No POST & no video signal - Broken motherboard?

  • Thread starter Thread starter Paul Mc
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Paul Mc

Hi,
Was wanting to confirm some of my theories about a broken motherboard and
weather there was anything else I could try before giving up the ghost &
taking it back.

Basic specifications:-
*AMD Athlon XP 2200+
*512mb Generic DDR
*ecs K7VMM+ Motherboard (o/b VGA)
*CD Writer
*DVD Rom
*64mb Geforce 440 (AGP)
*40GB WD HD
*300W PSU

Symptoms:-
*No POST
*No Video (tried switching from the Geforce Card to the o/b one - same
result)
*There is HD activity (the case HD LED flickers, indicating activity) *All
system fans come on as expected, indicating that the motherboard is at
least getting power
*No beep codes, even when memory stick is removed

What I've done to troubleshoot:-

*The obvious - checked all jumpers, which all appear to be correct

*Tested the CPU, Memory & PSU in another PC (all work fine so I'd assume I
canrule these out as problem devices - apart from the memory, could it be
a "picky" motherboard when it comes to memory?)
*Disconnected all optical disks (cdrom, writer), hard disk's & floppy and
tried with just bare essentials (ie. mobo, psu, cpu, memory, vid card) -
Same symptoms as above.
*mobo grounding problem? - done the above this time removing the mobo from
the case and placed it on an antistatic mat & tried again - no dice.
From what I have tried I think that I can rule out the cpu, memory, video
card, disk drives & the PSU leaving just the motherboard. I'm going to be
through and re-check everything again 'just in case'.. but is there
obvious that I neglected to do? or am I correct in my assumption that it
is the motherboard that is at fault?
 
*The obvious - checked all jumpers, which all appear to be correct

*Tested the CPU, Memory & PSU in another PC (all work fine so I'd assume I
canrule these out as problem devices - apart from the memory, could it be
a "picky" motherboard when it comes to memory?)
*Disconnected all optical disks (cdrom, writer), hard disk's & floppy and
tried with just bare essentials (ie. mobo, psu, cpu, memory, vid card) -
Same symptoms as above.
*mobo grounding problem? - done the above this time removing the mobo from
the case and placed it on an antistatic mat & tried again - no dice.
From what I have tried I think that I can rule out the cpu, memory, video
card, disk drives & the PSU leaving just the motherboard. I'm going to be
through and re-check everything again 'just in case'.. but is there
obvious that I neglected to do? or am I correct in my assumption that it
is the motherboard that is at fault?
Click to expand...

oh yea, I forgot to mention the very fist thing I tried.. clearing the
cmost memory - didn't help, it had exactly the same symptoms after.

- Paul Mc
 
-
Paul Mc stood up at show-n-tell, in
(e-mail address removed), and said:
Hi,
Was wanting to confirm some of my theories about a broken motherboard
and weather there was anything else I could try before giving up the
ghost & taking it back.

Basic specifications:-
*AMD Athlon XP 2200+
*512mb Generic DDR
*ecs K7VMM+ Motherboard (o/b VGA)
*CD Writer
*DVD Rom
*64mb Geforce 440 (AGP)
*40GB WD HD
*300W PSU

Symptoms:-
*No POST
*No Video (tried switching from the Geforce Card to the o/b one - same
result)
*There is HD activity (the case HD LED flickers, indicating activity)
*All system fans come on as expected, indicating that the motherboard
is at least getting power
*No beep codes, even when memory stick is removed

What I've done to troubleshoot:-

*The obvious - checked all jumpers, which all appear to be correct

*Tested the CPU, Memory & PSU in another PC (all work fine so I'd
assume I canrule these out as problem devices - apart from the
memory, could it be a "picky" motherboard when it comes to memory?)
*Disconnected all optical disks (cdrom, writer), hard disk's & floppy
and tried with just bare essentials (ie. mobo, psu, cpu, memory, vid
card) - Same symptoms as above.
*mobo grounding problem? - done the above this time removing the mobo
from the case and placed it on an antistatic mat & tried again - no
dice.
From what I have tried I think that I can rule out the cpu, memory,
video card, disk drives & the PSU leaving just the motherboard. I'm
going to be through and re-check everything again 'just in case'..
but is there obvious that I neglected to do? or am I correct in my
assumption that it is the motherboard that is at fault?
Click to expand...

I wouldn't rule out the memory, just yet. Some boards are really hard to
seat memory into. I've had boards that I had to almost STAND on the modules
to get them seated properly and be recognized.

Another thing you might consider is resetting CMOS, using the jumper on the
motherboard or by pulling the battery from the board.
 
I wouldn't rule out the memory, just yet. Some boards are really hard to
seat memory into. I've had boards that I had to almost STAND on the modules
to get them seated properly and be recognized.
Click to expand...

The memory seems to be well seated, as none of the contacts are showing
above where the top of the slot is. I might take a crucial 128mb ddr stick out of
my own machine and try it in this one - just in case it's one of those
mobo's that is picky about memory, although the generic 512 module worked
a treat in my own comp...
Another thing you might consider is resetting CMOS, using the jumper on the
motherboard or by pulling the battery from the board.
Click to expand...

I have reset the jumper, but haven't tried removing the battery. Would
this not equate to the same thing or is plucking out the battery better
than using the jumper (iirc, removing the battery takes longer to clear
the cmos than using the jumper)?

thanks for the help =)

Paul Mc
 
-
Paul Mc stood up at show-n-tell, in
(e-mail address removed), and said:
The memory seems to be well seated, as none of the contacts are
showing
above where the top of the slot is. I might take a crucial 128mb ddr
stick out of my own machine and try it in this one - just in case
it's one of those
mobo's that is picky about memory, although the generic 512 module
worked
a treat in my own comp...
Click to expand...

Well, using this reasoning, I almost tossed a good motherboard, once. No
matter 'how well' I thought it was seated, it was not (it was the
motherboard DIMMS being VERY picky and bitchy). I resat those DIMMS a
hundred times, before it finally got 'well'.
I have reset the jumper, but haven't tried removing the battery. Would
this not equate to the same thing or is plucking out the battery
better
than using the jumper (iirc, removing the battery takes longer to
clear
the cmos than using the jumper)?
Click to expand...

Depends, again, on the motherboard. I've just, recently, switched to Intel
and their boards...I've found that using the jumper does not even work. I
'have' to remove the battery. ymmv.
 
The onboard video...does that run off the PCI or AGP bus? Would trying
a PCI video card, or a different AGP video card, be worth the effort?

Ari


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Hi,
Was wanting to confirm some of my theories about a broken motherboard and
weather there was anything else I could try before giving up the ghost &
taking it back.

Basic specifications:-
*AMD Athlon XP 2200+
*512mb Generic DDR
*ecs K7VMM+ Motherboard (o/b VGA)
*CD Writer
*DVD Rom
*64mb Geforce 440 (AGP)
*40GB WD HD
*300W PSU

Symptoms:-
*No POST
*No Video (tried switching from the Geforce Card to the o/b one - same
result)
*There is HD activity (the case HD LED flickers, indicating activity) *All
system fans come on as expected, indicating that the motherboard is at
least getting power
*No beep codes, even when memory stick is removed

What I've done to troubleshoot:-

*The obvious - checked all jumpers, which all appear to be correct

*Tested the CPU, Memory & PSU in another PC (all work fine so I'd assume I
canrule these out as problem devices - apart from the memory, could it be
a "picky" motherboard when it comes to memory?)
*Disconnected all optical disks (cdrom, writer), hard disk's & floppy and
tried with just bare essentials (ie. mobo, psu, cpu, memory, vid card) -
Same symptoms as above.
*mobo grounding problem? - done the above this time removing the mobo from
the case and placed it on an antistatic mat & tried again - no dice.
From what I have tried I think that I can rule out the cpu, memory, video
card, disk drives & the PSU leaving just the motherboard. I'm going to be
through and re-check everything again 'just in case'.. but is there
obvious that I neglected to do? or am I correct in my assumption that it
is the motherboard that is at fault?
Click to expand...

Check that the HSF wire is on the correct header.
Pull power cord and clear CMOS again.You cannot fully clear the CMOS
on ATX powered systems with power to the board.
any RAM changes clear CMOS again as above.
HTH :)



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