Baffled by pc failure

KangooVanMan

KangooVanMan

KangooVanMan

Associate
Joined
28 Oct 2004
Posts
305
Location
sunny suffolk
The boys poxy pc has died again! This time I'm really struggling to find the culprit. A bit of feedback and hopefully a memory jogger please peeps.

He booted his pc this morning, only for it to make a god awfull howling noise. He said it booted into windows but he turned it off not to wake the house up.

I fiddled about disconnecting fans ect to discover it was the psu fan. The bearings had totally failed. I hoovered the psu and installed a 120mm case fan, powered by external molex.

Turned pc on and there was a 'no video signal check cable' message. Fans and drives whired up. Tried swapping power supplies with mine, still no video. The fan on the g/card spins up, but wanted to test it anyway. I couldn't test his g/card in my pc as he is on agp. Had a couple of agp cards a mx460 which i know works, but had a older style floppy size molex. So couldn't use that. I also had a mx200 which didn't need an extra power connector. only trouble is I'm not sure if it still works. Been loose in a draw for years.

All the fans spin, dvd spins, but I don't remember any hdd activity.

I'm starting to think I't might be the mobo if the g/card is ok.

Any idea's?

pc specs
Barton 3000+
Abit guru
2gb ddr 400 ( 1gb geil value 1gb ocz) @ ddr333 2-3-3-6
x800gt aiw
120gb maxtor pata133
jeantech 430w
happauge hvr 1100
 
Hi, if the graphics card turns out to be OK, then it could very well be the Mobo that is failing. Maybe the PSU when the bearing in the fan went caused damage to the mobo.

When you say you hovered the PSU, did you do this when the PSU was out of the case, as otherwise if it was in the case at the time, then you could have had a static build-up and it discharged when the hoover touched the mobo or the chassis of the case and shorted the board out.

This can happen when hoovering inside a PC. Sorry I can't be of no further help.

Anthony
 
Hi, if the graphics card turns out to be OK, then it could very well be the Mobo that is failing. Maybe the PSU when the bearing in the fan went caused damage to the mobo.

When you say you hovered the PSU, did you do this when the PSU was out of the case, as otherwise if it was in the case at the time, then you could have had a static build-up and it discharged when the hoover touched the mobo or the chassis of the case and shorted the board out.

This can happen when hoovering inside a PC. Sorry I can't be of no further help.

Anthony
Click to expand...
This sounds about right.

Did you also test the hdd in your machine?
 
Get another PSU there to test the machine out. The PSU may have died.

If a new PSU fails to breath life into the beast, then start diagnosing RAM, CPU then motherboard. :eek:
 
No PSU was out of case and apart before hoovering, and I already switched PSU's basmic, still the same.

Abit guru doesn't have onboard vga.

Have got a spare cpu+mobo will try swapping them over after work.

I haven't tested his hdd, as I didn't think a faulty hdd would produce a 'no video signal' message.
 
Update:

Swapped mobo + cpu, and it posts :D

I doubt if it is the cpu as there isn't any sign of supernova. In my experience unless a cpu does melt they usually work to a degree. So must be the mobo, North bridge most likely.

I will not chance the psu just in case, so will go and traul through the MANY psu threads to find out the best budget psu for 50 squids or under.

Thanks for your replies :cool:
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Back
Top Bottom