Dead PSU or Motherboard?

B

Black-Tom

Limp Gawd
Joined
Mar 26, 2006
Messages
408
Hi,
Over christmas break I left my desktop at school, and when I came back yesterday it wouldn't boot at all. Like when I press the power button on the front of the case nothing happens at all.

I would assume this is a problem with either the motherboard or the power supply but I'm not really sure. How should I go about finding out which part is broken? Do I need to go out and buy another power supply to see if that was the problem or is there some way of testing mine without putting it in another machine?

Thanks in advance!
 
check to make sure the power button is correctly plugged into the motherboard. If you moved it recently, it may have come loose.

If the motherboard is bad (or video-card, or memory, or CPU, or some settings are off), the power button will still cause the power supply to start and power up all the fans but no video will post. Try clearing CMOS and restarting.

If the power supply is bad (or the plug has come out of the motherboard, or the power supply is unplugged or the switch on the back of the power supply is off or your power strip is switched off or the power strip is tripped), nothing will happen when you push the power button.
 
Pull your CMOS battery, wait for a minute and put it back in, Try to boot. If no go, a power supply tester which can be purchased at a computer/electronics store pretty cheaply.
Or, you can use a paper clip to test the PSU.

Turn off power supply.
Unplug the power supply from all devices, including the motherboard.
Take the large ATX power connector and insert one end of a paperclip in the pin with a GREEN lead. Insert the other end in any Black lead.
Make sure that paperclip isn't touching anything
Turn on the power supply.
If the PSU turns on (fan spins up), it's at least showing the most basic functions and power is probably being fed.
If it does not turn on, then the PSU is probably bad.
 
I pulled the power supply out of the case and disconnected everything like you said. I put an insulated paper clip in the green wire slot and one of the black wire slots, and then turned the power supply on. Nothing happened.

Does this mean that my power supply is dead?
 
Black-Tom said:
I pulled the power supply out of the case and disconnected everything like you said. I put an insulated paper clip in the green wire slot and one of the black wire slots, and then turned the power supply on. Nothing happened.

Does this mean that my power supply is dead?
Click to expand...

You sure that insulated paper clip was making contact between the green and black leads?
 
You can most definitely get by with much less of a PSU - but I figured it would give you a quality PSU while allowing head room moving forward with upgrades and such. If you're on a tight budget, shop around a bit.
 
Lepke said:
You can most definitely get by with much less of a PSU - but I figured it would give you a quality PSU while allowing head room moving forward with upgrades and such. If you're on a tight budget, shop around a bit.
Click to expand...

Sounds good, I might pick up a cheap power supply at the surplus store on campus to see if I can get my computer to boot and then decide on what PSU to buy assuming thats the problem.

If not, how about a case, mobo and proc for about $300? I will keep my graphics card and other parts because they are decent for what I do.

I do some video/photoshop work in the cs3 suite, and I play some games such as left for dead, fallout 3 and team fortress 2.
 
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