At a loss

[Admiral Michael]

Hey Guys,

Got a tricky one here. My uncle called me the other week saying his desktop froze up and when he rebooted it nothing happened, the computer would turn on but nothing would happen, no screen or anything.

He just recently installed a new video card (XFX GTX260 I think) so I put in a spare PCI-E card I have laying around to no avail.

To keep this short here is a list of what I have tested:

• A spare video card – doesn’t work
• His video card in my computer – works
• My power supply in his computer – doesn’t work
• My memory in his computer – doesn’t work
• His memory in my computer – works
• Reseating the processor – doesn’t work
• Removing all components but the basics (cpu, motherboard, memory and video card) – doesn’t work
• Removed the motherboard from the case and test on desk – doesn’t work
• Clear the BIOS settings – doesn’t work

Now he took the CPU to a shop to test it since I don't have a Intel board to test it in and he said the shop told him it works so my uncle bought a new board. His old one was a ASUS P5N32-SLI SE DELUXE and the new one is a ASUS P5NSLI.

I don't get any POST beeps or anything. I am at a lost as to what is wrong. I have yet to try a new PSU on this mobo, just waiting for a spare from him cause I don't want to tear down my desktop again.

Oh, I'm not sure what the processor is only that it's an Intel.

Mike

 

[Perris Calderon]

Re: At a lost

doesn't look to me like you tested the hardrive

last time I saw that happen it was a hardrive seating

 

[dreamliner77]

Re: At a lost

Bad PSU taking the mobo with it?
mobo standoff grounding out?

 

[Dark Atheist]

Re: At a lost

doesn't look to me like you tested the hardrive

last time I saw that happen it was a hardrive seating

I agree with perris, sounds like a dead hard drive sucking all the juice from the psu

 

[Aprox]

Re: At a lost

He said he tore it down to basics, so without a hard drive and it still didn't boot. So that's most likely not the issue here.

I'm a little confused about one point in your post, you said your uncle purchased a new mobo, then your following sentence seems a bit disconnected. Are you saying that this new motherboard will not POST either? I don't want to make any incorrect assumptions here.

The first thing that jumps out to me on this, is the PSU. Of course it's the last thing you have yet to check and I'd put money on it from the start that is what the problem is. If your uncle bought a new high wattage GPU and if he had a crappy PSU he could of easily blew out the 5v or 12v rail.... hopefully not taking anything else with it.

 

[Android412]

have you tired booting with nothing but the monitor hooked up to the back? My last MB (Asus actually) didn't like my keyboard when hooked up through USB.

 

[dreamliner77]

Android, been there. I had a pc in for repair that refused to boot with a ps/2 keyboard attached.

 

[Admiral Michael]

Well I called ASUS' tech support line and the person on the phone said the new board it most likely shot as well. He said with no memory installed we should be getting POST beeps at least, which I don't. I was actually impressed with the tech support from ASUS and never thought about calling them before.

My uncle bought this new motherboard on eBay so it may be dead, the listing said it was a new, OEM board. He's just going to buy a new one and this time I suggested a local shop.

Also RMA'd the CPU so it's brand new and we also tested it in my friend's computer and it (the CPU) works so it has to be the board. I've also tried 3 PSUs and it the same result with all of em.

 

[Admiral Michael]

Just wanted to add that I fixed the problem, seems both boards were dead. Mu uncle bought a new Gigabyte board from a local store and it worked on first boot up.