Tom's Guide | Tom's Hardware | Tom's Games
 |
 |
 |
I'm helping someone with their 2 year old computer that they said died during a lightning storm.
When you push the power button, absolutely nothing happens. I went ahead and advised them to buy a new power supply but that didn't help - still nothing.
I disconnected everything I could on the inside (memory, hard drive, disk drives, etc.), but nothing. The only thing that shows any life is a little green light on the motherboard that lights up when power is supplied.
So does this sound like the motherboard is fried? The light makes me think the power supply is working. Any ideas of other things I can check? Thanks.
Just to be clear, the original power supply fan was not spinning when you cut the computer on and the one I replaced it with is also not spinning when you cut it on.
0 
the CPU might be burnt up?? did you take the heatsink off to check??
MB: Albatron K8X250GB Pro
CPU: AMDSempron 3300+~2.0GHZ OC @ 2.4GHz
Video: BFG nVidia 6800 GT OC 256 MB RAM
RAM: 1.5 GB GEiL PC3200
Sound: SoundBlaster Creative Audigy SE
OS: WINXP
0
Well, I just removed it and it looked fine. I don't smell any burnt components. I thought I read somewhere that you can start the computer with the CPU removed. Is this true? I tried anyway and received the same result - no fans, no nothing. If you can start the computer without the CPU, that would rule it out wouldn't it?
0
Strip it down to just the power supply, motherboard/CPU, RAM and video card. If you don't get any beeps or a display remove the RAM. If you still don't get any beep(s), the motherboard is probably bad.
Do yourself a favor BACKUP!
0
The replacement PSU that you tried, was that a propritary Dell PSU or an aftermarket brand?
I doubt the CPU is hosed, my bet is still on the PSU & plausibly the motherboard.
0
Excellent suggestion by Sabertooth. And connecting a generic PSU to a proprietary Dell motherboard, could damage the motherboard.
Do yourself a favor BACKUP!
0
Sounds like your friend made a poor decision by not plugging the PC into a surgestrip. So many components may have been fried. And for him to leave his PC on in a lightning storm is foolhardy at best, incredibly more so when he was plugged directly into the wall.
On the helping hands side, diagnose the mobo and PSU by making sure they aren't Dell, (LoL) and by running them in machines that are compatable. This may be a problem if noone else has a PC. (in my house, I have built my brothers PC's, so we all have 1337 rigs)
[IMG]http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v230/imf263wf25/sig4.jpg[/IMG]
0
The replacement PSU was not made by Dell, but according this website, http://www.endpcnoise.com/cgi-bin/e/std/sku=dellconverter this model had the standard ATX pinout. Even still, the motherboard still had a green light lit up with each PSU in place, making me think power was getting there ok.
0  |
 |
 |
This post is quite old and has been locked from receiving new replies. Please create a new posting instead.
| Ads by Google |
