Problem with pc

dean_ham · 20 Nov 2007 at 10:44

Dont know where to start - any ideas what could cause the problem?

Over the last few weeks you would push the power button in, pc powers up fans spinning but there was like a 5 second delay until the motherboard screen popped up with a "beep"

This went away and it was almost instant as you pushed the button in.

Now it wont boot up at all, power is on fans are spinning but no "beep" and no motherboard screen what so ever.

EVEN WHEN HOLDING IN THE POWER BUTTON FOR UPTO 5 SECONDS TO SWITCH IT OFF WONT WORK! and i eventually have to power it off from the back PSU.

Sounds like a motherboard problem? where do i go now? start stripping things out of the motherboard? i.e Ram.

Gutting thing is i bought all the parts from OcUK 13 months ago so no warrenty i suspect...

Intel Core 2 DUO E6300 "LGA775 Allendale" 1.86GHz (1066FSB) -
Gigabyte GA_965P_DS3 (Socket 775) PCI-Express DDR2 Motherboard
Seagate Barracuda 7200.10 320GB ST3320620AS SATA-II 16MB Cache
NEC AD7170A 18x18 DVD±RW Dual Layer ReWriter
Antec Sonata II Piano Black Quiet Case - 450W Smart Power PSU
GeIL 2GB (2x1GB) PC6400 800MHz Ultra Low Latency DDR2 Dual Channel Kit
Scythe Ninja Plus Rev.B Heatpipe CPU Cooler
HIS ATI Radeon X1900 XT ICEQ 3 SILENT Heatpipe 256MB GDDR3 AVIVO

Cheers

Dean

Admiral Huddy · 20 Nov 2007 at 10:51

It does sound like the motherboard but eliminate other components before you change the mobo.

Check the RAM using memtest86+

Check the HDD using UBCD. On UBCD there are a number of HDD checking tools. Make sure you know the manufacturer of your drive. Check the drive for errors. If you can't get UBCD then visit the drives website. There are normally diagnistic tools on their. If there are errors, sometimes a CHKDSK /r will do the trick.

Check the PSU using a multimeter - Read this..
Huddy's PSU Guide

If all the above are ok, you are looking at a faulty mobo.

dean_ham · 20 Nov 2007 at 11:06

Thanks for the quick reply - what is the bare minimum i can leave in my PC.

Just the motherboard and CPU?

dean_ham · 20 Nov 2007 at 12:03

Had another look and when powering on the PSU (with pc off) there was a high pitch noise coming from the PSU.

So i had a look at that HUDDY PSU GUIDE above. Followed it through checked connections etc.

As i cant power up the pc i cant check the voltages so checked it using my multimeter.

As it says in the guide, unplug the molex plug. Connect between RED-BLACK power on pc.... 0.01v lol

Next second my PSU is smoking a cigar loads of smoke coming out the back of the PSU.

Safe to say its broke, could this have damaged my other components ?

Admiral Huddy · 20 Nov 2007 at 12:04

edit - Just read your replay post...

Yes it could do.. I had a PC brought into me last week. Blown PSU as the PSU weren't even spinning. I put this on the meter and it was dead. Plugged the motherboard into the bench PSU and although the PC started, it kept cutting out and restarting. Whatever took the PSU out, it took the motherbaord out too. A spike or surge may have caused this.