My machine will not post, fans run cd runs hd sounds like its running, just seems like cmos wont reset.Double checked vid card, ram and h/d is new, have 2 batteries but maybe 1 is old and new 1 went out? If my cmos batt is dead will it never reset cmos ? and will it cause it to not post? No beeps no nothing, just starts, fan runs h/d runs cd lights come on, but wont boot up.Tried all combinations of power down, reset cmos to no avail.I saw someone on other site saying to redo stand-offs? maybe a short on m/b? How would I do this? Any help and ideas are greatly appreciated, as i am handicapped and this is my main entertainment. Thanks alot, Daniel ( getting depressed )ps; no overclocking, etc, dont do intense gaming etc.

I assume that this is a new build.

If you didn't have the board out of the case, the standoffs are not the problem.

To troubleshoot, I suggest disconnecting evrything from the board except for the bare minimum needed to access the BIOS. All you need is CPU w/HSF, one stick of RAM, video card w/monitor, & the keyboard...nothing else. Remove any extra cards, unplug any external devices (including mouse), disconnect all drives (floppy, HDD, optical). Then try to boot. If it works, use the keyboard to access the BIOS & correct all the settings.

BTW, if you had the battery out, channces are very good that the BIOS did reset...but you won't know that until you bootup & check it out.

One other thing...do you have a speaker connected to the board? Are you getting any beeps when you try to boot?

yes speaker is hooked up yet no beeps when puter starts, only fans run and h/d, and no it isnt a new build , i have had it for 4 years, other than upgrades hadnt had any serious probs, it acted up at boot was beeping 3 times, then i reset bios and it booted right up and ran fine, I ran it thru pcpitstop, and 2 other programs all said no problems. Then went to disable via ac97 onboard sound in bios restarted and poof NO BEEPS NO ERRORS NO MONITOR, NO POST!I Have discconnected everything, switched ram slots , reset bios, took battery out, all to no avail.I did clean it out recently light dusting and blew dust out but it ran after that.I used to help out in amd support years ago, am fairly knowledgable on repairing everyone elses puters and now I am truly stuck here.Any help is greatly appreciated, thnx, Daniel

The 3 beeps before it finally quit for good may indicate what's wrong. Specifically you should check the motherboard manual. This may help too:

http://www.pchell.com/hardware/beep...

Thnx Dave, it was 3 beeps which pointed to vid card not seated, but it booted after this when I reset bios.Then I wanted to get pnp sound card going so I disabled ac,97 onboard sound in bios as I did before when setting new sound card up, and after changing bios settting it wouldnt reboot and now no beeps just fans and h/d running. Also seems like k/b shows lights 1 time then isnt working. Mouse does fire up, as per lights on bottom of it.Changed k/b and mouse, still no go.

Something probably happened while you were inside the case. Maybe you jostled something loose. You may want to disconnect all the drives and remove all the cards except video and see if it'll at least give a posting screen. Make sure you put the cmos jumper back in the standby postition.

Thnx Dave, I just got another comp. to repair, it had that win/it trojan, so while repairing that machine i hooked my h/d into the other comp. it wasnt emulating the h/d wasnt) wth that means lol. I am reformatting it, and installing xp pro again,I did as ya suggested, pulled everything will try to start this bugger up soon as windows is installed, if I get a glitch am gonna use psu from other unit i,m workin on to try that ,which is only thing possible at this moment, along with pulling my hair out lol. thnx, Daniel ps; will post in 2 hours as to if formatting worked.

Well got so disgusted I forgot to post update here last night. No post no nothing, just fan and h/d running, no beeps . ANY help will be appreciated, trying not to spend my xmas present cash on this pig grrrrrrrrrrrr.

One thing to check: if you have a 115/230 voltage switch on the back of the power supply, make sure it's in the correct position--115 in the US. If it should be 115 and is set at 230 the computer won't be getting enough power.

Or, if you can, temporarily swap out the power supply. The drives and fans usually only require 5 and 12 volts but the motherboard needs some additional voltages. So a bad PS may still partially work and lead you to think the problem is elsewhere.

If you're satisfied it's not a power supply problem and if there's no beeps when you disconnected the drives and removed the cards the problem pretty much has to be with the motherboard or cpu. Even with bad RAM you'd get some beeps. You may want to remove the motherboard to make sure it's not grounding against something.

DanielRoars,

You've got mail.

ok thanx for all the help folks, I took board into shop, I,m bettin on cpu being bad, will advise on final solution asap in case it helps others, thnx again, Daniel

No leakage no cracks in board no hot spots, I checked with a magnifying glass very thoroughly, after reading maybe 2000 posts on this at several diff sites, cpu is prob shot. Getting the so-called experts\ ( comp shop where ya pay out the nose for MAYBE a solution) They promised to call with results of cpu and m/b test-out friday, still waiting.

Am eagerly waiting to hear what happened since I have the same problem. After 5 years my Duron will no longer start up when I turn on. Just as you describe all PSU supplies are good, but no video, no beeps, nothing. At present if I turn on and off a couple of times (by holding the on button for 4 seconds) the computer eventually springs to life and works fine until the next time to switch on ... but how long can I rely on that?

You can try removing all the cards except video and disconnect all the drives and see if it'll at least post. If not it's likely a problem with the motherboard.

Thanks, but I've been there. I know it's the motherboard. I think it is probably a stalled oscillator, since the computer does eventually start and perform correctly. That might of course be influenced by the way the PSU starts up (supply rise times, for example). I spotted that the OP also had an ageing AMD Duron doing much the same thing and wondered if it is a known problem with that processor.
FWIW in the stalled state the tower takes full power (80W)and in fact drops slightly to around 70W when it does start booting.

Previous threads indicate replacing the electrolytic capacitors around the cpu may help--especially if they're getting 'puffy'. Of course a new motherboard may be the way to go.