Fried Mobo?

[eastoahu]

Hello community.

So i recently built a new rig, had to upgrade from my old shitty Dell inspiron 530..

I was planning on giving the Dell to my brother after i cleaned it up a bit.. So i removed the CPU fan and heatsink and the graphics card and cleaned the dust from all of them.. (it was quite built up)

I then let the computer sit for about 1 month unused and when i tried to fire it up yesterday, nothing happened. No beeps, no fans, nothing. I opened the case and noticed a yellow (i think or orange) light on the motherboard. I dont think its the PSU because i replaced it a while back but i even tried throwing the old one back in to see if it would work but same problem.

Is my motherboard fried??? I did remove the CPU to clean it off...

Maybe electrostatic damage?

 

[davcon]

Did you re-apply thermal paste and re-install the cpu properly?
Look for bulged capacitors on the mobo.

 

[eastoahu]

Did you re-apply thermal paste and re-install the cpu properly?
Look for bulged capacitors on the mobo.

Yes i thoroughly cleaned the heatsink and CPU of old thermal paste and applied new paste.

I will check the capacitors on the mobo, is it easy to notice?

 

[tlmck]

I would check the CPU socket for bent pins. Also, make sure the power supply motherboard cable are fully plugged in until they click. This would include the 24 pin main and the 4 pin CPU cable.

 

[eastoahu]

Cables are fully seated, check multiple times and the pins are fine.. I did notice a little crum looking thing when i first removed the cpu but believe its gone now (i blew it out)

I noticed a capacitor that was bent a bit.. it was pretty wobbly and loose but they all seem to be like that.

Heres a pic of the light idk if it helps at all

 

[tlmck]

The only other thing I could find is a reference that it is stuck in standby mode. Supposedly if you unplug the machine and hold down the power button for 10-20 seconds, it will discharge the capacitor or whatever is keeping it on standby. Never heard of this before as I always heard the amber light on Dell's were a CPU failure thing. Perhaps it is different for different models or something.

I also found reference to rear panel diagnostic lights. Got any of those? The codes for them are supposedly in the back of the manual which I could not find.

 

[eastoahu]

The only other thing I could find is a reference that it is stuck in standby mode. Supposedly if you unplug the machine and hold down the power button for 10-20 seconds, it will discharge the capacitor or whatever is keeping it on standby. Never heard of this before as I always heard the amber light on Dell's were a CPU failure thing. Perhaps it is different for different models or something.

I also found reference to rear panel diagnostic lights. Got any of those? The codes for them are supposedly in the back of the manual which I could not find.

Tried holding power button 20 seconds while unplugged but to no avail. Tested power switch by shorting power pins on mobo but nothing. Jump started my PSU and it was running fine.

If mobo were fried, would this amber light not even show?

 

[tlmck]

Tried holding power button 20 seconds while unplugged but to no avail. Tested power switch by shorting power pins on mobo but nothing. Jump started my PSU and it was running fine.

If mobo were fried, would this amber light not even show?

If the motherboard was partially fried, the amber light could still show. A motherboard usually has different power sections. It can vary with the manufacturer and purpose, but basically you have the CPU section and it's support circuitry, what I call the HDD section which can include things like onboard USB headers, etc., and then the card slot section. It just depends on how the maker set it up. Most follow the standard ATX, uATX, etc. while some tweak it a bit.

In any case, the only recourse is board replacement unless you could troubleshoot and repair it yourself. A blown cap is pretty easy as are some voltage regulators and such. Surface mount components such as diodes and transistors are not worth the trouble. Plus you have to have the equipment to test such things.

 

[fixxxer113]

Check the board's manual to see what that led might indicate. Other than that, check for blown caps and, if the board was disconnected from power for long, maybe the bios battery is dead. Try replacing it with one from another board and see what happens.

Generally, in cases where it's not clear what is wrong, you should always try to boot the pc with the bare minimum hardware required (i.e. just CPU and one stick of RAM) and if it works, start adding parts to see what fails.

Also, sometimes when you disassemble a pc and put it back together again, you might end up with a part touching a spot it shouldn't causing a short cirquit. It has happened to me once, something to do with some DVD not getting proper grounding. I disassembled and reassembled the PC and everything worked.

If you also have a way to try a different PSU do it. Try to rule out as many parts as you can before you replace your mobo.

 

[eastoahu]

Best answer selected by eastoahu.

 

[eastoahu]

So.

I did disassemble pretty much everything and reassembled last night but it still would not power on so i gave up for the night.

Tonight i plugged it in and it fired right up O.0

Really strange and I'm not sure what to think of it. Oh well

 

[Mousemonkey]

This topic has been closed by Mousemonkey