Help! Is my primary system dead???

Discussions and help regarding overclocking, motherboards, peripherals, AMD and INTEL CPU's
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loopy26
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Post by loopy26 »

To all,
When I woke up this AM, I found my screensaver frozen.
I could only do a hardboot. When I did, my monitor didn't display anything. The power lights are on, and the disks and fans are spinning, just doesn't do anything else on bootup. No beeps, no video signal. I tried taking every card out, and even replacing the video card to make sure it wasn't that. Still no reponse other than power lights.
Also tried replacing the memory sticks too.
Is my motherboard fried?
This is a non-oc'd system. P3-500/Soyo Sy6baIV, 256MB, win 98SE.

Any ideas????
Thanks
Loop
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Post by blade »

Sounds like either the cpu or maybe the mobo. Possibly even the power supply. Only way I know to be sure is to try and replace those and see. If u have replacements anyway. Perhaps a local friend can help if you don't. good luck :)
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wvjohn
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Post by wvjohn »

i'd check the power supply first
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Post by nexus_7 »

try unpluging it from the wall. also unplug the plug from the Powersuply to the board and then clear the coms. Just leave it liek that 4 a while. Plug it al lback i nand try it.

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JMan
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Post by JMan »

Once, I found my comp frozen when I came back from school. I tried rebooting a million times, I cleared the CMOS, still nothing. Then, a few reboots later, the thing turned on. I'd advise you to keep rebooting/reseating/clearing the CMOS, or try the CPU out on a different computer.
I also had a similar incident, but that time, the mobo and chip were both fried. :mad : :(

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Reg Kmet
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Post by Reg Kmet »

sounds similar as to what happened to a friend when he tried installing a gforce mx. the mobo was toasted and i thnk the powersupply too..
Cheway
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Post by Cheway »

Hey loopy, ensure that your power supply's connection to the motherboard is secure, try a different outlet on the wall, ensure that all expansion cards, RAM, and CPU are firmly seated in their slots. Also, make sure that your mini connectors for speaker, reset, key lock, etc. are connected firmly to the motherboard. BTW, my card was a GeForce 256, not a GeForce MX as aforementioned. Was royally screwed by Computer Avenue in Winnipeg, MB! After installing the card, the motherboard fried and nothing worked. Have you installed any new cards lately?
loopy26
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Post by loopy26 »

Thanks for all your input guys. Sorry, I have not been around in a while. I finally finished cobbling together my second system to get it up and running. A friend from work said he will try a second power supply here to see if that is the problem. (I brought it in pretty much stripped) He suggested that I unplug all drives, and even take out the video card to see if I would at least get any beep codes out of the mobo. I tried that and even though the LED on the mobo and the CPU fan come on, nothing else happens. Looks like it is either a PS or the mobo is gone.

And yes, I was monkeying around in the case recently. As a matter of fact, I was trying to get my SLI to work (by playing around with the card placement) and the only way I could get it to work was to put the cards in non-adjacent slots with the SLI cable stretched tight. I wonder if the strain caused something to break on the board :(

I've also tried reseating the CPU, Power supply cable, and memory (switched that out with another stick I had) with no success.

So I guess I am waiting on the power supply test for now.

Thanks again guys!

PS- I tried clearing CMOS too!

Oh, BTW...anyone have a long SLI cable they want to sell??? :)

[Edited by loopy26 on 12-12-2000 at 01:29 PM]
Cheway
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Post by Cheway »

While you were doing some work in your case, you may have fried the motherboard with ESD (ElectroStatic Discharge). Were you wearing a static strap and did you touch the case to ground yourself before touching any components? Good idea to discharge any static that you've built up before doing any work on your PC. That may be the problem.
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Post by Reg Kmet »

duh!
loopy26
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Post by loopy26 »

Yes, I did ground myself first. Although a basic step, it's so easy to forget in the rush to get that gaming machine running!
Thanks again.
Loop
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Hipnotic_Tranz
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Post by Hipnotic_Tranz »

Hey man, before you do anything, check your RAM. I had that exact same problem and it was my RAM that fried.

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[Edited by Hipnotic_Tranz on 12-13-2000 at 09:15 AM]
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