Okay, what'd I fry?

[halcyon]

Gals and guys, guys and gals it seems I may have finally screwed things up...quite thoroughly too. I was building yet another system...this one for my soon to be stepdaughter (age 8) to play games on and get better exposed to computers. Yada-yada.

I believe I may have fried either the mobo or the CPU (but not overclocking). I hit the power button and she comes up (fans, at least) but doesn't POST. I've swapped out the RAM, PSU, graphics card, etc...same thing. I've tried resetting the CMOS via the jumper...no luck there either. Is there any quick (I mean real quick) way discern whether its the mobo vs. the CPU that I may have overlooked in my irritation? This is maybe my 20-25th build and fortunately I've not run into this kinda trouble in YEARS. ...but then again, I normally buy Asus.

Specs:

Xeon 3060 (not overclocked)
2GB DDR2 667
Gigabyte GA-965P DS3 rev 1.0
nVidia 6800 (OEM)
and a couple of 7200 RPM Maxtors

...thanks for any help.

 

[cb62fcni]

Got another CPU you can drop in there? That's about the fastest way I'm afraid. Have you tried booting with one stick of RAM at a time? Do you have the system speaker hooked up so you can get beep codes? 9 times out of 10 it's a mobo problem, haven't gotten or heard of a faulty CPU in ages.

 

[dhvd79a]

I recently had a simliar problem with a different Gigabyte board. I had no speaker so no beep code. Turns out the board came with the SATA disabled. Enabled Sata and voila it worked. I think the beep code was 6 shorts a one long + or - 1 short.

dave

 

[mutters]

I had this once being a novice and a wee bit drunk when i built it i left the secondary power lead off the mobo and couldnt find it until wife said "bet you havent plugged it all in properly" I hate my wife sometimes lol...not really

 

[halcyon]

Thanks all, as soon as I can (tomorrow AM) I'll check the 2ndary 4-pin power plug...but I'm pretty sure its plugged in. The speaker is plugged in too...no beeps...no noise but the softest whir of the fans. @#$! Thanks all again...if you think of anything else it might be please post! ...unfortunately I've only got another E6850 ...and I aint us'n my baby to test the E6600 (Xeon 3060)...but that's a good idea...I hope its not the CPU and I wouldn't be all that surprised if it was the mobo...that's what I get for going Gigabyte (trying to be cheap).

 

[notherdude]

assuming your PSU isn't partially dead (and sometimes they are partially dead and do this very thing you got going) and assuming all is plugged in properly I'd say MOBO or RAM problem, 1% CPU, unless you cook em with reckless OC/overvolt they almost never go bad.

 

[systemlord]

The CPU is one of the most reliable PC components, the least reliable is the mobo. The mobo's have several different components including the Southbridge, Northbridge, Ram slots I could go on and on. If it wasn't your mobo then your mobo would have some beep codes to tell you which part was not working properly at POST, but your mobo isn't doing that.

Try unplugging your power cables and plugging them back in, my friends DVD drives quit working and I told him to do the same thing and they began working again. Sometimes a little tiny short can stop a PC in its tracks. Also do you have a voltmetter to check the power supply?

 

[cb62fcni]

Thanks all, as soon as I can (tomorrow AM) I'll check the 2ndary 4-pin power plug...but I'm pretty sure its plugged in. The speaker is plugged in too...no beeps...no noise but the softest whir of the fans. @#$! Thanks all again...if you think of anything else it might be please post! ...unfortunately I've only got another E6850 ...and I aint us'n my baby to test the E6600 (Xeon 3060)...but that's a good idea...I hope its not the CPU and I wouldn't be all that surprised if it was the mobo...that's what I get for going Gigabyte (trying to be cheap).

Don't dismiss Gigabyte so quickly. I've built dozens of rigs around the DS3( 965 and P35 flavors) and have found it to be an excellent budget board for the enthusiast on a budget. Never had a bad one. I've seen a few bad ASUS boards in my day though, but to be fair I've gone through far more of them. There was some difficulty when the 965 was first introduced and wouldn't set RAM voltage properly, but since then it's been smooth sailing. What sort of PSU are you using? It's a possibility that not all of the rails are working properly on it, this would cause similar symptoms. If you have a multimeter you can verify this. Unplug everything, short pins 4 and 6 on the 20-pin plug, and then go through measuring VDC to ensure you're getting + and -12, +5, and +3.3. If everything checks out, try not providing power to your optical/HDD to ensure none of them are shorted. As a final test, hook everything up on the anti-static bag (outside of the case) and try to power it up. Doing all of this will effectively isolate the source of the problem as being the motherboard. You can also remove the CPU and look at the socket on the motherboard to make sure no pins are bent.

 

[cb62fcni]

I meant 24-pin plug of course. I'm just getting old or something.

 

[halcyon]

Thanks, all the plugs are indeed plugged in. Maaaan, I JUST got a new PSU...a Coolmax 500W...because I thought the PSU was the problem, so I figured it was rather doubtful that the new PSU and the old PSU were both faulty. I'll borrow a PSU tester from work today and give that a try.

 

[halcyon]

Just to be on the safe side, since I have time, I'm RMAing the mobo back to NewEgg... When they send me another (hopefully a rev 3.3) I'll know better if it was indeed the mobo. I don't need the system online for my 8-year-old before 10/13. I know I could have fiddled with the durned things some more but patience has never been one of my strongest points.

 

[systemlord]

Just to be on the safe side, since I have time, I'm RMAing the mobo back to NewEgg... When they send me another (hopefully a rev 3.3) I'll know better if it was indeed the mobo. I don't need the system online for my 8-year-old before 10/13. I know I could have fiddled with the durned things some more but patience has never been one of my strongest points.

Hay that was a good call I would have done the same thing.