No post, CPU fan spins, CPU fried?

Pepper_m

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Jun 22, 2012
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I worked my way through a pile of old posts and the troubleshooting sticky to try and solve my problem but to no avail unfortunately. I guess every case is different or maybe I’m just looking for a final answer so here’s the deal.

The computer in question is an old (4-5 years) family computer that was used daily (about 6hrs/day) but about a month ago stopped booting/posting.

At the moment I have brought it down to a breadboard system consisting of these parts:

Mobo: Asus A8M2N-LA http://h10010.www1.hp.com/ewfrf/wc/document?docname=c00757531&cc=us&dlc=en&lc=en#N450

CPU: AMD Athlon 64 2.2GHz

PSU: 300W
RAM: 512Mb DDR2

I have also included photographs of the system in-case it helps in any way:

wM681.jpg


8hEK2.jpg


When powering up (shorting the two pins) there is no beep and no post, yet the CPU fan spins. One other thing I noticed was that even when I remove all the memory sticks there was still no deep which I found very strange.

Other things that I have tried in my attempt to narrow down the problem includes:

1. Using a 2nd PSU from a working computer and still there was no difference (no post or beeps)

2. I tested each memory stick by using them in the 2nd computer and every one was recognised and worked. For this reason I am assuming they aren’t the problem either.

I personally feel that this narrows it down to the motherboard or CPU and because the CPU fan spins when I power it up does that not mean the motherboard is working and that the problem is solely the CPU?.

One last important bit of information I feel i should include is that leading up to this situation I had a graphics card plugged in (Radeon HD4350) and for about a year and had played games like counter-strike source pretty well. But all these problems seemed to coincide with me trying to force the computer to play Batman Arkham Asylum which was a 3 GHz minimum requirement (much greater than my 2.2 GHz) so would this pressure have possibly fried the CPU?.

Considering this was a pretty old computer I’ll be buying a new mobo and CPU anyway but I would like to find out which components are still working so I can put them away for a rainy day (or tsunami considering how bad it is)

Thanks for any help guys. :hello:
 
You are on the right path.

I googled the motherboard and it has a built in beeper. Plugging in a known good PSU should eliminate the PSU as the problem.

That leaves just the CPU and motherboard. The problem is more likely to be the motherboard than the CPU, but the only way to tell would be to swap either with a known good one.

It is very unlikely that you fried the CPU by trying to play BAA.

Your components are old enough that it is just not worth trying to save the working parts.
 

Pepper_m

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Jun 22, 2012
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Yeah I've tried powering up with it connected to a display and there is no response at all.

Am i mistaken that a mobo can still be "broken" even if the CPU fan is still able to run?

and yeah jsc as I mentioned I'm probably going to get a new system anyway but it's that nagging curiosity that want's me to find out what the source of the problem was...maybe for future reference.



Also i just remembered another characteristic previous to it not booting at all. After the whole BAA situation my system would begin stalling during normal day tasks and then let out a single beep. This happened maybe a dozen+ times before one day it just didn't post at all. If I'm not mistaken does that not suggest an overheated CPU?
 

notlim981

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Hello. As it's an old system, there could be a leaking capacitor on the motherboard, it happened to me with my old Core2Duo system. The board was an Asus and I had the very same symptomes you described. My 02 cents would be on the motherboard. Good luck.

Best regards.
 

nna2

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from his image i cant spot any, some of em to the left of the cpu heat fins look odd though
 
Best bet is that you should go ahead and replace the board. You can use standard m-atx boards in that HP case and maybe even reuse the stock psu as HP doesn't use non standard designs unlike Dell (Hell). HP is well known for making terrible boards during those years and my self had one fail.

Cheap 939 and AM2 boards are still easy to find but don't expect high end m-atx models to be around.
 

Pepper_m

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Jun 22, 2012
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Just to clarify, do you mean use a friends motherboard to test the CPU in? because I may be able to that but it won't be till tomorrow or so.



I did try resetting the BIOS via the jumper method and removal of the battery method but again no results. Only thing i didn't try in that respect was getting new CMOS battery.


I see that the majority of you are leaning towards the motherboard which I had not been expecting myself because of the way the CPU fan still spins. Is that just a common misconception that a spinning CPU fan doesn't indicate a working motherboard?.

Anyway, I'll try and test the CPU and if it ends up working then I might just think about replacing the motherboard even though I initially had no intention to buy any replacement components and rather save for a good new system, but if I'm sure it's the motherboard I might just give it a wee shot to fix. Thanks for the replies anyway.
 

notlim981

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Like I told you before, I ran myself into the very same troubles you've described with my old system, the power led on the mobo turned green when there was power and all the fans worked. what happened to my board, as I was recalling this past night, was that when I installed an aftermarket cooler I leaned a capacitor near the cpu socket, which caused the problem. And I can see in the picture you've posted that there is a capacitor near the cpu socket that seems a little... strange... Now my 03 cents are on your motherboard, unless you've hammered your processor with Tom's hammer... :p

Best regards.