Do I have a dead motherboard? No beep, no BIOS screen. - Page 2

Power on problems on this mother board are usually cause of bad memory timing or failed oc. The mobo is very buggy.

Attn:Westom


My assembled pc stopped working after 4 months of use. Same symptoms from the Op. I will learn how to test the psu using multimeter and post the numbers ASAP. One thing I noticed about the hdd, when I power up, i hear this clicking or short continous beep coming from the hdd. Im certain that it was not a post beep code because my mobo doesnt have speaker and my pc case doesnt have it either. I hope to hear from you soon

ty


Ps. It's hard enough posting through iphone. Please ignore my grammar!!!

when u turn on computer their is 4 light on front check how many r on
or off go to manual and get idea what is wrong

hey everyone I,m another. key things with me are as soon as i plug in it turns on then a quick touch to the power button turns it off instantly(almost seems backward). then it will not turn back on. i have to unplug it and plug it back in and even then it seems to have to reset before it will power on. oh ya basically same issues no monitor response(no bios), fans firing up though. I am willing to test(give the numbers) but i haven't flashed the bios yet. i was wandering if anyone has heard of these symtoms and what would be resetting? should i try and flash bios, or test wattage? i do have about 6 or 7 comps. sitting around and i've gutted mixed &macthed all of them and am not scared of the challenge but i still have yet to flash a bios(i've tried the cheasy way with the battery but don't think thats the same as jumping it) so thats why i wasn't quik to it.

Apologies for any lack of etiquette, being new to the forum.
I've read through the read with a view to whether it could give me any pointers as to whether it is worth persevering with trying to get my daughter's old system running.
It's been in the garage for quite a few months, supposedly dead.

I've dragged it out with a view to replacing the motherboard (and PC/RAM if they are also dead) but thought I'd fire it up and see what happens.

Well I do get a bit of life from it. The CPU fan powers up, the fan on the video card fires up but I get nothing else (although if I attach an old IDE HDD, I can hear it spinning).
I would have liked to just plug a VGA monitor in but as there is no VGA I/F, I've had to borrow the screen from my mac which does have DVI. Alas, I get no BIOS screen and the keyboard does nothing - not even a a caps lock light.
Also have reset CMOS and checked the CMOS battery (but would expect that would have no effect on getting a BIOS screen)

Any ideas? Spec follows

Gigabyte GA-8NA- SLI Pro (P4 3.28MHz)
nvidia GeForce 7600 GT
Corsair VX450 PSU (new - apparently there were sparks coming out of the original PSU)


Many thanks

Gordon

Hi buddy, hi everyone, after reading most of the posts on here, your problem is the most similar to mine. yeah i have the exact same problem the other night. well my computer have been shutting itself down a few times for no reason so i decided to check it out to see what the go was. first i thought it was the power supply, so i replaced the power supply with the spare that i have in my old comp which still works fine. but that wasn't it. the power supply seems to be working ok but i get the constant beeping each time i turn on the comp. and there is no bios and video. i'm guessing it must be the motherboard. what aero_b posted up had given me some sort of hope, fingers cross. my motherboard is only 2 years old, is that the life of a motherboard these days? bloody rip off if u ask me

That was the problem with my Motherboard! Thanks Phantomwriter!

That was the problem with my motherboard! Thanks Phantomwriter!

Sadly people, it's time for some adult leadership here. Has anyone noticed except for my post way up at the beginning (last year), there are no regulars posting on this thread?

I suspect that they looked at the chaos this thread devolved into, shook their head, and pressed the [IGNORE] key.

I am also surprised that no moderator has stepped in.

Basic forum rules: one problem per thread. If you are not the OP (original poster), start your own thread.

Now, I repeat:

Our standard checklist and troubleshooting thread:
http://www.tomshardware.com/forum/ [...] t-problems

Anyone here with problems, go through the freakin' thread.

If that doesn't help:

After the checklist, try this:

Try to verify (as well as you can) that the PSU works. If you have a multimeter, you can do a rough checkout of a PSU using the "paper clip trick". You plug the bare PSU into the wall. Insert a paper clip into the green wire pin and one of the black wire pins beside it. That's how the case power switch works. It applies a ground to the green wire. Turn on the PSU and the fan should spin up. If it doesn't, the PSU is dead.

If you have a multimeter, you can check all the outputs. Yellow wires should be 12 volts, red 5 volts, orange 3.3 volts, blue wire -12 volts, purple wire is the 5 volt standby.

The gray wire is really important. It sends a control signal called something like "PowerOK" from the PSU to the motherboard. It should go from 0 volts to about 5 volts within a half second of pressing the case power switch. If you do not have this signal, your computer will not boot. The tolerances should be +/- 5%. If not, the PSU is bad. You do not need three digits. One decimal place is sufficient. Apologies, westom. Three significant figures is one decimal place for the 12 volt rail.

Unfortunately (yes, there's a "gotcha" ), passing all the above does not mean that the PSU is good. It's not being tested under any kind of load. But if the fan doesn't turn on, the PSU is dead.

On to the real troubleshooting ...

Disconnect everything from the motherboard except the CPU and HSF, the two power cables going to the motherboard, the case speaker, and the case power switch. Boot. You should hear a series of long single beeps indicating missing memory. Silence here indicates, in probable order, a bad PSU, motherboard, or CPU - or a bad installation where something is shorting and shutting down the PSU.

To eliminate the possibility of a bad installation where something is shorting and shutting down the PSU, you will need to pull the motherboard out of the case and reassemble the components on an insulated surface. This is called "breadboarding" - from the 1920's homebrew radio days. I always breadboard a new or recycled build. It lets me test components before I go through the trouble of installing them in a case.

It will look something like this:
http://www.tomshardware.co.uk/foru [...] _13_0.html
You can turn on the PC by shorting the two pins that the case power switch goes on.

If you get the long beeps, add a stick of RAM. Boot. The beep pattern should change to one long and two or three short beeps. Silence indicates that the RAM is shorting out the PSU (very rare). Long single beeps indicates that the BIOS does not recognize the presence of the RAM.

If you get the one long and two or three short beeps, test the rest of the RAM. If good, install the video card and any needed power cables and plug in the monitor. If the video card is good, the system should successfully POST (one short beep, usually) and you will see the boot screen and messages.

Note - an inadequate PSU will cause a failure here or any step later.
Note - you do not need drives, keyboard, or monitor to successfully POST (generally a single short beep).

If you successfully POST, start plugging in the rest of the components, one at a time.

If you are puzzled or still do not have any success, come on back. Just remember: one problem per thread.

Hi guys,
It's my first post on here so be gentle with me if I don't adhere to posting rules (o:

I know my way around PC's but this one has me stumped.

Home built pc around 4 years old.
Working fine and i always leave it on.

However I thought I'd do a quick reboot just to clear out ram etc but when it closed down it didn't boot up as normal with no screen either.
I've checked what the mobo led is telling me when it attempts and its the 8.3 9.6 9.e 9.f error with the pc switching off at 9.f after 5 seconds (all fans are running as normal).
Checked all leads including 12v atx all ok
Ok after a bit of research the power-supply looked like the problem (it was a tagan so that surprised me a bit ) so I went out and got a
Corsair VX450.
+3.3V +5V +12V -12V +5VSB
20A 20A 33A 0.8A 3A

Fitted it, no change exactly the same errors... money already wasted )o:

So I've now tried it totally clean nothing in same just the fans no beeps then shut down with same codes.

Swapped gfx 8800gt with 6600gt still same.

I've cleared cmos many times and changed battery still no change.

Perhaps the bios is somehow wiped ...is it worth getting a new chip ..with my symptoms ?

*************

So to my question I'd like to save money of course so would LIKE to just buy whatever is the most likely damaged component. Sods law is sure whatever i get CPU or MOBO it will be the other one at fault.

So guys what do you reckon is the MOST likely faulty component with what I've said ?


My system below .....if you need anymore info please ask .

Cheers in advance.

***************************************
Motherboard - Abit aa8 duramax 3rd eye
CPU - Pentium 4 540 3.2gh Prescott
RAM - 2x 1gb / 2x 0.5gb (3gb total)
Graphics - nVidia 8800gt
H/D - One SATA
DVD - One IDE
****************************************

I westom, I just wanted to say that I have greatly appreciated your knowledge in this forum and wondred if you could tell any specfically good learning tools for this stuff? I have gone to school for some things, but nothing in my area offers courses for this and it is what i want to learn. Unfortunately i am limited to programming, graphic design and CISCO here. Any good books or websites or anything really would be incredibly helpful! I thank you in advance, Ariel

Power supply voltages are often specified as +/- 5% for the (+) lead and +/- 10% for the (-) if you look at their official specifications.

Therefore, it is quite irrelevant to report to three significant figures, since technically your 12V power supply on the (+) lead (most important) can be 11.4 to 12.6 V and STILL BE considered up to standard (at least, the manufacturer's standard. You Tom'sHardware folk can say otherwise).

Also, converting AC to DC will never be completely perfect. You will get fluctuations, again, NORMAL fluctuations that will be detectable within three significant figures given a responsive enough tester (oscilloscope?)

This all goes back to the whole meaning of significant figures. The whole point of significant figures is, don't report past what your margin of error is. If all your inputs are within 1 sig fig, your answer must be within 1 sig fig (re: into to chemistry 101) Power supplies can be +/- 5% on the (+) lead, therefore, given a voltage of 12 don't go around report values of 11.634. It's still above 11.4, and that's all that matters.

Hence, "spot-on"

If you want to debate the validity of a power supply's specified range of operation, then go ahead, but if you have proof you might as well bring up a lawsuit against the manufacturers for selling a product that has poorly -designed specifications (i.e. if it should be +/- 1% to prevent damage to components, and at +/- 5% these errors predictably arise). Really, you should. Otherwise let's move on from the 3 sig figs debate.

I'm sorry to hammer this in so hard but it really is an important concept to understand. As a student about to enter surgery, we have all these crazy high-resolution scans that can detect "abnormalities" within the human body, which drive some surgeons to operate on the "abnormalities", and it begs the question, what is abnormal? When does something cause an error, and when does it just not matter at all? If you can pick something up with a low-resolution scanner and it looks weird (i.e. huge tumor) or if your ancient multi-meter picks up a voltage of 8, okay, you have a problem! But man, you get all this high-tech gadgetry that is extremely precise, and you start picking up the fuzz of normal operation which is misleading. Hence, drop the 3 sig figs, unless you can give me a good argument to keep 'em.


You are right about checking the PSU under a load.

I had this same problem. Westom explained it incredibly well, but I wasn't satisfied with the option of spending 400$ on a new MoBo.

Instead, it was a problem with the physical connection between the PSU and the MoBo. I literally pushed each of the suppling wires toward their respective socket whislt the power was on (dangerously lol) and the MoBo miraculously beeped. My OS booted as normal, and I haven't looked back. Don't concede to spending loads of money, but equally, don't eletricute yourself!

Good Luck,

buddyswift

Is simple de.... using othe cpu to install a new bios for ur motherboad.... before that flash the bios first....

i am confuse that you givening me supoor or u want support?

I am having the exact same issues as the OP and Sathar. I have tried everything the OP did as well, but I am thinking I will try replacing the PSU first before going through the hassel of getting a new MB. I am curious how this ends up and hope to see the OP post his results on whatever he ends up doing!

SLA Batteries

Hey there!
I had the same problem so I started taking it apart. I looked under the keyboard and found a small cell battery,(bios or cmos - mother board battery) I tested it and it was dead. I replaced it and it works great now! Mine was a gateway laptop. The battery was hard to find and expensive too. It was a maxell-ml1220 rechargable coin cell (watch battery).
They only last for about 3-5 years.
When you replace it, and if you have the power on, it should power up but it will look like you have messed up your computor but don't worry, just power it off wait a few seconds and then power it back on. It should work fine , if this is your problem. Good luck

For all of you having this problem:
I recently got an old PC with the exact same problem and I fixed it. I don't know if it's the solution for all the cases, but it's a cheap option before trashing your motherboard or PSU.
You need a multimeter, a soldering iron, a lamp and some capacitors.
1. First of all, you should check your PSU. Take a paper-clip, straighten it and short the green and a black wire of the 20-24 ATX connector. The PSU fan should start working. Don't use the multimeter yet, many faulty PSU's work normally under zero load.
2. Take a 12v lamp (you could use one of your car's brake lights). Solder two pieces of wire on the lamp and connect the other ends on your multimeter's leads.
3. Set your multimeter on 20V and connect the leads on:
a. Red lead on yellow wire, black lead on black wire. The lamp should light up and your multimeter should read between 11,2 and 11,8 volts.
b. Red lead on red wire, black lead on black wire. The lamp will barely light up and your multimeter should read between 4,2 and 4.8 volts.
c. Red lead on orange wire, black lead on black wire. The lamp will not light up and your multimeter should read between 2,7 and 3,1 volts.
d. Red lead on black wire, black lead on blue wire. The lamp will light up and your multimeter should read between 11 and 11.5 volts.
e. Red lead on black wire, black lead on white wire. The lamp will barely light up and your multimeter should read between 4,2 and 4,8 volts.
Don't test the grey and purple wires! You could damage your PSU. Also, don't use the black wire that is short with the green one. If the voltage ratings are somewhere between those given, then there is nothing wrong with your PSU.
4. Look carefully on your motherboard for something like this:

If any of the capacitors has a bulging top, a yellow or white stain or a broken shell, then replace it with a new one. This step requires some experience, if you are not sure what you are doing, let someone else do it for you. The problem in 95% of non-booting motherboards is leaking capacitors.
5. If you replaced the capacitors and the motherboard won't boot, then throw it away, the problem is some IC or the flash BIOS memory.

If you actually got any luck , u could try disconnecting your computer from the power supply and other USBdevices... Also unplug the BATTERY chipset from the Mother Board. The Battery is located in the right down corner of your mobo. After u have unplugged it, wait for about 4-5 minutes and connect everything again including your Battery. Hope it helps ya !

you can change your motherboard instead to change any thing

I'm having the original problem of the post. I just got my computer back after a move. After individual testing everything appears fine, but the motherboard is not beeping, and the Bios is not showing up. I tried RAM and looking for unplugged cables but could find nothing. Any additional help?

the easyest way u can make a boot disk is by floppy a u can do it wirh a dvd burner but its just a wast less if u have a dvd rw than u can do it with the floppy a or cd u need to formate it and in there it will say make boots disk check it from there add in ur flash and rom and restart ur computer and make it boot up to what ever u make ur boot disk out of if dvd make it boot up in dvd if floppy a than make it boot up in floppa u can change it in the bois u can also usesomeone else computer to make ur boot disk than comeback to urs and use it that way make shere some board have bios locks on them will it will not let u fals read ur manual frist and if it says nothing take ur jumper off ur bios reset jumper pin and flash after it is done flashing because it will let u know put the pin back on to nomal ooooo and u will have to rember somethings ur rom name like it will say 100.00hj and ur flash will be like ami034 when ur in dos put them in u can check the name when u download ur flash and rom and u can also rename them to u have to put in the flash code than rom code than hit enter it will search the disk and it will tell u if u have it right or no its easy u dont need a collage dregg eather

"On a power supply testing note, I am not even an electronics hack, but I do own a multimeter. I poked my multimeter points into the end of one of the ide cables. red and black, the reading off the power supply that caused my computer to shut down in 3-5 seconds read 17.5 volts and the reading from the one that shut down when I tried to run a program ranged 3-7 volts, I think they were both supposed to read 12. "

Am I wrong or are there some ps that have switched or switching voltages? As long as they are in the ranges on the sticker they are fine unless there is demand on them...or so I thgought.

OMG this work for me thx for the tips~

Check your power supply. If it is producing too much power over 12 volts or not enough the mother board will shut down automatically. If that is OK check the tempature level to see if it is too hot which will also cause a shutdown. If you are sure all of these are OK then it is the mother board sensors for heat and you need to replace the board.

Good luck
bobtail

Look at the power supply and then the motherboard heat sensors. Both will cause the PC to shut down automatically.