Dead PC. Help!

aird

aird

aird

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Joined
29 Sep 2007
Posts
45
Evening folks, just after some troubleshooting help.

Basically, I left my PC last night and it was working. Went to work today and came back to a semi dead pc. Fans are still whirring, however monitor is providing no output via. Hdmi and usb supplied mouse and keyboard are not working.

My dad had been using it during the day.

To test the usb ports. I plugged in a usb memory stick to see if the light appeared and tried a small USB fan which worked. I assume it's because they are low powered devices?

Things I've done:
  • Removed/replaced cmos battery = nothing
  • Moved gfx card to different pci-e slot = nothing.
  • Removed RAM sticks = nothing.
At the moment I'm assuming it's the mobo, unfortunately I think it's out of RMA as it's 6yrs old, i bought it from here.

Specs:
Amd fx-8350
Gigabyte 990fxa-ud3
Msi radeon r9 280x
Gskill rjx 8gb 1600mhz x2

Any help would be greatly appreciated.
 
It's a long shot, but have you tried DVI instead of HDMI? Also, do you have access to another GPU you can try? Maybe the GPU has died. A motherboard speaker would help shed some light on to what component is failing. You could try booting the motherboard with no RAM and wait for the motherboard to output the corresponding missing RAM beep error. If no beeps are heard, assuming you are sure the speaker works, then it would strongly point to a motherboard failure.
 
I've not tried another gfx card but I can get access to one.

My mobo has never beeped, I don't think the case has the connection for it.
 
Last edited:
theforce said:
Almost all motherboards don't come with a motherboard speaker nowadays but the speaker connection is there.
Click to expand...

Probably a daft question but how would i connect it if I don't have the connection from the case. I have the connector on the mobo just nothing to plug into it.
 
I wouldn't initially jump to the conclusion of a dead mobo - rather as it is 6 yrs old I would suspect the PSU first.

Do you have a PSU in another PC that you could temporarily hook up?
 
aird said:
Evening folks, just after some troubleshooting help.

Basically, I left my PC last night and it was working. Went to work today and came back to a semi dead pc. Fans are still whirring, however monitor is providing no output via. Hdmi and usb supplied mouse and keyboard are not working.

My dad had been using it during the day.

To test the usb ports. I plugged in a usb memory stick to see if the light appeared and tried a small USB fan which worked. I assume it's because they are low powered devices?

Things I've done:
  • Removed/replaced cmos battery = nothing
  • Moved gfx card to different pci-e slot = nothing.
  • Removed RAM sticks = nothing.
At the moment I'm assuming it's the mobo, unfortunately I think it's out of RMA as it's 6yrs old, i bought it from here.

Specs:
Amd fx-8350
Gigabyte 990fxa-ud3
Msi radeon r9 280x
Gskill rjx 8gb 1600mhz x2

Any help would be greatly appreciated.
Click to expand...

I have a similar FX8350 with that mobo that I bought (as an OC bundle) from OcUK about 6 yrs ago. Gigabyte is a decent manufacturer and I think that mobo was one of their ultra durable range. a mostly dead PSU can still give enough juice to spin some fans. Troubleshoot (replace) your PSU (or take your mobo out of its case and connect it up to another computers psu).
 
Alan1969 said:
I wouldn't initially jump to the conclusion of a dead mobo - rather as it is 6 yrs old I would suspect the PSU first.

Do you have a PSU in another PC that you could temporarily hook up?
Click to expand...

I assumed that since the fans were still going the psu would be ok, even the disc drive still opens.

But I can also check that too. I knew i kept my old pc for a reason.
 
aird said:
I assumed that since the fans were still going the psu would be ok, even the disc drive still opens.

But I can also check that too. I knew i kept my old pc for a reason.
Click to expand...
I have had the power from a psu diminish after 8 yrs and with 4 HDD's attached it kept getting read errors - but was fine if I removed any one of them. Individually they all worked fine on another PC.
 
aird said:
I assumed that since the fans were still going the psu would be ok, even the disc drive still opens.

But I can also check that too. I knew i kept my old pc for a reason.
Click to expand...
yes, sometimes PSU "pop" explosively with a burning smell but others times they lose power gradually.
 
So if got some mobo speakers ordered. All 10 of them, haha, and a multimeter to test the psu.

Cheers for the replies probably be back if it all goes wrong.
 
Me again!

So I've tested the psu using a multimeter and it's reading the correct voltages. I assume that means the psu is fine?

The buzzers aren't making any noises even if I remove the ram.

Any suggestions or is it definitely pointing to the mobo?
 
Well its pretty much the first thing you should look for in diagnosing a dead pc.
No hdd boot up lights, similar to how a normal boot sequence goes will tell you a lot.
No lights at all and no drive spinning up (if mech drive) = prob psu or drive taking the whole lot down.
Lights flashing as would be similar to normal boot but no pic could be duff video system, driver or similar - it also means the board, cpu and prob mem are ok as well.
 
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