Think I've broken it, any suggestions?

[Mr_Sukebe]

I dropped my base unit yesterday (just don't ask), and since then my PC is looking rather dead. I'm hoping for a few suggestions.

In short, when I hit the power on button, the hard drive light comes on for around 20 seconds, then stops, then no further changes. There's no video output. The fans are running and stay running.

The motherboard is an old Gigabyte GA-K8ne rev 1.
I went through the manual yesterday and sanity checked all of the connections, e.g. video card, power, fans, SATA drives etc. Couldn't see anything amiss.

Any good idea before I declare it a total loss?

 

[Greebo]

Nothing at all on the screen? Does the cpu fan spin up? Any lights on the mobo? Any beeps if you have a speaker connected that is?

Back to basics I'm afarid, take the mobo out and try with the bare minimum attached to it as you never know, it may be a short from something which got dislodged in the drop.

Oh, and you have to tell us how you managed to drop it

 

[Mr_Sukebe]

Dropped it whilst getting out of the car after visiting a friend to show him some bits with Photoshop. NOT amused. Frankly, just ineptitude, which is even more annoying.

Ref the motherboard. All the fans spin up, there's no LEDs on the motherboard to check. Zero output to the monitor (tried changing the monitor just in case). No noises at all.
So it looks like power is getting to the motherboard. If it were a CPU or drive controller failure, I'd still expect something on screen, even if it's just a warning message.
Suggests to me the BIOS has gone. Tried resetting that, still no joy.

As you say, stipping it completely and then starting again is probably a good move. I'll try that tonight.

 

[VoG]

if you do strip it, before you put it back together thoroughly visually inspect the mobo, ram ( & gfx card if fitted ) cos it could be that you've cracked the mobo by one of the mounting screws, & thats put a hairline crack in one of the traces. either that or you've popped a soldered joint some where.

 

[Mr_Sukebe]

Well my thanks to those who gave feedback.
My cheapo replacement OCUK bundle was installed this afternoon and I'm presently rebuilding windows.
So it was definitely the motherboard that was borked. Guess the good news is that the processor will be at least twice as fast, twice as much RAM and the motherboard supports Phenon processors when they drop in price. Bit of a result for not that much dosh.

Just happy that the issue was nailed for not much dosh. I think the missus was going to fry my nuts otherwise.