2 dead machines no apparent reason

Z

zalazin

[H]ard|Gawd
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May 12, 2000
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I have had two of my antiques just die both within four months of each other. Now they were not recent both about nine year old one died in august and one just now they had not been even used much. Both win 7 and both were Q6600 one with four gbs and the other with 8 and both ssds. Both fired up but that was it no video no lights flashing on ethernet port nada zip all fans running and even front lights on but not even onboard video. pulled all cards reset cards etc reset Cmos still nada. Just not being used killed them? I did fired every few months and installed updates never had this happen before. Anyone else have this happen?
 
Just curious...when was the last time you replaced the CMOS battery? Might try putting in a fresh one and see if anything changes.
 
Reefa_Madness said:
Just curious...when was the last time you replaced the CMOS battery? Might try putting in a fresh one and see if anything changes.
Click to expand...


My experience, at least in the past has been, that even with dead battery, MB should boot, but simply not save CMOS settings.



On the other hand, you may be having some issues with local electrical supplier, if they've been doing line maintenance, or you've had some major storms come through. Fluctuations in line quality are hell on components, which is why in critical systems, line conditioners, on top of digitally regulated UPS are typically mandatory.



Of course, the fact that you're getting zip-zero in terms of lights, etc, seems like you may simply be dealing with bad power-supplies, or some other electrical component. Bad ram is also notorious for having a system that won't even attempt to post, or some sort of electrical grounding. I'd take the systems apart, remove all optional components, clean them thoroughly, and bench test. Open up the side of the case and try hitting the power button, see if the CPU cooler spins for a second and dies. That'll tell us more.


Just OOC, but they don't happen to be plugged into the same power strip or something do they? You could be experiencing a failure with the recepts on that as an example.
 
they were not even plugged in until they were turned on. They were sitting on casters elevated 2 inches above carpet. I do have two cats static possibility here?
 
I've had a couple of years where customer's computers were losing PSUs when the fall heating season started.
One year I should have just bought a pallet of PSUs, it was that bad. Year after that was almost as bad.

No idea why. It's not like the offices changed temp that drastically. Humidity changes maybe.... dunno.
All in different areas too, so not electric supplier or nearby construction, etc.

Pretty quiet this year on PSU failures though.

That would be the first thing I'd check. Try a known good PSU and see if it will start up.
Along with that, reseat memory and all cards and connections.

Also look for swollen caps on the mobo.

.
 
Have you another machine to test components?

I haven't seen the CMOS battery become an issue to keep it from posting. It will still post and boot, it will give an error on post about it.

I would say you are more likely experiencing another issue.

I would start with the RAM. Next I would test the PAY and your peripheral cards. Try removing them one at a time to see if you can get rolling.

If you don't have any spare hardware to test with, let me know. I have a few items laying around that aren't being used that I could ship to you.

Hope that helps.
 
Google and you will find that people have reported CMOS battery failure as the reason for non-boot. I have personally had that to be the cause of my problems once, which is why I mentioned it.

While rare, and dependent on the way the motherboard is "wired", it is indeed a possibility.
 
Yeah, I've seen lack of a good battery cause complete non boot before. No beep, nothing. Looks like PSU failure.

Sounds like it's one of those 2 things.

*edit* Just remembered, it was an old Gigabyte DS4R (Q6600 mobo) I got off a friend, early this year infact, that appeared DOA till I put a fresh battery in.

So hope that's all it is...
 
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