Motherboard issues

Greg0986 · 4 Oct 2013 at 17:05

Hi all,

Didn't know where else to put this as it could be a number of things.

Last night we had a really bad thunderstorm, which knocked the power out and managed to break my motherboard (I think). It will turn on, but will not go past the first boot screen and I cannot get into the Bios.

I have removed the power cable and removed the CMOS battery but it still won't boot. What I find strange is that with every power source removed, the motherboard's LED's stay on. What else could I try? Could it be the PSU?

Thanks,
Greg

swiftmetal · 4 Oct 2013 at 17:08

try disconnecting everything you don't need and try turning it on again.

this means no mouse keyboard and the like just a monitor use igpu if you can and just try one stick of ram in different slots and see what happens.

Greg0986 · 4 Oct 2013 at 17:11

Hmmm. I removed everything as you said and it now boots. I plugged the keyboard and mouse back in as well as the usb hub I have and it will not boot. I unplugged the usb hub and bam, it boots. Why would a USB hub prevent it from booting?

Hyburnate · 4 Oct 2013 at 17:22

Could be that the USB Hub is ruined, does anything work in the USB Port you plug the hub into?

Greg0986 · 4 Oct 2013 at 17:29

Yeah, everything works including external hard drive and external DVD Drive. When it hung at the boot screen, I unplugged the USB3 cable it instantly booted. I think there might be an option in the BIOS for USB3 but I haven't checked.

I don't really want to have to unplug it and plug it back in every time I want to start my computer.

Hyburnate · 4 Oct 2013 at 17:32

Try the hub in another computer or another USB port, if it doesn't boot then. I'd say get a new USB Hub.

oceaness · 4 Oct 2013 at 17:40

Is it a mains powered hub or self powered?

Was it plugged in to the mains during the storm?

I know you said other devices work in the USB port, but does the PC boot with another device plugged into that USB port?

Greg0986 · 4 Oct 2013 at 20:25

It is a mains powered hub, made by Anker.

It certainly was, I was awoken by the thunder.

I will try that later, it is in an odd place to see and I will get back when I try it.

Thanks,
Greg

oceaness · 4 Oct 2013 at 21:04

It's possible the storm has just blown the transformer for the hub.

And as such when the PC polls it during post, the hub doesn't respond because it has no power and thus the computer is just waiting indefinitely for it.

Potentially very cheap fix if this is the case, if you can find a replacement of the correct spec. Not sure if there's any way to test unless you have some sort of variable voltage universal transformer. Perhaps a multimeter on the tip of the transformer.