#170039 - DiscoStew - Mon Aug 24, 2009 6:36 pm
It appears that my compy has finally decided that enough was enough, and now it won't start up. I'm not sure where the problem lies, but I can say it's either one of 2 parts, the power supply or the motherboard (or possibly the CPU). When I turn on the power strip that the compy is connected to, I can see lights turn on from devices connected to the MB, like my multi-card reader. When I push my compy on, it either powers up for a split second, or it begins to power up (with all the sounds related to it like the spinning up of fans), but does nothing after that. At this point, the fans are supposed to slow down, but they don't.
Just when I got back into longer programming sessions with my project, this happens. What do you all think about this? You think it's the PSU or the MB? I don't have any equipment to test either of them.
EDIT:
I did some research on faulty PSUs and MBs, and I believe now that the problem is the MB. Scanning the area of the MB, I see a bunch of capacitors. They all looked fine except for one, which was buldging at the top. An example of what I mean can be seen here. I could explain what this means, but I don't feel it necessary. So, my theory is that because of this, it created a larger load on the PSU, and it triggered the PSU's emergency shutoff switch, which is why it would only power up for a split second most of the time. Still, I would like everyone's opinion on this, if you all agree or disagree with the analysis.
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Last edited by DiscoStew on Mon Aug 24, 2009 7:01 pm; edited 1 time in total
#170041 - elhobbs - Mon Aug 24, 2009 6:58 pm
any beeps from the system board? do you see anything on the screen - like post/bios information? does it fail when it starts your os or before? can you go into the system bios?
did you try another power outlet and/or power strip. power strips do not fail often (in my experience) but they can.
#170042 - DiscoStew - Mon Aug 24, 2009 7:06 pm
| elhobbs wrote: |
any beeps from the system board? do you see anything on the screen - like post/bios information? does it fail when it starts your os or before? can you go into the system bios?
did you try another power outlet and/or power strip. power strips do not fail often (in my experience) but they can. |
I posted some extra information in my first post, but anyways...
No beeps, blank/black screen, no change when trying different power outlets. As of right now, it has stopped with the later symptom of being on with fans spinning and doing nothing, and it now only spins the fans for a split second before they shut off (and the lights on my devices go off too).
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#170046 - elhobbs - Mon Aug 24, 2009 7:45 pm
Is it one of the large(r) capacitors next to the CPU? There are usually 6 -12 of these capacitors. One bulging usually does not bring the whole system down. I have had system with 4 or 5 of these leaking and the system would still boot. Granted it would hang/freeze randomly usually after running for a while though.
you may want to disconnect your hard drive to prevent data loss - your hard drive may still be fine - or at least disconnect it before you do more testing.
#170047 - DiscoStew - Mon Aug 24, 2009 8:20 pm
The one that is buldging is not next to the CPU, but on the other side of the RAM slots, in between that and my IDE connector. It's a size down from the larger capacitors that are on the MB.
I hoep nothing went wrong last night though. I had my compy going through a defrag session with it auto-shutting down when it completed. I woke up this morning with it having been off, but that doesn't necesarily mean it did it normally.
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#170048 - Synthetic - Mon Aug 24, 2009 8:32 pm
I had a similar problem a while back. After moving my pc, it would start booting for ~2 seconds and then shut off. The problem ended up being both, my POS power supply shorted and burned out my mobo and processor =S.
I would focus on checking the power supply first. Swap it out with a known good one, see if it works. Don't try the bad power supply in another system, it could break that one too.
Alternatively, if you don't have another supply, you can check the voltages on 20/24-pin main power connector with a multimeter, make sure all the voltages are normal.
pinout for a 24-pin atx:
http://pinouts.ru/Power/atx_v2_pinout.shtml
Note: To turn it on w/o the mobo, you have to rig it by shorting the on wire to gnd. pinout says its the green wire, so short green to black.
#170049 - elhobbs - Mon Aug 24, 2009 9:21 pm
| Synthetic wrote: |
| Note: To turn it on w/o the mobo, you have to rig it by shorting the on wire to gnd. pinout says its the green wire, so short green to black. |
I always get a freaked out when people so casually mention things like this... just short a few wires... what could go wrong?
#170052 - Synthetic - Tue Aug 25, 2009 12:10 am
Do it enough times, and you get used to the idea =)
But shorting the on wire to ground is exactly what your mobo does to turn on the power supply when you hit the power switch, its about as harmless as it gets.
#170054 - DiscoStew - Tue Aug 25, 2009 12:31 am
I was able to grab an extra PSU and MB from work (though both aren't as good as what I had). When plugging in the PSU to the supposed bad MB, and getting everything up, it at first did exactly what my other PSU did, which was it was on for a split second, but later tries lead it to actually stay on. Still no MB activity like beeps and such. I'm gonna try both borrowed items together this next time, but I'm gonna need to check online for the pin placement for the front panel (like the On button for the computer). Will report with more info later.
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#170057 - sverx - Tue Aug 25, 2009 8:57 am
don't know what could have happened, but I would start removing all what's connected to the motherboard leaving the smallest number of items connected there (you need some memory, you know...) and try again.
also I once had problem with a discharged (or faulty) battery. Check that one too.
#170058 - DiscoStew - Tue Aug 25, 2009 9:28 am
Did multiple tests, including one that I regret doing that resulted in a few sparks flying from the borrowed MB not being properly grounded (it still works though, and I now call it Sparky), but all in all, the tests showed that my PSU still worked, but my MB continued to be inoperable. So, I bought a new MB, and it works fine.
Still, I think I'll keep my old MB just in case I get the opportunity to put it through other tests, like with actual equipment.
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#170059 - elwing - Wed Aug 26, 2009 6:14 am
| Quote: |
| Still, I think I'll keep my old MB just in case I get the opportunity to put it through other tests, like with actual equipment. |
don't do this, there's no better way to burn other fine equipment (thinking of your processor and psu mostly....)
#170060 - DiscoStew - Wed Aug 26, 2009 6:22 am
| elwing wrote: |
| Quote: | | Still, I think I'll keep my old MB just in case I get the opportunity to put it through other tests, like with actual equipment. |
don't do this, there's no better way to burn other fine equipment (thinking of your processor and psu mostly....) |
I wasn't thinking of that kind of equipment. :P
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