my computer is mortally wounded

  • Thread starter Thread starter dachay2tnr
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dachay2tnr

dachay2tnr

One Hit Wonder
... not fully dead, but close to it.

Last night I turned on my computer (it had run fine the previous night). The lights came on (floppy drive, CD-ROM) and stayed on, and nothing else happened at all.

I pulled off the cover and tried again. There is light on the mobo that is lit, and the CPU fan starts up, so it appears to be getting power, but nothing else happens.

I pulled off all the cables for all the hd's and CD's and tried again. This time I got the high-pitched whirring that I normally get when it starts up, but when it came time for the power up "beep," I got nothing further. I also get nothing at all on my monitor.

Any ideas on where to start to look? I'm suspecting CPU or mobo, but I'm not certain. The equipment is relatively new (less than a year old). FWIW, it's a 933 MHz PIII and an Abit 133-BX mobo.
 
I usually want to suspect the graphics card when monitors don't come on. Try pulling the video card and re-seating that and like V6 said the ram and stuff. Just do it one a time. If you've got an extra V-card try replacing it.
 
like jake said, the mb won`t let the system boot without a video card. And missing or improperly seated ram won`t let the OS start. You could pull all your cards and ram, clean with a pencil eraser and put back in the slots. A buildup occurs in the contact point from chemical reaction with voltage that will eventually cause a short. The rubber will clean it off nicely. Or just unplug and reseat a few times. The ide cables are a culprit as well. Usually the buildup is on the mb end of the cable but cleaning both ends is recommended.
 
A buildup occurs in the contact point from chemical reaction with voltage that will eventually cause a short.
Click to expand...

This isn't your Tyco slotcar racetrack from 1980. Don't use an eraser whatsoever. If you have buildup on your cards then you should probably move away from where you live. Dust is about the only thing that will buildup, and that wont wedge into your slots unless you take the cards out and reseat them without brushing off the dust. A NON STATIC duster or air-in-a-bottle will work.
 
In order of probability, I would check -

Video
Power supply
CPU
RAM

First thing in trouble shooting is to remove ALL cards except for the video card. If it then boot, put them back one by one.

I'm lucky because I always have extra cards and parts lieing around to swap out during trouble shooting. If you have a second PC you can borrow from then you are ahead in the game.
 
I had that exact problem. When i took it to fix nothing at all would happen and they said that the motherboard died. Maybe that's what will happen to you but maybe not. I just want to say GOOD LUCK!!! It's no fun only using computers in the school lab.
 
more details

Based on your advice, I removed and reseated my memory chips. I have two 256Mb chips and 3 slots on the mobo. During this process I moved one of the chips into the unused slot.

Bingo, the computer booted. However, when I checked the system I found I was running with only 256 memory instead of 512. OK, bad memory chip, I can handle that. But which one?

I tried to isolate the bad chip. So I removed one chip. DOA, wouldn't boot. Replaced that chip and removed the other. No boot. Put them both back in. No boot.

Numerous configurations later, I can not get the computer to boot again. Does it sound like perhaps I fried the second (good) memory chip in my machinations? Could it be that one of the slots on the mobo was shorted out, and by putting the chip in that slot I killed it? Is there a way to test memory chips outside the computer?

Any further thoughts on where to go from here?

:( :( :(
 
Just one thing to try... have you tried reversing which mem chip is in the first slot?
 
pglewis said:
Just one thing to try... have you tried reversing which mem chip is in the first slot?
Click to expand...
Yeah - been there, done that. In fact, since my earlier post I even pulled a memory chip out of another computer. Still no go. When I put that chip back in it's original computer, it worked fine. So now I'm guessing it's the memory slot on the mobo. . . or something else. :(
 
Sounds to me like you may have a short on the MB, dirty contacts possibly from something like dust or oxide in the female chip slots, look at the back of mb where the chip slots are soldered and check for cold solder joints. Memory chips are pretty resilient and shouldnt crap out that easy.
 
As toki987 suggested, it could be a short of some sort. However, inspecting the board for cold solder joints is somewhat futile adventure. The QA in that regard is very high. Even if you do see what you think may be a cold solder joint, I'd be very hesitent to whip out the old soldering iron with connections that tight.

If you have no hesitations, try the following.

-Remove the motherboard from the case.
-Place it on something with low static properties, like a piece of cardboard or an antistatic mat. And as usual, make sure you are static discharged everytime you go near any of these components by touching a large metal object, like the computer chassis.
-Build the computer outside the case with just video, ram, and processor, and powersupply of course. Hard drives, floppys etc not required.
-The machine should if all is good, boot in this configuration.

If it does boot consistently, check the standoffs in the case. The little supports under each screw that secures the motherboard. Are there the correct amount? Make sure there isn't an extra one shorting out the board intermittently. Check the height of them all as well, is the board when installed a relatively even distance from the bottom of the case, and not touching?

If it doesn't boot, try the ram swapping again. Short the CMOS battery (via a jumper on the board) or pull the battery out for 5 mins or so. Do either of those with the power OFF, and return the jumper and battery to their correct location before powering up again.

It may be the powersupply. I've seen faulty powersupplys exibit this behaviour, but rarely. If you have another PS you can try, do so.

If all this fails, my guess is your motherboard is toast.
 
Thanks for all the help everyone. I had another mobo that I was able to use to check everything. It booted fine with the other mobo - both memory chips were good, graphics card was good, etc., etc. So, it appears that I have a bad motherboard. Ticks me off as the mobo is only 14 months old.

Any suggestions for a good PIII 933Mhz mobo? I'm looking at maybe the ASUS TUSL2. Any thoughts?
 
Bummer about the mobo. Rare, but it happens.

I've had nothing but good experiances with ASUS boards.
 
Just thought I'd update everyone. Got the new ASUS mobo tonight and I installed it. I'm back up and running - hard drives, memory, etc. are all working. Now I've got about a zillion tweaks I need to make to get everything back to way I had it, but at least I'm operational again.

Thanks to all for your help.
 
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