Computer won't turn on!!!

[colin3]

Okay so this is my never ending problem. Awhile ago I had a home built pc with these specs.

ASUS Motherboard Neo Platinum
AMD 3400 64
Radeon 9800 128
512 mb RAM
120 gig HD


I had everything working for awhile until I noticed that my computer would overheat and lock up after playing games. The power supply was acting weird. Id have it working fine as long as I kept the case open with a fan. One day my friend plugged in my front usb ports. I tried using them for the first time and it recognized them. When I took the USB cord out, bam. The computer shut down and wouldnt turn back on. My friend said that the power supply must have finally died. I went and bought a new 500 watt PS. Put it in, still didn't work.

Then my friend said, oh you must have fried the motherboard then. Sent an RMA into ASUS and they sent me a new one. Installed it, still nothing. I looked at my processor and noticed a pin with a burn mark at the bottom and figured that had to be the problem. Picked up a new 3400 with some more RAM. STILL NOTHING!!!

This is so frustrating. I know everything is plugged in right. Is it possible that some wire to the power button is shorted or something?! Please help!

 

[Rick_in_Oregon]

Burn marks on the processor sounds pretty scary and means a lot of current went through your system. I would be suprised if all or most of the items you replaced weren't in fact toasted. You didn't say anything about trying different stick(s) of memory. althouigh it should at least power on with all the new stuff you put in. I'm puzzled too as to why it doesn't. One thing that comes to mind that all your past and present equipment has in common is the pwr on/off switch. If you attached it to the wrong 2 pins, it's not going to start no matter what you do. Double check in your mother board manual and double check your connection. While your in there you might want to test the switch with an ohm meter if you have one. It would be a one in a million occurance if the switch went bad at exactly the same time the power supply blew and couldn't possibly have been fried by it. But wierd things do happen and it is best to check the cheap stuff first. Good luck!

 

[Ycon]

Try replacing HDD and GPU.
Really sounds like everything went to hell :?

 

[baladorr]

If you haven't already: Disconnect power from the power supply and switch the power supply off. Unplug all your peripherals, all your cards, drives, ribbon cables (I've seen bad IDE ribbon cables stall a system like this, before) etc EXCEPT your cpu fan, cpu, and RAM. Plug in your power supply and switch your power supply on. Watch your cpu fan: it should power up for about 1 second (most motherboards do this). This is a good indication that basic power distribution is still ok. Connect your switch for your case and turn the machine on and see if anything happens. You can also short the pins for the power switch with a screw driver if you suspect your switch is bad. If none of this works, try swapping each basic component with a known good component, maybe from a friends computer. I hope this helps you, even in the slightest. Computer troubles are frustrating sometimes.

 

[Rick_in_Oregon]

Me again. I forgot to ask a thing or two. All the Asus boards I have ever seen have a green LED on them somewhere in amongst the PCI slots. Is it lit? If not, double check your power cord and make sure it is well seated. Sometimes with a new cord and supply it feels snug but isn't really. If it is and the green light is still not on, test your wall socket with a portable lamp or something. It could easily be that if you had a lot of devices running off that outlet it could have been close to overloaded. When the power supply went to ground it could have very well popped the circuit breaker or blown the fuse. If that all checks out, go to Pricewatch and type in "power supply tester". One can be had for about 20 bucks. Cheaper than a new mobo for sure. Not likely that a brand new PSU is bad, but again, not impossible. Also, with most new power supplies these days, they have 2, 4 pin connectors. Make sure to use the one that has the little plastic latch that clamps it to the MOBO. I know this sounds like simple minded advice but I have been messing with computers since 1970 and it frequently is the simple stuff. Again, Good Luck and keep us posted so that we may learn.

 

[colin3]

Thanks everyone for their help. I meant to say it was an MSI motherboard, not ASUS, so I'm not sure if theres still a green light, but I haven't seen one. I'm sure that the outlet is okay as I'm running a lamp through it. I've also tried a different socket for the computer and still nothing.

Baladorr, I did what you said in regards to unplugging everything. I switched it on and I get no movement from the CPU fan.

I'm thinking about purchasing that power supply tester if all else fails.

 

[colin3]

Okay so....progress.

Took it to Fry's and found out I was being an idiot and had the motherboard mounted wrong. It was touching the case and shorting itself out everytime I'd try to start it.

So I went home and plugged everything in. Oddly enough it started up when I flipped the power switch on the PSU and the case switch had no effect. All fans were running but I was getting no video display. All I heard were long continuous beeps. Did a little research and made sure the RAM and video card were okay. The RAM is brand new so that can't be the problem. My friend came over and switched the video card out and it did the same thing.

The only conclusion I can come to is that I must have fried the new motherboard at some point after all the attempts to start it while it was touching the case. In this case I'll just RMA it again for another one. Does this sound like the problem?

 

[apache_lives]

MSI - theres the problem, another MSI related issues as usual.

Thanks everyone for their help. I meant to say it was an MSI motherboard, not ASUS, so I'm not sure if theres still a green light, but I haven't seen one. I'm sure that the outlet is okay as I'm running a lamp through it. I've also tried a different socket for the computer and still nothing.

Baladorr, I did what you said in regards to unplugging everything. I switched it on and I get no movement from the CPU fan.

I'm thinking about purchasing that power supply tester if all else fails.

 

[hashv2f16]

Okay so....progress.

Took it to Fry's and found out I was being an idiot and had the motherboard mounted wrong. It was touching the case and shorting itself out everytime I'd try to start it.

So I went home and plugged everything in. Oddly enough it started up when I flipped the power switch on the PSU and the case switch had no effect. All fans were running but I was getting no video display. All I heard were long continuous beeps. Did a little research and made sure the RAM and video card were okay. The RAM is brand new so that can't be the problem. My friend came over and switched the video card out and it did the same thing.

The only conclusion I can come to is that I must have fried the new motherboard at some point after all the attempts to start it while it was touching the case. In this case I'll just RMA it again for another one. Does this sound like the problem?

well geez now its getting real tricky, um yeah try RMAing the board again, take out yor pci cards.

just remember the brass spacers next time@!

 

[hashv2f16]

so how do u know that it's ram? he bought a new set already so i dunno

 

[mdd1963]

"Took it to Fry's and found out I was being an idiot and had the motherboard mounted wrong. It was touching the case and shorting itself out everytime I'd try to start it."

those darn standoffs! :-(

You now have no components that cab be assumed to be " known good", so will have to proceed very carefully....

 

[colin3]

Okay so I tried the RAM in different posistions and etc. and still the same thing. So should I RMA the motherboard? I just want to make sure that I've exhausted the other options before sending in what could be a good motherboard.

 

[hashv2f16]

now just go back through the process in restesting everything again. First the power supply. Then take out/unplug all pci cards/drives and try. try using a video card which you know works. if nothing, then you know its either the RAM, mobo or CPU have fun.

 

[blue68f100]

Whoww what luck.

You may want to buy one pre-built.

But ........

Will it work when you get it home?