Dead as a dodo

[tibboh]

Got a call to a pal's house last week. Old AMD would not fire up (PSU was VERY warm to the touch but no power/led's etc).

I substituted my daughters PSU and when I switched the power switch on, I got the CPU fan spinning and front led's lighting up - but nothing else. I disconnected memory, graphics card, modem etc one at a time till everything was off, but still no joy, so I assume that possibly the PSU had thrown a wobbly and caused damage to either the mobo or the CPU (stuck an old P3 board & CPU in her case and her machine was back up and running in no time - didn't even have to reinstall OS on HD, which someone told me I probably would have to do).

So, is there any other checks I could have done (without any fancy tools) to verify whether it was the mobo or CPU that was defective?

 

[AcftMecH]

seems wierd enough... when a pc wont even get past the POST, not to many options except eliminate like you already done. I have seen a BIOS cause some wierd issues like that, but atleast I was able to boot to reflash the bios.

 

[Mainframeguy]

I guess the key word in your question are COULD HAVE and FANCY TOOLS....

errrr is a voltmeter a fancy tool? If you had a fairly good one applying that to the various rails of the PSU would have told you (I think) if it was "frying tonight"!

errrr if you did not HAVE TO check right then since you (presumably) still have the mobo and CPU from that system then they could be swapped independently into compatible systems to verify their level of DEADness?

I realise I am being simplistic and probably teaching you to suck eggs. Others may be more helpful (hopefully). Sounds like it was nto all bad though? Fan failure on PSU? Memory, modem, graphics all survived? If so sounds like a result to me! Chances are they can stick in better mobo and CPU for what the fried ones cost and THIS TIME INVEST IN QUALITY PSU...... (pardon caps)!

 

[LeeJend]

There is no way to tell whether it was the MB or the CPU without a logic analyzer.

Best you could do is try a known good CPU in the MB or the CPU in a known good MB but if either one had significant damage you could fry the good part.

Best to bury your dead and move on with the living.