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System will not boot up (power problems?)
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xKratosx
Junior Member
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17. January 2007 @ 13:27 |
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Hi guys, I've just fitted a new motherboard for a friend who was having problems with her PC, after much messing around managed to fit the new motherboard (the cables going from the front panel to the motherboard for power/reset etc wasn't long enough etc) and get it set up what I believed was just right.
Tried powering it up; nothing. Well I say nothing, the front LED comes on and the CPU fan tries to spin but goes incredibly slowly for a millisecond then just does nothing.
Have tried re-fitting the CPU and heatsink, taken out the ram, unplugged the IDE etc all without any luck. Absolutely no idea what to try next. Any suggestions would be absolutely fantastic. Thanks!
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xKratosx
Junior Member
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17. January 2007 @ 13:58 |
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Regarding the specifications...
Motherboard: ASROCK P4I65G-M-ASR
CPU: Intel Pentium 4 2.40Ghz
RAM: 256MB DDR
PSU: ... err, just checked and it says DC Output: 200W - But I guess that's wrong?! :)
Also, when I say it 'does nothing' I mean the fans don't spin, but the LED on the front of the case does stay on, and it takes the usual 5 seconds of holding down the power button to shut it off again.
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skidme
Suspended due to non-functional email address
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17. January 2007 @ 14:15 |
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Try resetting the CMOS. If that doesnt work, you may have scratched the back of the board, which will kill its functionality.
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ddp
Moderator
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17. January 2007 @ 17:50 |
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try the board out of the case as sounds like a grounding problem as in a short between board & case.
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AfterDawn Addict
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17. January 2007 @ 18:46 |
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Sounds more like the power supply to me. If you have a spare power supply try swapping it out.
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xKratosx
Junior Member
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17. January 2007 @ 23:46 |
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Many thanks for the replies guys. I've tried resetting the cmos without any luck, not sure about scratching the back panel as we were pretty careful when putting it in.
Have tried connecting it up to my Antec Sonata's TruePower PSU too, this time at least the PSU and case fans were spinning, although still no luck with the CPU fan, this time it wasn't even trying to spin at all. Didn't have a proper chance to test it though, was rushing before coming into work this morning, plus the only accessible monitor just had DVI and no VGA!
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Member
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18. January 2007 @ 01:51 |
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Did you connect the P4 ATX 12V the 4 pin one to the motherboard ? Or maybe the first time you connected the motherboard your PSU was on 120V and it damagaed your motherboard or you can try changing the processor . About your PSU disconnect your power supply and from the motherboard and mesure with a voltmeter if u hv your 5V and 12V .
Intel Pentium 4 3.2GHz, Radeon X700Pro 256MB PCIe, SuperMicro P4SCI ATX Motherboard, 800MHz FSB, 2 x 2GB DDR2800, GB LAN, 2 x WD 250GB SATA2 Hard Drives, Wireless Microsoft Keyboard and Mouse, LG 19" LCD.
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xKratosx
Junior Member
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18. January 2007 @ 02:07 |
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Cheers for the reply. The four pin connector (the square one, right?) is indeed in the motherboard correctly, hope to god that the PSU wasn't set incorrectly and it didn't damage the motherboard, eep! Unfortunately I don't have a voltmeter, but I'll see if we've got one at work anywhere.
Did you connect the P4 ATX 12V the 4 pin one to the motherboard ? Or maybe the first time you connected the motherboard your PSU was on 120V and it damagaed your motherboard or you can try changing the processor . About your PSU disconnect your power supply and from the motherboard and mesure with a voltmeter if u hv your 5V and 12V .
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xKratosx
Junior Member
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18. January 2007 @ 09:49 |
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I apologise for keeping on, but...
I've worked out what the problem is now, even using the uber lame 200W PSU the fan is spinning fine with the motherboard outside of the case, or even when it's not screwed in properly; so I guess it's definitely shorting.
What kind of things can cause this? I'd of thought it'd be something underneath the board but can't see a lot; the only thing I can think of is the screw placement thingys below the CPU/heatsink - I'm using a new base now which doesn't have screws, but there's no metal contact so I'm not sure if that's the problem. I can't get rid of them either, I've tried using pliers on all four and none will budge not even in the slightest, bah!
Any advice on how to unshort this thingy would be absolutely fantastic, thanks!
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ddp
Moderator
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18. January 2007 @ 11:18 |
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compare the board mounting hole locations to the case mounting locations. take a small piece card paper & tape it to the case mounting points under the motherboard that no screws go into. i use 2 or 3 pieces of electrical tape for that.
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Member
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18. January 2007 @ 21:29 |
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You can also cut a piece of that soft thing that came under the mother board in the box with.
Intel Pentium 4 3.2GHz, Radeon X700Pro 256MB PCIe, SuperMicro P4SCI ATX Motherboard, 800MHz FSB, 2 x 2GB DDR2800, GB LAN, 2 x WD 250GB SATA2 Hard Drives, Wireless Microsoft Keyboard and Mouse, LG 19" LCD.
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xKratosx
Junior Member
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19. January 2007 @ 08:50 |
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Latest update: Fixed the shorting problem by laying some... weird material than a guy from work had. Anyway, the fans are spinning just fine now, the HDD, CD drives, keyboard etc are all receiving power, but it still isn't booting up.
It occasionally beeps three times which I believe is a memory problem, but we tried three sticks of memory, all of varying speeds, without any luck on any of them. Also tried a new PSU and have re-fitted the CPU and heatsink. Tried unplugging everything too and again had no luck.
To be fair, the guy who I was working with really knows his stuff, but we just couldn't find the problem. The only thing we can think of is that it's possibly the CPU, but we're really not sure. Any suggestions would be very welcome, or it won't be long before I'm on the hunt for a second hand PC to replace it which will really suck as I'll obviously have to pay for it myself since I've pretty much b0rked her PC :P
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ddp
Moderator
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19. January 2007 @ 13:16 |
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take a look at the bottom side of the board to see if any damage. try clearing the cmos as have found that to work sometimes.
This message has been edited since posting. Last time this message was edited on 19. January 2007 @ 13:17
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xbocker
Suspended permanently
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19. January 2007 @ 16:08 |
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ddp
Moderator
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19. January 2007 @ 17:52 |
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xbocker, lightning struck!!! all posts except this 1 have been edited.
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xKratosx
Junior Member
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20. January 2007 @ 01:53 |
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Thanks for the info guys, to be honest, the CMOS is one thing that could be the issue; I've just no idea if I'm setting it correctly. It uses a different method to normal 3 pin CMOSes and just has the two, so I need to grab a jumper from another board to short it. Also, the board doesn't match the diagram in the manual so I'm not even entirely sure it's the right pins, bah! :-)
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xKratosx
Junior Member
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20. January 2007 @ 09:26 |
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Really, really sorry to keep on, but I'm honestly completely at a loss with this now; I've tried everything I can think of and she keeps ringing me to see if it's fixed yet which is kind of awkward :P
It's still doing the same thing, sometimes three beeps, sometimes nothing. Either way the CPU fan, hard drive, CD drives etc all have power, but it's really inconsistent as to whether it's 3 beeps or nothing. Tried changing the memory once more to the stuff I use in this PC, exactly the same thing, sometimes 3 beeps, sometimes nothing.
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ddp
Moderator
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20. January 2007 @ 17:45 |
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send board back as a doa & explain to friend the board is doa.
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xKratosx
Junior Member
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20. January 2007 @ 23:47 |
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Ah bugger, I did think it'd be a case of that! :(
What I'm currently thinking is I should just put the system back to how it was with the old board, give her the computer back and tell her to take it somewhere else because I can't fix it. I'll then either hopefully return the motherboard as being faulty, or if it comes back as being fine and I screwed up, just stick it onto ebay.
One question regarding the old board; when in windows it was hanging on regular occasions (it wasn't loading anything, you could move the mouse etc but 90% of programs just wouldn't respond) and also the CD/DVD drives were unavailable. Is there anyway of fixing this, or is the motherboard dead? Once again a huge thanks for all of your help!
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ddp
Moderator
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21. January 2007 @ 06:59 |
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if have a spare hd, try a fresh install of windows to see if still a problem. use a pencil eraser on the gold contacts on the ram to remove oxidation. check the can shaped objects on the motherboard which are capacitors that they are not domed & not leaking brown stuff. check for spyware & viruses. what anti-spyware & anti-viruse programs is friend using?
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xKratosx
Junior Member
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21. January 2007 @ 09:03 |
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Huge thanks once again for the reply dpp, unfortunately I've given up on that board and have resorted back to using the old one;
Probably worth noting that this is a completely seperate problem and in no way relates to what I've said above ^ :-)
The old board's in, and it boots up fine. In fact, it gets to the Windows login screen really quickly, you hit enter to login, and then it just hangs. It doesn't load, but it doesn't do anything until you press ctrl, alt and del, and then it loads up the desktop very quickly too.
No problems with that, until you try to access something (even My Computer for example) that tries to see the CD drive and then that window just completely stops responding, the computer carries on just fine though, so if you wanted to load up My Documents for example it does it without a problem, whilst My Computer is struggling along in the background.
I've tried running an IDE check in the BIOS too; it comes up saying it's found the hard drive which 'passes' the test, but it can't find anything else, just takes ages and then says "No IDE device found" for the other three slots/ports or whatever they're called.
Any suggestions would be very welcome, and I'm really sorry for keep dragging this thread back up, but I really, really want to get this sorted :(
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xKratosx
Junior Member
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21. January 2007 @ 09:36 |
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I've just swapped the IDE cables around (at the motherboard end) and it's now detecting the CD-RW drive; I assume that means the IDE slot on the motherboard is dead and thus the motherboard is now useless?
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xKratosx
Junior Member
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21. January 2007 @ 12:21 |
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I've just tried connecting the HDD and CD drive using the same cable now, and it's still only detecting one drive. I'm completely at a loss with this :/
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xKratosx
Junior Member
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21. January 2007 @ 13:05 |
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Scrap that, nothing is working at all now; I've just tried all sorts of IDE/jumper combinations and it isn't detecting either of the CD drives nor the HDD. Tried using the exact original set up for the hard drive too; coming up saying no boot device and it can't see the HDD at all. FFS!
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xKratosx
Junior Member
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22. January 2007 @ 08:58 |
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Please disregard anything I've said in this thread - this is now a slightly different issue to what I was having before, and definitely a different issue to the computer now powering up.
Basically, I'm using the old motherboard at the moment it runs very quick until it either logs in or does something that requires a CD drive. I went into My Computer -> Manage -> Disk Management which hung and took ages to load; but when it did, the computer realised there wasn't a CD drive present and everything was running incredibly quickly. I logged off and on again, the desktop came up within a few seconds; great! Now all I need is an external CD-RW and I'm away, right?
Wrong! Rebooted the system and had the same problem, it's still looking for the bloody CD drives! Question is, how do I stop Windows from searching for them and remove them for good? If I can do this I'm just going to get an external drive and I'm sure everything will then run very smoothly, I just need to stop Windows from searching for the drives that atm just aren't there. Any advice would be fantastic, thank you!
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