PC died

  • Thread starter Thread starter LD
  • Start date Start date
L

LD

Yesterday morning, my PC just stopped working.

All fans are rotating, so the board gets power, but the monitor doesn't get
a signal
and it doesn't start up with the usual boot-up sounds.

I tried changing the graphic card, both to another AGP one, and a PCI card,
without result.

Figuring the CPU could have died, I also changed that, but to no avail.

I de-connected all unneccessary cards abd drives, hoping that one of them
had short-circuited, but that didn't help either. Taking out the ram did
neither
make a difference.

Now I believe that if it ws either problems with ram or harddrives, I would
at least se the bios, would only not a gfx/cpu failure give this type of
error?

Or might it be the board which gave up? It has been running in a 30 C/86 F
environment for the last month's time, but that should not be a problem, as
I've
had good air rotation in the cabinet.
 
Yesterday morning, my PC just stopped working.

All fans are rotating, so the board gets power, but the monitor doesn't get
a signal
and it doesn't start up with the usual boot-up sounds.
Click to expand...

SO for now all you know is that it doesn't POST.
The usual procedure is to try unplugging it from AC for at
least 2 minutes, clearing CMOS, then retring it. Take
battery voltage reading too.

If it still doesn't work, strip system down to bare
essentials towards POSTing, ie- 1 memory module, CPU, video.

I tried changing the graphic card, both to another AGP one, and a PCI card,
without result.

Figuring the CPU could have died, I also changed that, but to no avail.
Click to expand...

CPU rarely die unless it ran instable from failed fan for a
long time or the heatsink fell off.
I de-connected all unneccessary cards abd drives, hoping that one of them
had short-circuited, but that didn't help either. Taking out the ram did
neither
make a difference.
Click to expand...

It won't POST without any memory installed.
Now I believe that if it ws either problems with ram or harddrives, I would
at least se the bios, would only not a gfx/cpu failure give this type of
error?
Click to expand...

Since you tried 2 (presumably known-good) video cards, it's
not likely a video card problem. Not as likely a memory
problem either. The two most common problems are:

1) Power supply
2) Motherboard failed capacitors.

Certainly there are other potentials, but examine the board
and take voltage readings- and if you have spares of either
of these, try the spares.

Or might it be the board which gave up? It has been running in a 30 C/86 F
environment for the last month's time, but that should not be a problem, as
I've
had good air rotation in the cabinet.
Click to expand...

You failed to mention the system. A concise list of all
major components including make/model of motherboard, CPU,
and power supply might be helpful.
 
kony said:
SO for now all you know is that it doesn't POST.
The usual procedure is to try unplugging it from AC for at
least 2 minutes, clearing CMOS, then retring it. Take
battery voltage reading too.

If it still doesn't work, strip system down to bare
essentials towards POSTing, ie- 1 memory module, CPU, video.
Click to expand...

If it is an ATX power supply, might it also need the load provided by
one hard drive? If "LD" has more than one memory stick, he/she may have
to try each one separately (unless the mobo is old and requires the
memory to be in pairs to fill a bank - impossible to tell considering
the dearth of information provided by "LD").
 
LD said:
Yesterday morning, my PC just stopped working.

All fans are rotating, so the board gets power, but the monitor doesn't
get a signal
and it doesn't start up with the usual boot-up sounds.

I tried changing the graphic card, both to another AGP one, and a PCI
card,
without result.

Figuring the CPU could have died, I also changed that, but to no avail.

I de-connected all unneccessary cards abd drives, hoping that one of them
had short-circuited, but that didn't help either. Taking out the ram did
neither
make a difference.

Now I believe that if it ws either problems with ram or harddrives, I
would
at least se the bios, would only not a gfx/cpu failure give this type of
error?

Or might it be the board which gave up? It has been running in a 30 C/86 F
environment for the last month's time, but that should not be a problem,
as I've
had good air rotation in the cabinet.
Click to expand...

If the fans all work and the HDDs pin up, but nothing happens when you
switch on it sounds like the 9v line to the processor has blown and you need
a new PSU.

ss.
 
Synapse Syndrome said:
If the fans all work and the HDDs pin up, but nothing happens when you
switch on it sounds like the 9v line to the processor has blown and you
need a new PSU.
Click to expand...

There is a slight possibility that it's the motherboard. Check to see if
any of the capacitors are misshapen or blown. But it is much more likely to
be the 12v rail (sorry, not 9v) in the PSU.

ss.
 
Synapse said:
There is a slight possibility that it's the motherboard. Check to see if
any of the capacitors are misshapen or blown. But it is much more likely to
be the 12v rail (sorry, not 9v) in the PSU.

ss.
Click to expand...

I do hope that it's not nightmare of nightmares, if the PSU 5v regulator
burns, taking the rail high! It's happened to me only once and a
supplier of parts I ewas talking to at a computer fair, a couple of
times in a year. Anything that sat on that rail glowed for a while then
smelt of burning bakelite.

Sometimes I just hate computers!

Richard.
 
If it is an ATX power supply, might it also need the load provided by
one hard drive?
Click to expand...

It is theoretically possible and I've even seen cases where
that was necessary but it's rather uncommon. Modern systems
draw plenty of 12V rail power for CPU, sometimes video card
too. Older systems don't have PSU with such a high 12V
bias. Typically it'd require: Older system using 5V rail
derived CPU power, a video card without an external
connector, and a modern high-capacity PSU with dual 12V
rails. Such a PSU is not commonly used on older equipment
and would be a bad choice for that equipment.
 
Apparently either the power supply unit or the motherboard has died. To
avoid unnecessary work, I would first try replacing the PSU; it's easiest.
If that's not it then you need a new motherboard.
 
Richard Brooks said:
I do hope that it's not nightmare of nightmares, if the PSU 5v regulator
burns, taking the rail high! It's happened to me only once and a supplier
of parts I ewas talking to at a computer fair, a couple of times in a
year. Anything that sat on that rail glowed for a while then smelt of
burning bakelite.

Sometimes I just hate computers!
Click to expand...

I'm too young to know what burning bakelite smells of, but I have heard it's
pretty bad.

ss.
 
I do hope that it's not nightmare of nightmares, if the PSU 5v regulator
burns, taking the rail high! It's happened to me only once and a
supplier of parts I ewas talking to at a computer fair, a couple of
times in a year. Anything that sat on that rail glowed for a while then
smelt of burning bakelite.

Sometimes I just hate computers!

Richard.
Click to expand...

That's one of the failure-damages that's supposed to be
avoided by PSU shut-down circuitry. While good name-brand
power supplies are no guarantee, they do tend to minimize
the risk of this.
 
Apparently either the power supply unit or the motherboard has died. To
avoid unnecessary work, I would first try replacing the PSU; it's easiest.
If that's not it then you need a new motherboard.
Click to expand...

Tried switching to a working PSU, but with the same result :-(

The setup's a Soltek SL75FRN2 (Socket A) and a TI4200 AGP card.
I am not by the PC at the moment, but it's pretty much standard components.
A Codegen 300 W PSU I think.
 
Synapse said:
I'm too young to know what burning bakelite smells of, but I have heard it's
pretty bad.
Click to expand...


It's the smell of fear!

It even stays in the case for months even if every single item is ripped
out including the PSU and a totally new computer is installed. The fan
wafts a new cloud of dread into hte room on each power-on. ;-)

I think the sturdiest PSUs I came across were the Compaq ones which had
a neat 'crow-bar' circuit which actually worked (historically I think
came from a similar system where the guard on a train had a crowbar
hanging on his door, to drop across one track and the power rail to trip
the power off in case of emergency), in shutting down the PSU for a
while before restoring power in case the idiot sitting at the desk had
gone away. The rest seemed to have a neat system which saved the fuse
but would destroy itself.


Richard.
 
Tried switching to a working PSU, but with the same result :-(
Click to expand...

Just because a PSU "works" that doesnt' necessarily make it
adequate per any given system config.


The setup's a Soltek SL75FRN2 (Socket A) and a TI4200 AGP card.
I am not by the PC at the moment, but it's pretty much standard components.
A Codegen 300 W PSU I think.
Click to expand...


Codegen overrates their PSU, it is not adequate for the
system. If it had ran with it for an extended length of
time it may've even damaged it. The target PSU for that
would be a name-brand 300W with at least 200W rating for
combined 3V+5V rails or more optimally, 350W (still
name-brand) for the higher 12V capacity to power CPU.
 
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