Is my motherboard fried??

[RaVEWHQ]

Hey all. I have a custom built PIII-600 and it has been running
beautifully until now. The other day I went to go warm reboot and
that was it. The screen flashed off and the CPU seemed like it only
gets 1/4 of the way through the reboot process. The hard drive grinds
for a second or two then thats it. And there is absolutely nothing on
the screen. I tried switching out my graphics card, but to no avail.
Also tried the same with my memory. I get no beeps or anything. Also,
another weird thing, is that the power stays on throughout the CPU.
To shut it off, I have to unplug the power cable. When I press the
power on button, it does nothing. Can anyone please help me out with
this? Thanks
Eric

[lynnm]

http://www.cybertechhelp.com/ubb/frown.gif

Hello Dere RaVEWHQ

It certainly sounds as if you Motherboard has gone to that great Bit Bin in the Sky. Have you checkedthe power supply to be certain that it is putting out all of the required voltages?

I assume that this an ATX motherboard we are talking about here so you should have 5 Volts, 12 Volts and (usually 3.3 volts).

It is normal to have power on the board in an ATX case even when the front panel switch is off. The front panel power switch does not directly control the 110 volt line to the power supply but merely signals the power supply to power up or power down. If you check the rear of the power supply you will find a master on/off switch.

I hope someone will come along and provide a more hopeful answer but I do think your motherboard is pooched.

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It is meet to recall that the Great Green Heron Rarely flies upside down in the moonlight.- (Foo Ling ca.1707)

[Idnew]

I would first check the power supply. This happened to one of my pc's and that was the problem. It would try to boot, but never make it.

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The only time the world beats a path to your door is when your in the bathroom

[eriebch]

I had a similar problem and after much checking out I found that the front "power" switch had fallen apart and remained pushed in.
Took the front cover off and re-assembled the switch and all is A-OK.
Hope yours is as simple.
Good luck.

[RaVEWHQ]

Okay, I cleaned the whole board, re-seated the chip and everything. Still the same problem. Nothing shows up on the screen, hard drives make a little noise, cd rom drive flashes...thats it. If my power supply was bad, nothing would work, right? Im guessing i have to splurge for a new board right? Just want to make sure its my board and not just my power supply. Thnx in advance.

[Idnew]

It could still be your power supply. Mine did the same thing. Just wasn't putting out full power. Let us know what your final solution was.

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<FONT COLOR="green"><FONT size="3"><FONT face="Harrington">Have A Safe and Happy Christmas</FONT f></FONT s></FONT c>

[OnionMan]

Pretty much the same thing happened to me twice. It happened twice because the powersupply was shorting the system which burnt a chip on the motherboard. Look for burnt chips. I didnt know what the problem was at first so I got a new motherboard, which got fried again by the same powersupply, and then another motherboard and a new powersupply. The only difference is that my case was electricly charged. you couldnt touch it without peeing your pants. How about you? Good luck man

[pheemoo]

hello RaVEWHQ,

This is my second attempt at posting, so the answers may be abbreviated.

1/ Try reseating all your componants on the MB.

2/ Try reseting your CMOS.
Look up your MB manual for where the jumper pin on your MB is that "resets CMOS to factory defaults" or the like. Once you know where it is switch off you machine, open the case, move the jumper pin and then move it back, restart you machine.

3/ Try removing hardware one at a time to see if you have a dead componant that is stopping the boot. Try all the things on your PCI bus first. Then if you have a spare Video card try swapping that in.

4/ Does your MB have what I call "Happy lights" that describe the MBs bootup progress. Check your manual again. I have found these less helpful though.

Hope this helps