milo

ok, im trying to repair a friend's old (athlon 1ghz, 256mb) machine that stopped working. it turns out the power supply was broken. so i replaced it with one from another machine i have kicking around.

and it worked sadly this was the point i told my friend that his computer was working fine now

so i left it on for a few hours (unattended) just be sure all is well, came back to it and the screen was blank. no response from mouse or keyboard (keyboard lights were off). so i rebooted the machine (or tried to rather). the screen stays blank. the cpu fan switches on, but no lights come on on the machine. there are no beeps.

i have tried putting every component from the broken machine into a working machine (processor, HDD, graphics card, monitor etc) and they all work. the only things i haven't swapped out are the memory and mobo, as i dont have spares of those that match (different kind of ram).

this means its either a problem with the mobo or the memory. considering there is no beeping (3 beeps indicates memory failure), i am guessing its the mobo.

i have tried clearing the cmos, but still no dice. ive also tried taking out and replacing the cmos battery but again no dice.

aside from buying a new motherboard, does anyone have any other suggestions as to what it could be? im pretty much at a loss here. anyone got any way of diagnosing what the problem could be?

thanx!

Pedro_79

I had a similar problem with one of my PCs.

It turned out to be one of the sticks of RAM wasn't quite seated correctly. (and I didn't get POST errors)
Try taking everything out and putting it back in again (making sure its all seated firmly)

milo

thanks bro but that didnt fix it. ive had the ram out a couple of times. i guess its possible that the ram doesn't work at all (i have no way of checking) - but its definitely seated right.

i have ordered a cheap £15 mobo that accepts the same ram as the broken comp. so at least then i'll be able to narrow it down to either the mobo or the ram.

milo

i should also add, the old mobo is an ecs k7s5a. it was working fine for many years, so isnt a configuration issue.

stiscooby

Could be the power Supply?? Sounds stupid but have you removed the mains lead from the power supply, left it for short while then put it back in and tried to turn it back on.........I had this kind of problem once and turned out the power supply must have over loaded or something?

Try taking everything off the motherboard - Graphics Card, CPU, Memory etc so the only thing you have plugged in is the Power Supply to the Motherboard......... providing you have got the PC speaker plugged onto the Motherboard you should get bleeps to say its missing RAM, Video or CPU etc.

If you don't then the board has had it!

milo

yes the power supply was broken. but i have swapped it out for another one. if i use the new power supply in a working machine, everything is fine. but the new power supply in the broken machine still doesn't work.

i get the cpu fan working (and anything else connected to the power supply works), but the machine makes no bleeps. the pc speaker is plugged in, and even with no ram at all, i get no bleeps.

so i guess it looks like the mobo is shagged.

GaryCat

I had the same thing with a K7S5A, the powersupply went pop but after replacing it the machine was still dead. It turned out it was the hard disk that had also failed and it was stopping the new PSU from supplying power to the mobo.

Try unplugging each of the HD, CD, floppy etc and see if you can get power on the mobo.

If it is the mobo, get an Asus. I had nothing but trouble with the ECS.

RichA

Move the CMOS clear jumper.

--Rich

milo

tried unplugging all of them. the hd from the dead machine works in a different machine, so it eliminates that. and the cd and floppy arent even plugged in anymore.

is there any particular asus you'd recommend? whats the cheapest reasonable mobo these days? i just ordered the cheapest pcchips one there is for £15ish or less, but if theres a better one in the cheapo price bracket, id rather build with that instead.

milo

ive tried that (i think).

i moved the cmos jump position to "clear" (with the power out), then waited a few mins and put it back to "normal". tried to power up, and the same happened.

i also tried the same approach but with removing the cmos battery completely for a few mins (while power was off). that didnt fix it either.

is this what u mean by "move the cmos clear jumper", or am i doing something wrong?

RichA

^Yeah.

Try holding down the 'insert' key whilst powering up. You've done everything else, you're going to start parting with cash .

--Rich

GaryCat

I changed to the Asus A7V8X-X which is about £32 from ebuyer.com. I've used PCChips before as well and had loads of trouble (a BIOS upgrade killed it completely), I really think it's a false economy to go for the cheapest as they seem to have more compatibility problems than the quality makes like Asus, Abit, Gigabyte etc.

milo

ok so i replaced the mobo... AND IT STILL DOESNT WORK!!! lol. what could be wrong with it?!

all the components work in other machines.. and both mobo's are doing exactly the same thing. any ideas?

incidently, dont get anything from ebuyer - i just bought a power supply from them and that didn't work either lol.

not my day

milo

lol well i FINALLY figured out what was wrong...

* the mobo was broken AND
* the power supply was broken AND
* the case had some kind of short that stopped everything from working

jeez that was harsh.

putting ANY ONE of these three things in a new build caused it not to work.. so all 3 must be buggered... lol

i already have the new mobo and another power supply with it all working on my desk sans case, so just the case to get.

cong

ok this what happened you had a overload and blew your power supply which then blew your mobo, o well time to buy a surge protection socket!

milo

how come the case is buggered too? can the power surge do that?

interestingly, the mobo failed WHILE plugged into a surge protection socket!

cong

ah you got me there! you accidently smash it with a basball bat?

milo

nope, but that was my next plan had swapping out the mobo, case and power not worked lol