xena said:
Hi there
I would be very grateful for any advice. My hubby's PC is broke and he is
almost at the stage of throwing it in the pond so I'm gonna have a go at
fixing it today whilst he's in work.
It's a A7N8X-E Deluxe mobo, which was quite happily running an Athlon 2400+
until hubby decided that he'd rather the 2800+ from my machine (he's got
PC3200 memory but mine's only PC2100 so can't utilise the full speed of the
2800+).
The 2800+ has always run fine in my machine (which has a A7N8X-X mobo), and
is no running fine with hubby's ex-2400+. But when he put my 2800+ into his
machine, it seems to have killed it.
When you turn it on, the fans come on, but the processor doesn't seem to
spin up and it doesn't activate the monitor, or put any lights on the
keyboard or anything. I've unplugged the HDDs now, just in case, and I've
also tried booting it without the RAM, but it's still the same.
Full specs of the machine, in case they're relevant:
Mobo: A7N8X-E Deluxe
Processor: Athlon 2800+ (Barton 2.083GHz)
Arctic Copper Silent CPU fan
450W PSU
Radeon 9800 Pro 128MB Graphics card
2 x 512MB PC3200 RAM
He's tried resetting the CMOS, and that didn't help.
Any suggestions would be very gratefully received.
Many thanks
xena
Whenever something like this occurs it is time to remove all the other
possibilities that could be wrong. Take all extra I/O cards that may be
in the PCI Slots and remove them. Then see if it will turn on and boot up.
Thy this first: Pull the memory out and and reinsert it. Then juggle
the cables. If your husband replaced the processor maybe he removed the
drive cables and put them back together wrong. This is common. Pin 1 is
the side with the red stripe. I think the blue end goes into the
motherboard, and the gray and black ends go to the drives. The Power
connectors have to be connected to the drives also. After that try
reseating the video card. There is a screw that holds it up and you
have to remove it, pull it out and seat it back in good. Sometimes the
video card is unseated a bit. Then try it out.
If that doesn't work I suggest taking it all apart and start over.
There is a slight possibility that the processor was installed
incorrectly or the processor overheated when it was turned on the first
time. So My suggestion is that you take it apart. This is a little
daunting at first but it is not difficult.
What sometimes happens is that there is some grounding going on. This
is when the back of the motherboard comes in contact with the mounting
plante or something else that grounds out a circuit to the mounting
plate ot to the metal frame of the case. To test it sometimes you need
to take the motherboard from the case completely. I usually have a
separate power supply when I do this. If you have a long table or a
kitchen table you can lay the case on its side and stretch the power
cable out to test it.
Lay the motherboard on a piece of cardboard and connect the power
supply. If you have the manual you can look this up or if you can
access the internet you can go to the Asustek website and download it.
You need to look up the position of the Power-On Pins that the case on
switch connects to. All you have to do is take a screwdriver and touch
those two pins and the motherboard should start up. Most likely it will
give you a beep or an oral message. If it does not the motherboard
the CPU, the Memory, or the power supply is bad.
You can try to put the old processor back on. If you pull the processor
off there should be some kind of pad or thermal grease on the heatsink.
Do not reuse a thermal pad. You can order some called Atric Silver. I
dont know what version they are up to I think there is artic silver 3
and artic silver 4. The thermal Grease allows the heat to transfer from
the processor to the heat sink. Throughly cleaning with 100% Alcohol is
the approved way to clean the processor. But I have just wiped it off
with clean cotton cloth like a cloth diaper. The proper way is with
alchohol of course. Then you have to apply some thermal grease.
Usually it only takes a dot that is spread out to a thin layer. The
processor is inserted just so, but there is one pin on one conrer that
is missing and that matches up with the socket. To remove or insert it
you have to lift the socket arm in the side. Normally if you press down
just a little and move it out and around the clip it will rise. All
the way verticle and the socket should insert easily or be easily
removed. It should not require much force.
Power Supply. Sometimes the power supply shorts out when you start a
comptuer back up. The power supply has 12V+-, 5v+-, 3.3v+- If any of
the voltage lines does not work the power supply will fail. It is
easier to just replace a bad one. However, sometimes it will appear as
if it is still working. For instance the 12v+- will work and the drives
and lights come on, but the processor will not work.
Processor Fan. If the processor fan is not plugged in the motherboard
will not start up. There is a place on the motherboard to plug it in.
Maybe something will help.
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