Boot Issue

Brig

Brig

Brig

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9 Mar 2007
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78
I'm having some boot issues with my PC. I took the whole PC apart for cleaning the other day. Cleaned off all the dust, took off the HSF and reapplied thermal paste. I was using the anti-static wrist strap during the whole process.

Once I had put everything together again and tried to start it up it didn't work. All that happens is the fans spin up for half a second then everything dies, not even the power button on the PC does anything after this. I have to turn the PSU off on the back power switch to get the same reaction from the power button again.

I have tried just the PSU on its own by connecting the green and black wire on the ATX wire. It does work but it takes 5-6 seconds to start. Seems a bit odd to me. I've connected all the fans to the PSU and they spin normally when I start it this way.

I'm hoping it's just something in the PSU that has gone but I'm not sure as I don't have another one to try with.

Have any of you experienced anything like this before and can give me some clues?

Please don't laugh, the PC is very old but I'm not in a position to buy a new one at the moment.

It's an AMD XP 3200, 1GB DDR Corsair, Gigabyte 7NF-RZ motherboard, BFG Geforce 6800GS AGP.

The PSU is a almost a 550W 35A on 12v. Not a branded one though but has been working fine for the last 3 years and I haven't added anything in the PC.

Any help would be much appreciated!

Also I'm wondering if I buy a new PSU today for example a Corsair one would it work with my ancient PC?

Thanks!
 
Don't start buying stuff until you're sure you know it's broke. I would start by re-seating everything again, and re-making every connection (disconnect every molex, header, data cable and plug them back together securely). You'd be supprised how many of these issues are caused by just one poor connection. You can try other diagnostics after that.
 
Have you checked that everything is plugged in properly & that nothing has come loose? I'd check the case connectors to mobo & GFX.
 
Thanks Chris. Forgot to mention that I have tried that already. Last night I took the motherboard out of the case, reseated the HSF again and only connected 1 stick of ram, 1 HDD and the PSU. Tried to run it outside the case but got exactly the same result.

I'm worried that either the CPU or MB has gone which leaves me without computer as I can't get parts for this one anymore.

I guess I was sort of waiting for this to happen as the date mark on the CPU is 1999! I think this PC has survived many years longer than it's expected of it.
 
Hmm. Not looking good then. Hate to ask the obvious - like did you plug in the 4-pin power lead for the CPU (but I just did :)) Odd coincidence that it just died if it's true. I've got some old stuff here and use it to make PC's for the kids, it doesn't get treated well but still works. Did you remove the CPU when you reseated the HSF? Chance of a bent pin?
 
Yes everything is connected both the ATX and the 4 pin CPU power lead. Have gone through everything several times.

No bent pins on the CPU, checked that as well.

Oh well, time for a new PC sometime later this year then. I suppose it was about time anyway!

Thanks for trying to help guys!
 
Before you give up.

Does your motherboard have an onboard speaker at all? Going by this link: http://www.gigabyte.com.tw/Products/Motherboard/Products_Spec.aspx?ProductID=1819 ....It doesn't apparently...Do you have a speaker attached to the case by any chance?

If you can answer that, it would help a little.

Presumably you have NO spare part at all? Not even some old ram that will work for instance.

Try booting it once again (Sorry :p) out of the case (not on the carpet obviously or on metal ;) ) with the BARE essentials plugged in.....As in all you need for a computer to 'boot' is: Motherboard / CPU / RAM, no going by my first point, you don't have an on board speaker, so you will have to put the GPU in just to see if it's booting I guess...Although you could leave it out, and see if the power stays on instead which would be more than before, up to you.
 
Thanks Delvis. I will try it tonight without the GPU to see if it makes a difference. I got some older ram as well I can try with. Got spare graphic cards, hdd's and ram but not any powersupplies or CPU's.

There isn't a speaker on the MB that I can see but I always have the case speaker connected. There hasn't been any error beeps as it doesn't get that far.

Will report back tonight. Thanks again
 
Managed to get hold of a different powersupply yesterday from work and with this unit the PC boots up!

No idea what killed my PSU but I'm going to order a new one today. I'm thinking about order a big one so it's future proof for a new PC later this year. Will hopefully be a higher end i7 system.

I'm thinking about this one. I know it's not modular but I think I should be ok anyway.

The question now is, would this PSU work with my old PC?

I'm currently only using the ATX cable, the 4 pin power cable and some molex cables.
I don't have any sata devices.

Will this PSU be ok?
 
Well I was going to reply about the error beeps but nevermind :p

Reason I said about the speaker, is because if it does boot up, it would give error beeps if there are errors, then I was going to suggest booting without ram (if your speaker was working) to see if the cpu was still in good order.

But anyway, glad you found out the problem, as stated, ATX 2.x tends to be backwards compatible, although some boards / psu's don't like mixing with eachother.

Hopefully the 24-pin on the psu you linked too has a detachable '4-pin' connector on the 24-pin atx cable :)
 
Yes OcUK does save the day! Thanks all! This is probably the friendliest computer forum I've come across.

I'm trying to decide between the Corsair and the PC Power & Cooling.

Both do have the 20/24 ATX cable. The Corsair one is slightly more powerful on both W and Amps for almost the same price so I might be going for that one.
 
The previous corsair psu's (The HX series) had pretty decent reviews from people on here...So hopefully the TX oens do as well
 
I ordered the Corsair 850W so will hopefully get it either tomorrow or Thursday. At least I don't need a new PSU when I finally do upgrade my PC now :)
 
Sorry to bring back this old thread but have some bad news. Installed the new PSU tonight. All the fans does spin up now and I can hear the hdd's spin up as well but that is it.

No sign of any further life. Nothing on the monitor, no error beeps no hdd activity :(

I have tried with different ram, in all slots and combinations of them. Have even tried without any ram but same happens.

Even if I start up with only the cpu and nothing else on the MB the same thing happens.

I'm thinking maybe the old PSU ruined either my MB or CPU or maybe both.

I won't be trying any more to fix this machine as it's so old so I don't really see it being worth while. Time to start saving for a new one...
 
Lies.

Try the other psu you had, the one from your work.

If that works, then the new psu is poo...or just doesn't like your board for whatever reason :p
 
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