Computer won't start - it's my mobo, right?

[dan_aka_jack]

Computer won't start - it's the mobo, right?

Hi,

A friend's Athlon 64 / Gigabyte motherboard system wont start. It's been running fine for about 18 months. He usually leaves it on 24/7. One morning he woke up to find the computer had turned itself off. He tried to start it. The HDDs span up, the power and HDD lights came on, the fans span up but there was no beep and no signal was sent to the monitor.

I've tried running his CPU, RAM and Graphics Card in my system and they're all fine.

I figure this leaves two candidates for the failure: the mobo or the power supply. But I very much doubt it's the PSU because the HDDs and fans all spin up. Can we say with confidence that the problem is the motherboard and he needs a new mobo (I'd rather not lug my PSU to his place to test because he lives some distance away). Are there any ways to test a PSU with just a multimeter?

Thanks,
Jack

 

[Roll]

It sounds to me like you've eliminated all other possibilities and got it down to either the PSU or the motherboard.

To eliminate the final faulty component I think you might have to either test the PSU with another system, or test a different PSU with your friend's setup.

To route I would take would be to try a different PSU with your friends system in case of there being a problem with his PSU which fried the motherboard.

Hope this helps

 

[split]

How to test PSU.

You don't have to go that far in fact. Just take the voltages at the molex when the fans spin up.
I suppose you have cleared the CMOS?
Is this a new build, and is the PSU up to it.
4 pin plug in as well?

 

[dan_aka_jack]

Oooh... good point! No, we haven't cleared the CMOS. But a dodgy CMOS setting is unlikely, isn't it? The computer failed completely on its own: it was just left on over night and it was dead in the morning. That sounds like a hardware failure rather than a dodgy setting in the CMOS. Or am I wrong?

Whatever... it's easy to clear so we'll give it a go next time I'm round at my friend's place.

Jack

 

[split]

I had a dead PC given to me other day (fans spun) and that turned out to be people who turn it off at mains.
Cleared CMOS and away it went. (wish they was all that easy)
You might be lucky if it had a power drop in the night, and done the same.

What motherboard is this?
Usually a case of shorting 2 pins and removing battery for a few mins.

 

[dan_aka_jack]

Hmmm... very interesting indeed; I'll definitely try clearing the CMOS next time. The motherboard is a Gigabyte GA-K8NF-9 (I have one as well and mine's been fine).

In answer to a previous question: this isn't a new build, it's been running fine for about 18 months (if my memory serves correctly). I built it.

 

[split]

Read the manual on how to clear the CMOS.
Thinking...some gigabytes have a dual BIOS chip, but if this is the board(nForce4 Sans SLI : Gigabyte’s GA-K8NF-9 nVidia nForce4-4X), they didn't fit it.

Note the CLR_CMOS beneath the red sata ports.

You might be lucky with this, but don't bank on it.