Dead system Athlon 64 X2

[jazzyJ]

Hi,

I've got a problem with my homebuilt system, an Athlon 64 X2 4400+ on an Asus A8N32-SLI deluxe motherboard.

I built the system and powered it up, everything was fine, booted and installed Windows fine, and all the drivers for the various hardware devices (PCI-E 6800 GS graphics card etc)

The system was running fine and smoothly, however things went wrong when i adjusted audio settings from inside Windows. I plugged in some earphones to test the sound, which worked well. I went into some other audio settings on the Asus software and saw SPDIF. As I have nothing plugged into the onboard SPDIF port, I decided to select no input (or output, can't remember which it was).
As soon as I clicked that radio button, the entire system died, and will not power back on AT ALL, not even to the BIOS. Clearing the BIOS using the jumper does not make a difference. The LED on the motherboard comes on when power is applied, so I don't think there is a power supply problem.

At the back of the computer, the side of the SPDIF port is seen to be touching the backplate, due to misalignment that I couldn't rectify.

My only idea is that by choosing to turn off the SPDIF, a signal was sent to the port, and due to it touching the backplate, a short circuit occured. However, after speaking to a tech help guy, he said that there probably wasn't a short circuit due to the fact that there is no contact with the inside of the SPDIF port.

I cannot figure out what has happened, and I was wondering if anyone here would be able to suggest something, bearing in mind that the system was healthy enough to format the HDD and install the OS without problems before this happened.

Thanks very much.

 

[IndustiousCamel]

Great description... It may be a fluke as there is no signal coming out of your SPDIF jack that would have the ability to fry the system.

If you're getting no power at all, and no BIOS beeps it can usually be narrowed down to the powersupply, or CPU in my experience.

Only thing I can suggest at that point is take each component out and re-seat them. RAM, CPU, Power connectors, even flip the 110/220volt switch on your power supply (that's worked for me for some reason) MAKE SURE ITS BACK TO 110, or 220 depending on what you need.

While you have the system apart check and make sure nothing smells like a burnt out component. A smell you'll have no doubt about when you encounter it.

Good Luck!

 

[Hawkeye22]

This might seem strange, but have you unplugged the headphones? I once got a case that had a loose front side connector and evertime I'd plug in the headphones it would reset/reboot the machine. I traced the leads and tightened up all the connections and it's worked fine since. I still can't figure out how an audio lead can reset a mobo, but I guess in electronics anything can happen.

 

[jazzyJ]

Hello, thank you for the fast replies.

take each component out and re-seat them. RAM, CPU, Power connectors, even flip the 110/220volt switch on your power supply

I have reseated everything except the CPU because of the trouble moving the heatsink, and my power supply auto-selects voltage. Still no startup.

Also, I don't see how reseating would work in this situation. Nothing has physically changed inside the system since it worked during OS install.

Nothing smells bad either :lol:


HawkEye22: I did unplug the headphones, and anyway, they were connected to the back (onboard) lineout, not the frontpanel.


Does anyone have any other ideas?