Rig won't POST... what's causing this?

[MikeHunt79]

Ok, first up, here's the spec... it's been my backup rig while I'm watercooling my gaming rig, but now it won't post and I don't have a backup rig for my backup rig...

MB: DFI Ultra Infinity NF2
CPU: Athlon XP-M 2400 @ 2080mhz
RAM: 1 gig BH-5 @ 230Mhz 11-2-2-2-2
GFX: Raddy 9250
HD: 2 x 160Gb sata jobbies
PSU: Seasonic 430W (This rig normally pulls less than 250W)
Extras: Wifi card, emu1212m, dvd-burner

Right, now that's over with, here's what happend. A few days ago I would turn it on, and the fans just spin, but nothing shows on the monitor.

First thing I tried, CMOS reset, this normally works on these flakey DFI boards, but no....

Anyway, I tried reseting it a few times, and it booted on the 5th attempt. Strange.

Today, nothing, nada. No amount of resets could get this thing to work.
First I swapped out the PSU for a Tagan 380w - nothing, just "no signal" on the monitor, and spinning fans.

Forst I disconnected the non-essentials, namely the dvd drive, soundcard and wifi card - made absolutely no difference.

Next I swapped out the GFX card for a raddy 7000... Still nothing.

Now a BIOS hotflash... all went smoothly, but still no boot! Hotflash is normally a last resort but still nothing. I used another NF2 rig for hotflashing, 2 different BIOS chips, still no joy.

I have yet to try swapping out the CPU or different sticks of ram, as I'm not sure where abouts I've put them, but while I hunt down some 256mb sticks and a spare duron, is there anything else I can try?

I think I've gone thru most of the usual troubleshooting things, and this is the first time I've not had the rig boot at some point... If the motherboard is dead, I'd be very surprised, as I can feel the NB heatsink get warm....

I'm posting from a 600mhz via c3 now, and it sucks ass thru a straw. A pentium 2 is faster!

 

[BillytheImpaler]

To me it seems as if you've covered all the bases. A visual inspection of the mobo for burned or missing parts might confirm your fears though.

 

[MikeHunt79]

Thanks for the reply... I've managed to find another CPU and some more ram now, so I'm gonna try switching those first, before taking the motherboard out the case...

I'll check for swollen caps as well as burnt parts, as these (older) DFI board have really cheap and nasty caps onboard.... Well at least my one does.

 

[MikeHunt79]

I give up for now... I've switched ram and CPU and still nothing. This is really strange, but it's definately the motherboard... Maybe something is shorting or something like that.

The power and HD LED's on the front of the case no longer come on when powering up, so that might point to something. Everythings definately getting power tho, I removed all the fans, and the SB, NB and CPU are all getting warm, along with the power mosfets for the cpu and ram. I'm guessing a leaky/blown cap, or something shorting somewhere. I know this isn't exactly a new motherboard, but I expected longer than this from it.

I've started building another rig from all the spare bits... to use in the meantime. I may come back to this problem once the other rig is up and running.

I've got one of those PC fault finding cards on the way, maybe that will turn up somthing. Gut feeling says it's the BIOS... but I have already tried 2 replacement BIOS chips which definately work as they work fine in the rig I'm building right now.

EDIT: Forgot to mention, internal speaker is connected, but no beep codes at all... so that rules that out...

 

[MikeHunt79]

The plot thickens, like a good custard...

I started building the replacement rig, started with a 2nd working DFI Ultra Infinity NF2 that I was using for hotflashing.

Now I swapped in the gig of ram and the XP-m cpu, and it POST'ed. All good so far...

Than I swappped in the Asus Radeon 9250... no POST, just the HD light came on faintly on the front of the case...

I immediately swapped back to the Radeon 7000 as it booted earlier with now, but now - no POST! The HD light on the case comes on brightly now, but nothing else happens.

Is it possible the Radeon 9250 has screwed something up? This is the first time I've heard of a GFX killing a motherboard...

This is gonna be one of those weeks I think...

 

[ByteJuggler]

Try another PSU (other than the 350W tagan, that sounds a little weak and might possibly have its own set of troubles powering that rig...) and/or test the voltages with a multi-meter. Edit: But, maybe you're right, and it's the mobo... (but it seems like a borderline booting/not-booting issue, which *could* implicate power supply.)

 

[MikeHunt79]

Tried a Tagan 480W and a cheap crap no-name 450W psu just for the hell of it...

I tried the voltages with a multimeter, and the tagan is spot on... No voltage sag or anything...

Still does the name thing tho... no POST, just the led's on the board light up...

I'm done for the day with it now, I've really run out of things to try, so i'm gonna call it a night, have a shower and watch Spooks...

Perhaps tomorrow I might have time to sort my gaming rig out, I've got a little more incentive now I'm down to the rig in my sig. :/

If anyone can think of anything else to try short of covering it in petrol and watching it burn I'm all ears.