[HiRoller]

Gang,

One of my computers won't boot up anymore. Last night I left it on and went out for dinner. When I got back it was frozen. I rebooted but it doesn't even post. It was working fine before leaving. I thought it may be the video card, but the darn thing doesn't even get as far as the initial post. I'll turn it on, the hd light comes on for about 10 second, the optical drives power up but then it just stays there; no beeps, no progress.

I pulled all the memory just for the hell of it and tried to see if I got any error codes. None. It just turns on and sits. No display or nothing. I initially thought it may be the motherboard but I'm now thinking that maybe my power supply has gone bad.

Anyone have any ideas/suggestions on further troubleshooting it to try to isolate the problem further? Thanks!

[LoneJeeper]

do any of the fans spin? any blinking leds?

[HiRoller]

Yep, all fans come on, HD led turns on solid for about 10 seconds then off, then it just sits there like that with no activity whatsoever anymore.

[JimenyFKrickets]

The power supply may have went bad even if you can hear their fans running....but you are saying the drives spool up correct?

I'd try to narrow down what the issue is by removing just about everything from the mobo, take out the cards, memory, disconnect the ide or sata...

Basically just have a mobo with power connected to it (reseat the power to the mobo as well).

You might want to reset the bios at this point if you know what jumper it is (or just remove the bios battery and let it sit unpowered for a moment.)

Turn it on at bare minimum state like this even without the video card and see if you get any error beeps. You should get one for the ram at least.

If you get nothing, you could unseat the processor too and try it.

If we can get some error beeps we can try it with just the video card (or an old PCI card if you have one) and see if we can see some bio info on the screen.

lemme know what happens...

[HiRoller]

Okay, I pulled everything a left the mb bare - still the same problem. I went a step further and pulled the cpu and turned it on, no error codes whatsoever - it just sits. I don't know the jumper settings (have to find the mb manual) so I didn't reset the mb yet.

[JimenyFKrickets]

You should be able to reset the bios by disconnecting the rom battery. It looks like a watch battery and is generally located near the processor or the rom. Just pop it out and leave it sit a few moments. Pop it back in and it should be reset.

Thanks

[JimenyFKrickets]

Also... do you have a test light or ohmmeter? You could test one of the power leads to see if the power supply is providing juice (I think the yellow wire on the atx plug is 12V... it's been so long I cant remember though )... just make sure to test it for a solid minute or so to see if it is making constant power.

[PhilipJ]

Most boards won't even POST unless there's at least 1 stick of functional memory installed. Taking all of the RAM out to troubleshoot is just as effective as having 4 bad sticks in there.

[HiRoller]

Ok I just tried that. Removed the flat round battery for about 30 seconds, popped it back in and it's still having the same issue. The mb is an asus P5N32-SLI.

Edit: I did initially take all ram out except one when I started troubleshooting and still didn't get anything. Unfortunately I don't have any testing equipment. I'm thinking it's either the power supply or mb - I'm going to pull the ps from this system to test it out in a bit...

[JimenyFKrickets]

Originally Posted by useful_idiot

Most boards won't even POST unless there's at least 1 stick of functional memory installed. Taking all of the RAM out to troubleshoot is just as effective as having 4 bad sticks in there.

Some do and some don't It's a crap shoot. I'm not familiar wih the asus here but you could try it with the video and ram and see what happens.

We better hurry.. I'm leaving for the weekend in 45 mins

[HiRoller]

Well, I just tried it with this power supply and forgot one thing. The other mb's 12v(I think) connector has 8 prongs and not the 4 this one has (no 8 pronger on this one at all). So there wasn't enough power to really tell much and it just sat there (no fans came on either). I may just take my ps in question to the shop down the street and see if they can test it out there. Hopefully it's just the ps and not the mb. Thanks for your help so far - I'll keep you posted. Have a great weekend guys and thanks again!

[Nuthin]

You're certain it's not something idiotically simple like the mouse or the keyboard, right?

[dzdiver]

I wish that you provided more details so we could diagnose the problem. But, from the very limited information you provided, I would start with the power supply.

Was your computer plugged into a functioning UPS? If so, then the power supply probably isn't the problem. But otherwise, I would start there.

[deathblade556]

I've had something happen with a PS before It was giving the computer the 12/5volts for the drives and fans but the main voltages for the the Mobo were gone. I took the PS to bestbuy and they just cliped a tester to the mobo connector and there was no voltage, and they charged me 15$

[HiRoller]

I just got back from a small local computer store I usually like to support before going to bestbuy or fry's. They wanted to charge me 40 bucks to test out my ps. No way. They then tried selling me a video card saying that it's 99% the problem. It's not cause I tried out a spare new one just now. I was just going to buy a new ps there, but they said if I return it they charge a 15% restocking fee so I'm heading to fry's to pick one up to test out. If that's not the problem then it's probably the mb. Thanks so far!