Computer has completely died

My computer, built from parts less than a year ago, has completely died. It will not turn on. All that I can see is a light at the bottom of the motherboard that goes on. That is all.

First, here are the specs.

CPU is Pentium IV 3.0 GHz (with stock heat sink)
Motherboard is ASUS P4P800 SE
RAM is 1 GB
Operating System is Windows XP Home
Power Supply is Aspire 500W
Video Card is ATI Radeon X800 Pro (just changed this from ATI All-In-Wonder 9600XT about ten days ago)

Second, here is the problem. As mentioned, I changed out the video card about ten days ago. Since then, I have not had any problem. My son turned on the computer today, as usual, but nothing happened. I was not in the room, but he says that it just did not go on. Now pushing the on button does nothing but make a click.

Third, here is what I have tried. It looked like a power supply problem, so I took out the power supply and tried it with another computer. It worked on that computer. I tried using the other computer's power supply with the dead computer. It did not work.

Then I thought the power switch might be the problem. I tried hooking up another power switch. That did not help. Still did not turn on.

I took out the new video card, and tried the computer. No luck. So I put in an old one, that takes less power (the ATI Radeon X800 Pro needs a power connection from the power supply in addition to the AGP slot power). No luck.

Then I tried to get the computer to start with a barebones setup -- no disk drive, no video card, no CD-ROM drive. No luck.

To check the connections, I unplugged everything from the motherboard (except the CPU and the memory) and then plugged everything back in. No luck.

As mentioned above, the only sign of life is an LED at the bottom of the motherboard that comes on whenever the power supply is hooked up to power. The ASUS motherboard manual calls that LED a "standby power LED."

Everything seems to be ruled out but a dead motherboard or dead CPU. Any way to test out which it is? Both seem unlikely, given that this computer is less than a year old.

But I guess problems can happen. Maybe the new video card blew something out. Or when I installed it, maybe I shorted something.

Any assistance greatly appreciated, as always.

 

Hi Dannii,
The only other thing I could think to try is clearing the CMOS. Read the motherboard manual about using the Clear CMOS jumper (disconnect all power)
or
remove the battery for, say, 30 minutes or more.

Matt

 

It is very hard to tell the difference between a dead motherboard and a dead CPU, because they dependent on each other. I would expect that you would at least get the fans to start spinning if the CPU was gone, so I would say that it is a motherboard problem. I would recommend that you not test the CPU on other motherboards, a bad CPU can wreck motherboards. From what I know though, you can get another CPU to try on your motherboard. If you have not replaced the thermal compound under the heatsink before, go through the instructions/tutorials at www.arcticsilver.com .

Before changing the CPU, I would take the motherboard out of the case and place it on a sheet of cardboard or an antistatic bag and try starting it then (you don't need drives connected). That would indicate if it was shorting to earth in the case.

If it is less than a year old it will be covered by warranty. Find out about an RMA. It would be better to send it to Asus than try testing it or the CPU yourself.

Matt

 

I had the same problem with that motherboard on a computer I built for a friend. Just died one day. I tested each piece and it was the motherboard. Luckily it was still under warranty with Asus and they replaced it free of charge. Email their support team with the serial # (its on a sticker on the LPT port) and see if it's still under warranty.

 

Thanks for all the suggestions. Something worked, although I am not sure what.

I had the motherboard disconnected and in a cardboard box stripped down to just the CPU and two memory sticks. I jumpered the CMOS to clear it. Then I took out one of the memory sticks. Still did not work.

Then I thought I would switch the two memory sticks, thinking the one still in could be bad. Did that, shorted out the power switch pins, and the CPU fan started turning!

So I put the other memory stick back in, and it worked. Put the video card back in and it worked. Put the whole computer back together again, and it works fine. Like nothing ever happened.

So the signs point toward the memory stick not being seated properly. That may have happened when I put in the new video card a couple of weeks ago. Perhaps it got bumped a little bit off its seat, but was good enough to work for a couple of weeks until it worked itself too loose.

Trouble with that theory is that I reseated the memory sticks about ten times while sorting through all this. They were in place and locked down well before I tried switching the two memory sticks.

So it is a little bit of a mystery. But everything works fine now, and my 13-year-old son put the computer back together again, so he got a little practice and I got to sit back and watch. Not too bad. Better than sending parts in and waiting for service.

I'm a little concerned that the computer just died so completely when my son just pushed the power switch, and we had not had the case open or even moved the computer for two weeks. So I will watch the memory connection to make sure there is not some sort of intermittent connection problem. Or who knows, it may have been clearing the CMOS that solved the problem.

As I say, one of those mysteries. Thanks again for all the help.

 

Thanks for letting us know the outcome. Good one.

I have come across some of those "I am not quite sure what did it" results as well. Yes, maybe a combination of things jogged it back to life. It also beats waiting a few weeks for it to come back from Asus with the report that there was nothing wrong with it .

Persistence pays in those situations. I have proclaimed a motherboard dead, then come back, rechecked, reset and away it goes.

Asus boards are known for being fussy with RAM. If you find more problems, consider getting the type of RAM that they recommend for it (or check the RAM manufacturers' websites for those types that have been tested on it).

Matt
PS Be careful, when kids get to about 16-17 years old, all of a sudden they know more than their parents ever knew

 

When you built it did you put a red fiber washer both above and below at each mounting point? Did you make sure that there were no unused brass standoffs left? Did you make sure that any unused domes had nylon T insulators in them?
Your symptoms sound like typical first time builder problems where they do not adequately isolate the board from the case. While initially it may not be a problem, eventually heating and cooling causes expansion and contraction of the boards and either things work loose or shift enough so something shorts out. Often it is not enought to fry the board, just enough to make it not boot.
Then you take things apart and the actions of pushing and pulling on components shifts the board enough to clear the short.

I normally find it easiest to use a 3M gluestick to tack the lower red fiber washers to the top of the standoffs/ domes and then carefully position the board to make sure they do not get knocked off. Then put a second one around each motherboard mounting ***** and fasten snuggly but do not overtighten (as this can deform the board and eventually lead to a cracked trace).

The second possibility is that you have RAM with different ratings. The motherboard memory controller reads the first stick (bank 0 the one nearest the processor usually ) and sets such things as latency and refresh rate to the values specified by that stick. Then it is assumed that the other sticks can adjust to or handle these settings.
It is remotely possible that you suffered some minor damage (Electrostatic discharge during build comes to mind or unstable non filtered power and a lightning storm) which did not cause immeadiate failure, but allowed the components to degrade over time. Eventually the stick in bank 0 no longer provided the information the controller needed, so things choked there.

It all boils down to did the fans spin up and keep running(second problem) or did they spin up and die (short) or not spin up at all (serious short)

 

Unfortunately, the problem I described before has started to occur again. This time it is clearly cured by clearing the CMOS and then starting the computer. It has happened twice within the last ten days.

Specifically, here is what happens. I turn on the computer, and it comes on but does not boot up. The monitor says "No Signal Received." Trying to turn the computer off by the normal on-off switch does not work.

So I turn off the power supply. Then the computer is dead, and nothing works, even after the power supply is turned back on.

So I take out the CMOS battery, jumper the CMOS to clear it, put the battery back in, and everything works fine.

I thought at one point the memory was not seated correctly. That does not seem to be the problem. And the memory (two sticks) is Kingston memory purchased at the same time, of the type recommended for this motherboard.

Oshwyn, do you think that sounds like something is shorting out? Could it be a motherboard problem (my one-year warranty on the motherboard runs out in a few weeks)?

Any thoughts appreciated.

 

I have a problem that sounds an awful lot like the one you are having.....it's identical in every way to yours except I got a "Bad Checksum" in the CMOS...then if I reset the CMOS it will start (some of the time right away, but usually it takes awhile)

I've only seen this error once (usually it doesn't get as far as the error, it usually stops right after the memory check) and have never seen it again so I can't say exactly the wording it gives but its something similar to what I said above....

Did you ever see this error when you started the computer??? The board I am having that problem is also a ASUS P4P800 SE and aswell it just started acting up.

I've tried getting any kind of info from ASUS but all they would suggest is replacing the BIOS or sending it back to them.

 

Definitely contact the manufacturer and document your problem to prove that it occurred before the warranty ran out. I would try their suggestion of a bios update and if that fails, have them replace the board.
It sounds like one of the bios settings you configure is changing and becomming an unsupported one. As to whether a short can cause this? Yes it could, is it likely to be the only possible cause , no it is not.