dustedvinyl

New computer, built from the ground up on Feb 5th of this year. MSI 865PE-Neo2-P, Pentium 4, 1 gig "o" ram, Geforcefx agp8x video, m-audio 2496 soundcard. Went to check email this morning at 8am and the computer screen was "frozen" on the desktop with the clock showing 6:46am. Cold booted but no post. lights, fans work but no boot. Tried different power supply... nothing. Tested os hdd on different computer and was able to read as slave. Tried booting without soundcard, different video card, cdr and dvd disconnected, etc... to no effect. Huge, and I do mean huge electrical storm early morning but the computer was on a dedicated line and connected to a pricey spike and surge protector which also protects the rest of my studio gear and everything else is fine. Protector did not trip nor did the power in the house go out. Also tried resetting the cmos jumper as well to no effect. Frustration ensueing..... Mobo dead? Microcenter (where i bought all the parts new Feb 1st) wants $85 bones just to test it.... No way of testing ram since i don't have another computer. Again, system powers up, you hear one click and then nothing... msi board has lights on back which stick in the "chipset initialization" mode... Any suggestions appreciated as this is a new one for me...

dustedvinyl

OK.... went a bought a temp motherboard and hooked everything up to no avail. still no boot screen, nothing, nada. Is the processor cooked? How? I'm totally dying here......

dustedvinyl

And so it continues......... Went back to Microcenter. They gave me new ram and a new pentium 4 processor. Since the last motherboard didn't work i just assumed it can't be my old msi one. Got home, installed new processor, new ram and just hooked up video card and hard drive and....... still nothing. Doesn't go to post, no beep, nothing...... I'm at a total loss here. Seriously, anyone with any ideas here please let me know. I just do not understand this what so ever.........

LeeJend

When you go thorugh the 'normal" troubleshooting steps and you can't isolate the problem it usually means there are at least two failures. That could be two parts fried to start with or a replacement was also bad or damged/miss-installed during testing.

Clarify - your post was unclear. Do the lights stay in "early chipset initialization" condtion? If so then the CPU is ok. If they stop at 4 on then the PCU is bad even if they gave you a new one. Plugging a new CPU in a bad MB could fry the CPU.

Isolation sequence:
Install ony PSU MB CPU. Look at codes (or beeps). Should stop at bad RAM, if it stops sooner PSU, MB and/or CPU is bad. One of the outputs on the PSU could be bad but still get fans to spin. Check the PSU with a voltmeter if you have one. Don't assume a test MB is good. They probably gave you a returned unit. Reset it's CMOS. Ask them if they are sure it worked before you got it. Same about test CPU.


PS Just having the PC plugged into a good surge protector is not enough. Everything that connects to it electrically must be protected. Dial UP modem, video input lines, cable/dsl modem, printers, speakers, etc. Lightning follows all paths to ground. Especially the ones you didn't think of. Also, a surge protector is only as good as the grounding system in your home. Old building, ****ty builder, etc and your ground may not be low enough impedance. Physically disconnect when bad storms are expected.

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