Experts, Please Help Me Continue Troubleshooting

GuccizBud

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Mar 1, 2014
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18,510
Hello all,

This is another dead-PC-won't-start post, but I've done a fair amount of troubleshooting and have a rather specific question. It's concerning the mobo of an older ( but not prehistoric ) system that is important and still viable to me—a Gateway model nº GM5478, which more importantly houses …

 • an Intel 4006194R “Schroeder Town” G33 Mobo, which uses …

 • an Intel Core 2 Quad Q6600 CPU running @2.4 GHz.

Along with a Zotac GeForce GT 740 video card and 3 internal hard drives (totaling about 2 TB), the system is a real workhorse and very useful to someone who is not a gamer.


Description

When I turn it on I have :

 • NO display whatsoever, not one pixel 
 • NO POST
 • NO beeps at all

… but …

 • fans work pretty much as they do when everything's fine, meaning they not only work but also run no faster, and perform as they normally do for that system : a very brief cycling up at the moment power is applied, followed by an immediate settling down to idle speed.

After ^this last, essentially nothing happens.


Troubleshooting

I have determined that :

 ① All voltages ( eg. the 12V, 3.3V, 5V ) are as they should be, but to be more sure I took out the PSU and used it to try to power a different system and EVERYTHING WAS COOL which means we should assume that …

 ② The power supply unit is fine.

 ③ The two RAM sticks are also fine, as I swapped them into that other system and zero problems where that's concerned, so all in all it looks like …

 ④ The problem is occurring somewhere on the motherboard … speaking of which …

 ⑤ All capacitors look fine VISUALLY … I don't know if I'm supposed to test them more officially and wouldn't know how, but I know what a bad cap DOESN'T look like and it DOESN'T look like any of these, which all look pristine, with no leaks or bulges or anything unusual.


One final, but likely important, piece of info :

I lifted the CPU out and found that one (1) single pin ( ‘AN3’ for the super-techies … voltage sensor I think ) was considerably bent, enough so that it was likely not making contact with the right spot on the CPU ( the pins are on the board side ). And two (2) other pins were SLIGHTLY bent, but not enough to cause problems by the look. Therefore …

 ⑥ I rectified all 3 pins successfully. None broke, no others bent. Sealed everything back up. The system stayed dead.

--

Now you all know as much as I do about this — sorry for the long-ass post. :)

Generally speaking, I'm asking for input on what my next step should be ( besides junking the board ). More specifically, I guess I'm asking if there's a way for me to know if the problem is in the CPU or elsewhere on the motherboard, such that if someone else had an identical motherboard ( only healthy ), ditto CPU, and he said I could have one of them but only one, I would know which to go with.
 

GuccizBud

Distinguished
Mar 1, 2014
15
0
18,510
Err, anybody? I apologize for the long message — it's because I did a fair amount of troubleshooting myself and laid it all out to avoid redundancy in replies.

I could really use an expert opinion here and I view this community to be the best because, although this is the first time I post a problem of my own, I've been referring to Tom's Hardware for various things for years.