• Some users have recently had their accounts hijacked. It seems that the now defunct EVGA forums might have compromised your password there and seems many are using the same PW here. We would suggest you UPDATE YOUR PASSWORD and TURN ON 2FA for your account here to further secure it. None of the compromised accounts had 2FA turned on.
    Once you have enabled 2FA, your account will be updated soon to show a badge, letting other members know that you use 2FA to protect your account. This should be beneficial for everyone that uses FSFT.

CPU or Mobo fried?

E

Eärendil

Weaksauce
Joined
Mar 22, 2004
Messages
106
So my buddy just started up is computer, and his USB ports don't work, the screen doesn't show POST or Windows it's completely blank. The mobo speaker is plugged in, but no beep sounds when starting up. The mobo power indicator light is on, as well as the built in ethernet adapter light, but USB's don't work, and there's no indication of life. I even put my hand on the harddrives to see if the heads were moving, they weren't as far as I could tell.

So did the CPU fry? Or is it the mobo? I want to say CPU because why would power indicator and ethernet still be fine?

No idea, but if anybody could help think of possible causes that'd be great.

Cheers.
 
It's either the CPU or the Mobo. Some indicator lights will usually still work on a non-functional motherboard, since they are wired very simply.

Is the hard drive actually spinning up when the system is powered on? Should be able to hear it. Just wondering if the PSU is delvering power correctly.
 
First step should be removing and re-inserting all devices and connectors, to check for loose or intermittent connections.

Check all PS voltages.

Try to isolate the problem by disconnecting all devices except CPU, hard drive and vid card. If that doesn't work, disconnect hard drive and try booting to DOS floppy drive.

Next step would be device-substitution: PS, CPU and vid card.

Hope this helps!
 
how do you know his USB ports don't work if it doesn't even boot up?

Motherboard could be dead/bad.
Could be a grounding issue.
Could be insufficient power.

Those are my three best guesses. If you think it is the CPU maybe you can take it out an start it up? I have never powered a system without a CPU but there are beep codes for CPU errors, so you should hear that if it is evenpossible.
 
I don't have a meter to measure the PS stuff, and I can't even see the BIOS or any kind of startup screen. The sucker is blank and has no beeps.

I can't hear whether the harddrives are spinning up because the damn cpu fan is so loud, so I put my hand on the drives themselves. I'll try unplugging the fan and seeing if I can hear them.

The USB mouse isn't powered when I turn the system on, that's why I think they are dead.

I can turn the system on, but usb's don't have power, even though the motherboard power light is on. Does USB require a brief driver load/init? I don't know.

I'll see if the HD's are spinning up.
 
Or it could be a dead video card.

My daughters PC had similar symptoms yesterday. Power OK but no post, no beeps, HD and DVD activity lights on, no life. Checked PSU... all voltages good. Pulled out everything except CPU, RAM, and video card... still nothing. Reset CMOS... no go. Swapped memory... no go. Swapped video card... now posts POSTs. Put everything back in and Windows runs.

I have to stop at Fry's on the way home and get her a better video card... BFG FX5500 looks good. (I don't want to spend too much of my hard earned cash on a high end AGP board for an aging Athlon XP 2000 PC).
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Back
Top