Emergency Leave of Absence

[IsZi]

Well, seems my machine is dead now.
Again.
This time, though, it may likely require a CPU replacement.
Which we definitely can't afford.
So, I'm taking a LOA until I can get that taken care of.
There's an extra machine lying around that I might be able to get up enough to take care of forum activity and e-mails. But that's it.
The system is a very old one, and I'm not quite certain I will be able to get it back up and running in short order.

[TR-JustinMc06-]

Good luck coby, maybe some DoW peeps will start a "Cobster fund" :) hope you get it fixed cheap.

[pHaTaL_eRrOr]

I won't make any unfounded promises, but if you tell me what kind of processor... I caan look in our server room graveyard... If I can find something compatible, I'll just charge ya shipping. ;)

[TR-JustinMc06-]

He wants a 1.0 GHz AMD or above. I will also be pretty much takin a LOA because i got grounded for doing nothing, so i will snipe you all when i get ungrounded :)

[Father-Time.]

As in you didnt do what they said you did, or just literally doing NOTHING!!

I bet the latter :D

Father

[IsZi]

Yeah, I'm pretty sure it's the processor, but not 100% sure. Gotta check a couple other things out. Might be needing a new Power Supply too. Absolute worst case would also need another new Motherboard. But that might be covered under warranty. Not sure.

Anyone able to tell me what could make a machine just die instantaneously and not come back up at all?

The motherboard wouldn't even boot to power the system fans. So, I believe it brings us down to 2 things - someone correct me if I'm wrong.

1.) Power supply is dead, therefore none of the system is getting power whatsoever. (Gonna pop open the power supply in a bit to see if there's any visible damage.)

2.) Motherboard is dead (again) and unable to boot. At a quick glance, I noticed no visible damage, but I'll take the whole thing apart later for a more thorough examination.

I'm discounting the CPU and RAM as immediate problems, because if it was either then the motherboard would power up, attempt to boot, and freeze with no boot code. (Again, someone correct me if I'm wrong.) However, due to the intense heat that was inside the case when I opened it, I believe that whatever went wrong to start with partially involved the CPU or Power Supply overheating.

Like I said, the system just powered down instantly. No warning or signs of trouble whatsoever, although I did not have any hardware monitoring software running that would have warned me of much, anyway.

Based on these observations, could anyone maybe give a probable diagnosis?

I'm also going to double-check my fans on an AT power supply, to make sure they're still working. No reason for them not to have been, though.

One thing I did notice a litte before the crash (Probably about 5 or 10 minutes before.) were two small power fluctuations about 30 seconds apart, (Kinda like when the AC would kick on or something like that, but a little more significant.) evidenced by fluctuations in my desk lamp. Don't know if that would be of any pertinence, but it was something I noticed. Didn't seem to affect the computer at that time, however.

[pHaTaL_eRrOr]

That's a power supply dude....

I don't have any AMD processors, good thing it doesn't matter. What kind of tower do you have? I have a pile of power supplies and would be happy to give you one.

[IsZi]

ATX Power Supply, gonna need probably about 300W or so.

However, I am still worried that this is a motherboard problem.
I don't have an LED to check on this motherboard like I did with the last one, to see if it's getting power at all. If I did, then I would definitely be able to eliminate one or the other.

I'm still not too sure about my CPU. Doesn't look the best, but it might not be completely dead yet. Only way to test for sure would be to put it in my Aunt's machine and test it there. Don't wanna risk her system though.

Anyway, a replacement PS would be great if you really do have one to spare, since my -12V and -5V lines were looking a bit off last time I checked, too. Would also be a good way to narrow down the list of probable causes of the problem.

[-=DoW=- MauryMac]

I'm gonna have to agree with pHaTaL on this one for sure Coby. I've been moaning about your power from the beginning :P Hope it works out, and let me know if you need anything. I'd send you a PSU, but it would cost more to get it across the border than its worth :x

[Gungjuilio]

Good luck Coby hope to see you soon...

[IsZi]

Well, popped open the PSU, but I can't see too much wrong with it. Aside from the normal scorching seen from the traditionally crappy soldering jobs done inside PSUs, there appears to be no physical damage. The fuse seems to be fine, and although there is some dust, it's nothing serious. So, unless there's some internal damage to one of the components, I can't figure what would be keeping it from starting.

Still not really checked out the MoBo yet, but I'll give ya an update when I do.

[ByteMe97]

Maury,

Hide it on a boat full of Cuban defectors they'll never even see it arive in FL. :mrgreen:

[-=DoW=- MauryMac]

Hmmm.... Intriguing....

[IsZi]

Nice idea, Byte. Would probably work too, if he wasn't on the OTHER side of the US. ;)

[Father-Time.]

Ok i know its a stupid one, and i do know its a stupid one as i have done it before, you checked the power LEAD :oops: ?

Father

Some other things that have stoppped pc from booting are Net card, motherboard, cpu and Power supply. Most other things in there would still let pc boot to some sort of screen

Father

[IsZi]

Only problems that I am aware of that won't allow the PC to power up at all, let alone boot to a BIOS startup screen, would be with the power switch itself, the motherboard, or the power supply unit.

Father, are you referring to the power LED? (Light-Emitting Diode) In its current state, my computer wouldn't have one that could light. If the problem is in the power supply, then no power would be getting to the motherboard, and therefore none to the rest of the system, therefore no light. If the problem is with the motherboard, there could be a light on the motherboard that would show it is getting power, but no other light in the system would activate until the machine actually started to boot.

I know the machine is not starting to boot at all, because no fans are coming on whatsoever. If it was booting (meaning no problem with the PSU or MoBo), then the PSU fan would start spinning, and the CPU and case fans would also activate. If the problem, from there, was with the CPU or RAM, then we would be left with a blank screen (although the monitor itself would power up), and no beep code.

If the problem was with another piece of hardware, depending on what it was, the computer would either freeze during the BIOS boot and give an error beep code (instead of the normal single beep code) or it would boot to the OS, but would be partially nonfunctional.

Considering that the motherboard is brand-new, we're pretty much discounting that as the cause, leaving a PSU which has lately shown erratic output beyond acceptable ranges.

pHaTaL, if you can find a PSU that might work, send me a PM with info and we can arrange shipping. It would be greatly appreciated if it's possible. Thanks. :-)

[Innox]

If you have an IDE cable in upside down that will also stop your computer from booting but thats probably not your problem.

[IsZi]

A reversed IDE cable will only prevent the machine from seeing the hard drive it's connected to. The computer would still start to boot, but it wouldn't detect that hard drive. So, yeah... that's not the problem. Thanks for trying, though. :-)

[Father-Time.]

Suppose it must depend on MOBO manufacturer, i had faulty network card and it would not boot at all, no power, no fans, nada. But having worked in computer repair and analysis i have also had cpu, that stop the system. The only post alert i have found to be reliable throughout most mobo's is the video (Seven Beeps) hope you get it sorted Coby.

Sel

[-=DoW=- MauryMac]

Now that you mention it, ive even had a CDRW drive cause a no power situation. I have no idea why, and didnt think it was even possible...

[IsZi]

Dunno why the CDRW would cause a problem.
Except for the Mobo, this system has pretty much been runing in this exact configuration for 3 years. The CDRW drive wasn't in use at the time either, so there wouldn't be much of a reason for it to fail.

Father, I thought a CPU error would still allow the system to power up? Granted there would be no video signal and no beep, and the system wouldn't be able to boot to OS, but wouldn't it still power up?

[-=DoW=- SledgeHammer]

No, it wont. At least that's been my experience. If you're curious, pull the CPU out and turn it on. See what happens.

[IsZi]

Won't matter if the PSU or MoBo are out, which also have yet to be tested.

[Innox]

A reversed IDE cable will only prevent the machine from seeing the hard drive it's connected to. The computer would still start to boot, but it wouldn't detect that hard drive. So, yeah... that's not the problem. Thanks for trying, though.

Well it always did for me, could be it varies by MoBo.

[Father-Time.]

Mobo manufacturers always strive to have the same features, in practice that very rarely happens. The only way to be sure is to individually take out each component and do it on a trial and error basis. I usually start with the adapter cards, least important first , if it makes no difference then put it back in and move onto the next one. I was at a school that had been struck by ligthening, a whole computer sweet was dead (30 pc's) eventually we found it was the network card (Had been fried) because the mobo was set to wake on LAN. Wierd!! I most cases a mobo should fire up the fan with nothing more than the power supply and the case connections, I have done this often and worked forward ie, adding individual components until it fired up.

Hope this helps coby,

Father

[sniper-killer]

coby its not the mother board nor the processor, it still would light the power light if either where dead, if the processor was bad it would still come on in idle state(blank screen) the flicker you probably had was a surge from the power company itself, not every time will it blow a fuse, instead it moves to a weak filter in the power supply blowing filter out. call power company and they will tell u if any surges occured on that date. take cpu fan off and unplug either power line from cd rom or hard-drive and plug two wires from fan into red and black of power line from cd-rom or hard drive and power on system, if fan starts its not your power supply but another part. (or check directly with meter) if you have blowed memory on all banks it will not start either,( computer bios fault) if you find the problem let me know as i have a few parts i could maybe get your way. another thing is batt on the board, if it fails it will delete all information in hard drive as well as bios and they have to be restored first, dont know what type board you run.

[Dead Pygmie]

Ok, here's what you do, take the mobo and PS to a shop and have them test them both. It's either cheap or free, they will want to sell you one or the other. Worst case, you spend a couple of bucks and find out they are ok.

[pHaTaL_eRrOr]

OK... good news and bad. We didn't have an ATX in house, but I took the liberty of winning Ebay auction #2728842839 for $26 bucks... It's 400 watts and should suit you just fine... I'm willing to bet that's the problem. If anyone wants to donate to help offset the cost out of my pocket, you can paypal to jkcavenaugh@hotmail.com. If not, that's fine too... I make a pretty good living, and like helping ppl that are having PC problems. Coby: PM me a mailing address and I'll have it shipped straight to you. I'm willing to bet ($26 to be exact) that this is your only problem relating to the non-bootup issue... Good luck! :wink:

[Father-Time.]

Hey phatal, that is a fantastic gesture, i hope you are right buddy, You deserve it :banger:

You are the man, what you waiting for Cobe?? PM the man.
Good luck Coby hope that gets you back up :D

Father
3 cheers for phatal!!