pin pointing a failure to POST

T

Tweakin

[H]ard|Gawd
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Apr 14, 2003
Messages
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Recently my system died a painful death. After upgrading to WinXP Pro (From 2k pro) and installing the latest drivers for my GF Ti 4200 I got a fuzzy display then complete power off. After that, the system will not even POST, and there is no beeping to indicate the problem. All I get is the fans spining up, nothing more. I first thought the gfx card died on me, as its fan wouldnt spin up, but there was no beeping to indicate an AGP failure. Still, i went and picked up a GF MX 4000 just to test it, and indeed no luck... it still wont POST. I also tried swaping memory, changing slots, etc.

Now it certainly would seem to be a power supply, processor, or motherboard issue. What I am not sure of is how to figure out which it is. All components are warrantied, but I would rather not have to RMA everything :) Is there anything I can do that doesnt involve buying all sorts of new hardware to swap and test with? Is there a 'likely' failure with the situation I described?

Specs,
Abit IS7-E
P4 2.4c
2x 256mb DDR400 (Elixir)
Abit GF Ti 4200 128mb (also an eVGA MX piece of crap)

It is probably also worth noting that I did the upgrade at night after a full day of SimCity 4000 RH, a pretty demanding game with graphics pumped.

Any help would be great.
 
Here's may take.....it doesn't seem likely it would be a PSU or MB issue as you get power to the fans. Iv've seen a few dead power supply's & motherboards, and for me, there was no joy with either failure.

I always start my builds (although it's nearly been a year!!) installing CPU, memory & AGP card. I power up and go into BIOS.

Perhaps you've already done so, but disconnect all periphs (drives, sound, PCI cards), leaving the three core items I described. If you only get fan power to the heatsink, then I would suspect a dead CPU.
 
That is exactly what I get. In a bare-bones-on-plastic-no-case setup (heh :)) that is what I get. Fans on the board, cpu, and in the power supply spin-up, but that is as far as I can get. However, if I use the Ti 4200 its fan does not spin up. Either it's dead and could have been the first piece to go in a chain reaction or is not getting power. I don't have another compatable gfx card with a fan to test it though.
 
I would remove it from the case, leave the grapphics card in, remove the memory and other cards. Then power it up. Hopefully you should get a no error beep. If you dont, i would then try the power supply. If you have nothing to test with, i would suggest taking it to a local store to save money possibly shipping good parts back for RMA.
 
have you tried to reset your bios with the reset jumper... (do that with the power cable unplugged from the PSU too)
 
Yup, clearing the CMOS was the first thing I did. That wasnt the problem.

I figured it out though! The power supply died. I went out and bought a new one today and replaced it, sure enough everything works again. So, even though it was providinmg power for the fans and such, something clearly wasnt right with everything else.

Now I just have to return the PSU i just bought and get the same model through newegg, save $30 or so ;-)

Thanks for the help.
 
I suspect a cpu issue. Did you bump the heatsink for the cpu while fiddleing? Did you fail to unplug and the machine before installation? Did you follow anti static precautions?
 
jacuzz1 said:
I suspect a cpu issue. Did you bump the heatsink for the cpu while fiddleing? Did you fail to unplug and the machine before installation? Did you follow anti static precautions?
Click to expand...

Actually it was a power supply issue, as stated above. Thankfully when the old one died it didn't take anything else with it. So now that I have replaced the power supply, everything is working perfectly again.
 
Tweakin said:
Actually it was a power supply issue, as stated above. Thankfully when the old one died it didn't take anything else with it. So now that I have replaced the power supply, everything is working perfectly again.
Click to expand...


Thats great , I am glad it worked out for you..
 
I just had a PC do the same thing and I suspect the PSU is to blame. I went ahead and RMA'd everything. My CPU was an AMD Athlon XP 2500 Barton and when AMD got it they sent me an e-mail saying they were sending out a brand new 2800 to replace it :D so that wasn't so bad for a $5 upgrade. My mobo got replaced with a brand new one even though it tested fine and memory was fine as I tested it in another PC. I have the same problem though with things spinning up but still no POST so I think it's the PSU and your thread confirmed it. Now if I only had the $$ to get a new PSU :mad:
 
pixelbaker said:
I just had a PC do the same thing and I suspect the PSU is to blame. I went ahead and RMA'd everything. My CPU was an AMD Athlon XP 2500 Barton and when AMD got it they sent me an e-mail saying they were sending out a brand new 2800 to replace it :D so that wasn't so bad for a $5 upgrade. My mobo got replaced with a brand new one even though it tested fine and memory was fine as I tested it in another PC. I have the same problem though with things spinning up but still no POST so I think it's the PSU and your thread confirmed it. Now if I only had the $$ to get a new PSU :mad:
Click to expand...

You may very well RMA the power supply as well, unless it is a generic PoS to begin with. I would have with mine, for example, if it wasnt some generic $15 junk that came with the case. Instead, i just threw it away and bought a new Antec 430w which kicks ass and replaced the last crappy peice of my system ;)
 
make nvidia pay for it... it was the dets that killed your PSU... lol, probably just a bad coincidence...
 
I bought a barebones from TigerDirect (I've heard bad things, but always had no problem before) and which was the case, PSU, mobo. They said after one month that they wouldn't take an RMA on any of it and I'd have to go through the company (ULTRA). Oh well, I'll figure something out to get a new one. I did like this one though, chrome plated with a large 120mm blue LED fan on underside... :rolleyes:
 
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