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devren   12-22-2003 at 07:52:07 AM

A buddie of mine's computer will not boot up.

While he was surfing the web (not downloading) his computer froze. He tried to ctrl alt del but it would not respond. He then pressed the power button, nothing happened. He then held the powerbutton for a prolonged period of time, still no responce. The screen was frozen and completely unresponsive. Finally he endedup flipping the switch on the surge protector. And ever since then nothing happens when he tries to turn the computer on.

Thus he brought it to me. I tried a differant powersupply to see if that may have been the problem. No go. I then only powered the motherboad cpu and fans again nothing. I then remounted everything. Nothing. I tried a differant power switch (from an old case), again nothing. I removed the heatsink from the cpu (P4) to see if somehow it had fried (though that is highly unlikely thanks to the new design which makes them slow down rather then burn up.), there was no visible burning. I replaced everything and tried one last time again to no avail.

I'm thinking its the motherboard as not even the fans try to spin. Yet the power light on the motherboard does come on when the powersupply is plugged in. I just wanted to get a second opinion before I sent him out to get another mb. I was thinking of flashing the bios, but honestly i dont know how to do that off hand as I have never had to do that before. Any suggestions would be appreciated. I don't belive it is the cpu itself as it the computer is completely unresponsive. The computer was built about 3 months ago and everything is new. He has had no problems up until now.

Thanks in advance for your help guys.

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Crashman   12-22-2003 at 08:01:06 AM
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Usually that happens if the board is shorted. Usually the system won't work from the time it's assembled. But there can be just enough clearence at assembly to prevent a short, and then have that clearence go away later.

Anyway the most common shorts are caused by a spare motherboard standoff contacting the back of the board.

Also it could be a shorted part, such as a fried hard drive. Yes, I've seen that happen.

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endyen   12-22-2003 at 09:21:27 AM
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Before declaring the mobo dead, you may want to try clearing the bios. You can do this by changing the jumper position on the rtc pins. Make sure the board has no power at the time.Leave the jumper for a while then return it to it's normal position.

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devren   12-23-2003 at 12:01:33 AM
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Alright, I'll see if I can find rtc pins and Ill try for that. Thank you very much for your help, both of you.

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devren   12-23-2003 at 06:58:32 AM
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Well I tried useing the rtc jumper to fix the problem and it didn't work. So I'm just going to tell him its the mb. Do you guys think it could be the cpu as well?

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Johanthegnarler   12-23-2003 at 07:04:15 AM
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I think the fans would spin if the cpu was dead.
That sounds like a short. Make sure there isn't any metal touching the contacts or anywhere else.. maybe a screw somehow fell behind the mobo.. *going off on a limb*

Is the green LED light on the mobo lit?

p4 2.8 533fsb
intel mobo
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120gb seagate s-ata

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devren   12-28-2003 at 08:38:08 PM
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Yes the green led is lit.

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Ris3n_Da3mon   12-28-2003 at 09:43:58 PM
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I had this happen once, try taking the motherboard out completely, putting it on a cardboard box, and then plugging it in while it's out of the tower.

01001001 00100000 01001100 01001111 01010110 01000101 00100000 01110011 01110000 01100101 01100001 01110010 01101101 01101001 01101110 01110100 00100001

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Abomonog   12-31-2003 at 05:47:20 PM
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It actually sounds like a power supply problem more than a mobo problem to me. Be sure everything is plugged in properly. Try a new power supply before getting a new mobo. If the supply's tranformer blew it could still light the LED's without supplying enough power to run anything else.

Thge one time I have seen this happen was on a Via kt133A mobo. The power supply was at fault.

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devren   01-03-2004 at 04:28:54 PM
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Thanks guys, Ya I tried a new powersupply but it didnt help. I also tried reseating just about everything, so I figure its the MB. Thanks

<P ID="edit"><FONT SIZE=-1><EM>Edited by Devren on 01/03/04 11:13 AM.</EM></FONT></P>

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arthurh   01-03-2004 at 05:27:47 PM
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Did you try taking the mobo out and putting it on a box like it was suggested before? These guys/gals really know what they are talking about and if you built this comp. one of the hardest things to trouble shoot is that which you did yourself. Not trying to give you a bad time, just that you didn't say if you tried that yet.

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addiarmadar   01-03-2004 at 07:22:45 PM
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Either the mobo or the CPU popped on him but Im leaning on the MOBO.

Barton 2500+ @ 2200mhz (10x220 vcore @ 1.775)
Asus A7N8X Dlx 440 FSB
1gb Geil GD pc3500 Dual Channel (2-3-3-6)
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ATI Radeon 9800 Pro(420/700)

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devren   01-03-2004 at 08:07:26 PM
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Ya sorry I didnt mean to be inspecific, I took the mb out of the case and put it on the card board box that the mb came in. - thanks for the qritech (sp) I should have been more specific.

Ya I wasnt sure if it was the cpu but I figured that the fans would spin if it was the cpu.

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