a fast CPU so if one were to replace the CPU
it'd think they would want an upgrade, especially since the
parts are now old and relatively cheap.

You should not buy any new parts yet. At least, if you
haven't done more than you described above, you should go
back and retry original parts. We dont' know if you tried
the (new?) power supply with the original board and CPU
either. We need detailed specifics in chronological order.

We don't know if the new PSU was decent or a poor generic.
Far too many variables to conclude anything, but the least
likely is that both CPUs and both boards are dead.