pc motherboard dead?

[99shassan]

The PC seems to turn on, the power led lights up, the fans spin, but no signal to the monitor. When turning on, the keyboard leds flash like always, however, further inspection shows that once that happens, you can't do anything else. If you press caps lock, the led doesnt come on, etc. The mouse seems to light up showing that works. The PC does not beep when turned on like normal. Also, I have two optical drives, when both are connected one of them is dead, if I connect only one, they both seem to function. I emailed asus, but they told me to try the cpu on another board, but I don't have another socket 478 motherboard to test it on, and as far as I know, neither do any of my other friends.

[clocker]

Still flogging an Athlon, eh?

You really have but two options and they both involve swapping parts that you- or your friends, apparently- do not have.

I would suspect the motherboard has died...especially one from the era of bad caps.
Inspect the capacitors (tall, barrel shaped things sprinkled around the board) and see if any of the tops are bulging or leaking.

It's rare to see the CPU itself fail unless you've been overclocking or generally being naughty but an accumulation of dust could have caused overheating and stressed it to death.

I'd still bet on the motherboard but if it is, good luck getting a replacement...SocketA stuff is long gone.

[reese]

are my eyes going bad? i think he was referring to a socket 478 which is a p4 mobo.. but yea something doesnt round right.. but before you give up pull the board out of the machine and make sure the following items are the only thing plugged in.

power
video(unless you have onboard)
memory
cpu
cpu fan

no cd rom no hd nothing!~

then identify your power switch pins and try to crank her up..

if you dont get video then yank the memory out and reseat it.. if still no video try a different stick of ram.


you can also try to boot it without any ram to see if you get any beep codes (providing there is a onboard speaker or one is hooked up)

[Acid_death69]

I would go with clocker, i have had the same problem and it turned out it was my mother board. I would get a new one asap cos mine started to heat up then started sparking it wasnt a pretty sight and smelt awful aswell. Thing is it was all cos of one lil thing on the motherboard!

[clocker]

are my eyes going bad? i think he was referring to a socket 478 which is a p4 mobo..
Your eyes are fine- and so is your information- I was wrong.

Ooops.
Sorry.
Won't happen again.
Mea culpa.

Still think the board is probably the culprit though.


Carry on.

[Appzalien]

Do you have an extra mouse and keyboard to try? I have seen a bad keyboard stop a pc from booting.

[clocker]

Do you have an extra mouse and keyboard to try? I have seen a bad keyboard stop a pc from booting.
If that's the case...and good on you for thinking of it...a BIOS change to "Stop on-NO ERRORS" might work.

[DKre8ive1]

imho it might be the cmos battery that died since by what you posted it sounds you dont even get a bios(unsure what its called) screen popping up. I mean a 478 p4 board is pretty old and if you get the fans to the processor going which usually is plugged in to the motherboard then maybe the motherboard might not be the problem.

:unsure: thou since I ain't no pc tech

[clocker]

I suppose the CMOS battery is worth checking but TBH, I've never seen a dead one, even on ancient boards.
Still and all, it's cheap and easy so why not?

BTW...spinning fans mean absolutely ziltch (as do fans that don't spin, surprisingly).
The fan headers are essentially straightwired from the main board connector, so all a spinning fan says is the board is getting +12v from the PSU and the "power good" signal from the board to the power supply is alive.

[grimms]

Funny thing is i'm still on a northwood celeron with a 478 socket mobo. Your Mobo is fried or your PSU unit is dying. Also your Cmos battery may need looking at. Sounds like a bios problem Did you ever try to flash your bios? Either way time for an upgrade my friend.

[boodaddymac]

Check your video card to make sure it's not bad first, and monitor connection to the computer, and make sure your monintor is not bad as well. Thse are the easy things to look into first.

[Detale]

It would also help if you could give a bit more info on the computer or at least the Mobo info, I agree with Clocker I have never seen a dead CMos battery either, I don't even know anyone who has. It is worth a shot to check sure, if it's not beebing then I believe it to be a Ram problem or a bios problem, you should deff try what Reese said take out the ram and see what it does if it beeps the error code than its a step in the right direction. Even switching the Ram might help or using one stick at a time. Also if you happen to live in NYC I can give you a P4 478 I dont know the Ghz though processor I have 3 of em laying around here somewhere. I would deff say it's time for an upgrade if you can afford it, even with $300 maybe less these guys here can recommend a decent rig They just helped me with a $200 but I had a casse and HDD but really you should come up with a budget, post a new thread. The FST hardware guys are Fantastic!