Help With Diagnosis

[scoobe]

I recently moved and I think the computer got a bit banged up. I push the power button and the fans turn on but I never hear the 'beep' and booting never starts. I have to then manually toggle the PSU switch and hit the power button a second time. I have to reset the BIOS settings as well. The computer time is also wrong - 3 hours off - and keeps resetting to that with every time I turn it off/on.

Any ideas? I was thinking either the mobo or PSU... but don't happen to have any spare PSU's to test with. With a visual inspection the mobo appears ok - no ruined capacitors.

AMD Athlon XP 1900
Asus A7N8X
2 x 256MB Corsair (Infineon chips)
Nvidia GF 6600

 

[tiraides]

Try replacing the CMOS battery. If that doesn't "work," it may be an indicator of further problems.

Additionally, disconnect all of the cables, and try reconnecting them. If that doesn't work, remove the motherboard from the case, perform a "minimum" build (starting out with only the motherboard, CPU, one stick of RAM, and the power supply) and see if everything works normally. (Check your motherboard's instruction manual so you know all of the beep codes used for troubleshooting.)

 

[Kehl]

I may be off, but that used to be symptoms of a dead or nearly dead battery on the motherboard when the bios would keep resetting. Have you considered swapping that? It shouldn’t cost more then a few dollars. After that the PSU could be a likely suspect. I had an old antec smart power that had similar symptoms, getting it to start required manually toggling the switch on the PSU. I did not have bios issues though.

 

[rverhas]

The cmos battery (CR2032) is most likely the cause to your cmos being cleared. You can find these batteries just about anywhere. However, the computer not turning on is probably the PSU. I have had the same issue before and it was a faulty PSU.

 

[scoobe]

You guys were right about the battery. I replaced that which took care of the CMOS issue. As far as the power toggling issue, well I found a loose screw wedged behind the mobo and a riser. I guess it was causing a short circuit.