PC Troubles, Any Ideas?

[ins0mn1ac]

Posting on behalf of a friend, so i'll just copy n paste.

Eeeeekk.

I was just playing Pro Evo and watching TV on WinTV and then suddenly, it just reset itself.
Then it reset itself again, before even POSTing. Then again. Then again. THEN it finally got through the POST and displayed the message "Your overclocking messed up" (or something to that effect) "Reverted to default settings".

First of all, i didn't overclock anything. Secondly, after that, it said press F1 to continue, so i did, and it restarted again. And since then, it doesn't even POST.

I've reset my CMOS and powered on again and it still doesn't post. The HD LED is constantly lit, and nothing happens. I've resetted countless times and this still happens.

So i went troubleshooting.
Changed RAM - Same problem
Changed PSU - Same problem
Changed Hard Drive - Same problem

So i'm guessing it's either the motherboard or the CPU. I can't find out though, because i have no spare hardware that's compatible with either of them. Wrong sockets and what not. And my graphics card is PCI-E and i only have a spare AGP one so i can't swap that., but i don't think it's that is it? Surely the PC would still POST even if the gfx card was completely broke?

Soooo, any ideas? What do i do? How can i find out if it's my CPU or Motherboard?

If you want anymore information then ask plzzz.

My motherboard is an MSI K8N Neo4-F and my CPU is an AMD Athlon 64 3800+ x2 dual core.

Full PC spec- AMD 64 X2 3800+
2GB OCZ DDR400
ATI x1800XT 256mb

 

[acharris]

Hi, does he get any beeps or any noises out of the speakers when the PC is trying to POST. Also try taking the CPU out then turn on and see if he can get any beeps or messages or see if the Machine POST, but gives him a error message.

He have tried reseating the HSF and re-applying thermal paste, in case the CPU is overheating, though I don't think this is likely, but worth a try as it is a cheap attempt to fix it. Otherwise, I think that it is the CPU gone rather than the Mobo.

Anthony