Evening all.
Skip to the bottom, I've already answered most of this myself.
After installing a new PSU my computer refuses to post but will try to power on; I see the fan spin and LED lights turn on for a brief moment before shutting off and trying again, and testing it with the old PSU gives me the same thing (no POST, attempted power-on).
I RMAed an 8800 and got a new power supply because I suspected undervoltage on the 12V rail killing my GPU. A voltmeter test didn't show anything unusual but I used the new power supply anyway, as it was modular and had a huge fan and all that cool stuff hardware nerds go crazy over. After installing the new PSU, I go to boot the system and I think I heard a distinct pop inside the case, and then the problem occured. LED lights came on, fans spun up for a few seconds, but with no beep(s) to indicate a
(un)successful POST.
Right now my motherboard is sitting on an impromptu breadboard with just the CPU, and is giving me the same results.
My hardware:
Intel E6750 (Core 2 Duo, 2.66GHz), stock cooler, arctic silver thermal paste
Gigabyte P35C-DS3R mobo
8800GTS EVGA (640MB vRAM) GPU
Corsair HX 850W PSU; if it's important the old PSU was an Apevia ATX-AS 680W-BK (iceberg)
Crucial RAM (800MHz, 2x 2GB DDR2)
2x WD 250GB harddrives, 3x 1TB HDDs, all @ 7200RPM
3x Lite-on LH-20A1L-05 DVD burners
Windows XP SP3
Case is an NZXT LEXA
1) Attempted to switch out PSUs to see if it was the issue
2) Checked for any shorts caused by wires or hardware in the case
3) Removed parts from the motherboard/case
4) Breadboarded my motherboard and attempted a POST with only the PSU/CPU
5) Cried a lot and came here for help
An interesting note that the CPU fan will spin up when the 4-pin aux power cable isn't connected but will not POST; with it plugged in the power turns off and on as I described. I'm pretty sure it's the motherboard at this point, but now I'm wondering how I could find the short, what it is and if I can just solder on a new part. I may end up having to buy a new motherboard, but if it's only something as simple as a popped capacitor I'd just as soon replace that instead of buying a new mobo.
Edit: After looking a bit closer at the underside of the board, I've noticed some brown ooze that suspiciously looks like electrolyte leaking out of a metal part on the motherboard. The manual doesn't list it but if you look here:
http://www.3dnews.ru/_imgdata/img/2007/08/02/55316.jpg
you'll see it as a kind of metal bridge between the CMOS battery and the 1st PCIx1 slot (it's not the IC chip but the solid oblong object). Anyone know what this part is or if this is the problem?
Edit 2: After a bit of digging around apparently the part I'm referring to is some type of quartz oscillator crystal manufactured by TXC that Gigabyte puts on their motherboards. This seems to have blown out and if I fix this I might have a working motherboard again. Does anyone know anything about crystals and what kind I would need? I have no education on quartz crystals, if this is one, much less if they come in a variety of capacitance, frequencies or tolerances needed.
Skip to the bottom, I've already answered most of this myself.
After installing a new PSU my computer refuses to post but will try to power on; I see the fan spin and LED lights turn on for a brief moment before shutting off and trying again, and testing it with the old PSU gives me the same thing (no POST, attempted power-on).
I RMAed an 8800 and got a new power supply because I suspected undervoltage on the 12V rail killing my GPU. A voltmeter test didn't show anything unusual but I used the new power supply anyway, as it was modular and had a huge fan and all that cool stuff hardware nerds go crazy over. After installing the new PSU, I go to boot the system and I think I heard a distinct pop inside the case, and then the problem occured. LED lights came on, fans spun up for a few seconds, but with no beep(s) to indicate a
(un)successful POST.Right now my motherboard is sitting on an impromptu breadboard with just the CPU, and is giving me the same results.
My hardware:
Intel E6750 (Core 2 Duo, 2.66GHz), stock cooler, arctic silver thermal paste
Gigabyte P35C-DS3R mobo
8800GTS EVGA (640MB vRAM) GPU
Corsair HX 850W PSU; if it's important the old PSU was an Apevia ATX-AS 680W-BK (iceberg)
Crucial RAM (800MHz, 2x 2GB DDR2)
2x WD 250GB harddrives, 3x 1TB HDDs, all @ 7200RPM
3x Lite-on LH-20A1L-05 DVD burners
Windows XP SP3
Case is an NZXT LEXA
1) Attempted to switch out PSUs to see if it was the issue
2) Checked for any shorts caused by wires or hardware in the case
3) Removed parts from the motherboard/case
4) Breadboarded my motherboard and attempted a POST with only the PSU/CPU
5) Cried a lot and came here for help
An interesting note that the CPU fan will spin up when the 4-pin aux power cable isn't connected but will not POST; with it plugged in the power turns off and on as I described. I'm pretty sure it's the motherboard at this point, but now I'm wondering how I could find the short, what it is and if I can just solder on a new part. I may end up having to buy a new motherboard, but if it's only something as simple as a popped capacitor I'd just as soon replace that instead of buying a new mobo.
Edit: After looking a bit closer at the underside of the board, I've noticed some brown ooze that suspiciously looks like electrolyte leaking out of a metal part on the motherboard. The manual doesn't list it but if you look here:
http://www.3dnews.ru/_imgdata/img/2007/08/02/55316.jpg
you'll see it as a kind of metal bridge between the CMOS battery and the 1st PCIx1 slot (it's not the IC chip but the solid oblong object). Anyone know what this part is or if this is the problem?
Edit 2: After a bit of digging around apparently the part I'm referring to is some type of quartz oscillator crystal manufactured by TXC that Gigabyte puts on their motherboards. This seems to have blown out and if I fix this I might have a working motherboard again. Does anyone know anything about crystals and what kind I would need? I have no education on quartz crystals, if this is one, much less if they come in a variety of capacitance, frequencies or tolerances needed.
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