Dead computer....or is it?

I have an ASUS A8XNE-Deluxe mobo with an AMD 2600 XP cpu.

On Friday morning i switched the machine off as normal. But on Friday night when i got home from work the PC was dead. No power. Nothing. It's as if it wasn't even plugged into the wall.

I bought a new power pack and replaced it. After connecting everything i flicked the switch at the back of the power pack - not the main power switch on the front. The cooling fan in the power pack twitched and the small speaker built into the tower "clicked ". And that's before i hit the power button on the front.
Pressing the power button on the front has no effect whatsoever.

Until this happened i've had no problems at all with the machine. The mobo is approximately 18months old as is the CPU and the memory (1gb)

Does anyone have any idea what the problem is?
Is my mobo dead???

thanks
David

 

Most motherboards have an LED to show it is receiving power.

Check that the power button is not the problem. Depending on if the case connections are separate you can swap the reset switch connector for the power switch connector (use the motherboard manual as a guide for which connection is which) then try pressing the reset button.

Disconnect any added hardware (even all drives). Just start with the graphics, one stick of RAM, CPU (of course) and a keyboard.

Check the motherboard manual for how to use the Clear CMOS jumper and use that.

Last, try starting without any RAM, you should get beeps.

No beeps, it would still not be certain whether the motherboard or the CPU was the problem. Check that the CPU fan still works, if not, probably a cooked CPU.

Matt

 

I dont know whether this is really relevant, but my sister had the same problem, her PC just wouldnt turn on. She got someone in to fix her PC and they couldnt find an error. They replaced the power supply and the graphics card, but still no luck.

Anyway, it turned out that there was an electrical fault with the button on the front of the PC. The connectors inside were stuck or something like that. So when she pushed the button it wasnt actuall turning the PC on. You may want to take the facia off ur PC and check out the connectors. Not sure what to look for, but you might be able to turn the PC on without using the external button.

Just a thought.

 

Thanks Crikerz.
That may be the case but it doesn't explain my PSU fan twitching and the LED flashing when i turn on the power pack at the back before i've even touched the power button.

i'll print out this thread later today because Mattman has given me a few good starting points too. I'll try all the suggestions i've got and hopefully get it going - i'll probably have a couple of hundred emails to download!!!

 

Try changing the battery. Some systems would refuse to do anything if the CMOS battery is low or not connected.

 

Spoke to a colleague here at work andi came on to ask the question you just answered...what a service!!...answering questions before they're even asked!!!

I'll check the battery tonight and get a replacement tomorrow and i'll post here if that cures it. If not i'll still be looking to pick brains here!!

 

Ok....who's first to laugh??

Not sure how this happened considering i wasn't tampering with the internals but it seems the cable from the PSU to the motherboard wasn't connected properly.

Thanks to Mattman mentioning the LED power indicator on the motherboard. I had a look and it was flashing in time with the PSU LED. So i knew there was a power delivery issue. I pushed the connector a bit harder and it worked fine.
Still don't know how it worked loose when i wasn't in there but it 's fixed now anyway.

Thanks guys!!!
David

 

Good to hear Thanks for letting us know.

 

The simplest solutions are always the best!