Hi,
I'm hoping someone here can help me as my PC is doing a passable impression of a paperweight at the moment.
It's a "Titan Sabre" AMD Phenom II X2 Dual Core 550 Black Edition 3.10GHz DDR2 System (Gigabyte mobo) that I picked up from Overclockers 3.5 years or so ago. It's maybe a bit long in the tooth but has served me well.
I was using it in a non-intensive way (no gaming, just using OpenOffice at the time) when the screen went dead and, after a few moments, the monitor reported a lost signal. It couldn't be powered off using the button on the front - only from the PSU button on the rear.
Not very much happens when I start it up - the screen still reports no signal. I've taken the case off to have a look around to see what happens when it starts:
On startup:
I tried the following:
That brings us about up to date. My initial thoughts are either PSU not putting out enough power, fried motherboard or exploded CPU. There's no obvious smell of burning and nor do any of the cables or pins look damaged.
I'm a software professional but hardware has always been a black art to me so I am well out of my depth now. I was considering getting a hardware support engineer around to look at this but the hourly rate plus the inevitable parts means it might well just be easier for me to knock this one on the head and pick up a new PC. If I could diagnose what has failed then I may be able to get away with just replacing that bit but I've stretched my hardware knowledge to its limit already.
Is there anything else I can try (ideally using only a screwdriver at most) to help diagnose what's up?
Any help would be appreciated.
EDIT:
I attempted to start it up this morning and had no response at all. No fans, nothing. I presume this therefore means the PSU is dead. Is this typical behaviour when they fail or should I look deeper into what actually happened?
I'm hoping someone here can help me as my PC is doing a passable impression of a paperweight at the moment.
It's a "Titan Sabre" AMD Phenom II X2 Dual Core 550 Black Edition 3.10GHz DDR2 System (Gigabyte mobo) that I picked up from Overclockers 3.5 years or so ago. It's maybe a bit long in the tooth but has served me well.
I was using it in a non-intensive way (no gaming, just using OpenOffice at the time) when the screen went dead and, after a few moments, the monitor reported a lost signal. It couldn't be powered off using the button on the front - only from the PSU button on the rear.
Not very much happens when I start it up - the screen still reports no signal. I've taken the case off to have a look around to see what happens when it starts:
On startup:
- DVD starts up ok
- Hard disk starts up ok
- Case and CPU Fans start up ok
- No beeps
[*]No display
I tried the following:
- Removed graphics card and attempted startup - no change (no beeps, no display)
- Removed all RAM - no change (no beeps, no display)
- Switched RAM around / left one stick - no change (no beeps, no display)
- Removed and put back CMOS battery - no change (no beeps, no display)
- Removed and repaced power cables - no change (no beeps, no display)
- Started removing CPU cooler (Titan Fenrir) to examine the CPU
- Realised removing the cooler was a complete pain in the ar*e and gave up
That brings us about up to date. My initial thoughts are either PSU not putting out enough power, fried motherboard or exploded CPU. There's no obvious smell of burning and nor do any of the cables or pins look damaged.
I'm a software professional but hardware has always been a black art to me so I am well out of my depth now. I was considering getting a hardware support engineer around to look at this but the hourly rate plus the inevitable parts means it might well just be easier for me to knock this one on the head and pick up a new PC. If I could diagnose what has failed then I may be able to get away with just replacing that bit but I've stretched my hardware knowledge to its limit already.
Is there anything else I can try (ideally using only a screwdriver at most) to help diagnose what's up?
Any help would be appreciated.
EDIT:
I attempted to start it up this morning and had no response at all. No fans, nothing. I presume this therefore means the PSU is dead. Is this typical behaviour when they fail or should I look deeper into what actually happened?
Last edited: