Motherboard Dead?

[niknak123]

I've got a friend that was just playing WoW, when his computer suddenly shut down and wouldn't boot, I figured it just overheated and he fried something. I told him to start taking parts out, one by one, and see if it would boot. He got down to just the motherboard and psu and it still won't post. He doesn't get any beeps at all. His motherboard is DFI LANPARTY UT nF4 Ultra-D Socket 939 NVIDIA nForce4 Ultra ATX AMD. He says his psu fan spins, does that mean its not the psu, and just the motherboard went bad? He's also describing some lights below his pci slots, 1 red one and 2 orange ones, but how can those lights light up, if its dead, right above that it says DEBUG. I'm puzzled.

[Answerth]

no post, hmm, does it even power on at all? like stuff starts to fire up and nothing happens? or it acts as if it is not plugged in? power supply might have gone bad. open the case and look for any signs of burning, and be aware of any smells. one part of the motherboard can go bad while, for example, alert lights can still light up. just the same way that ram slots can go bad, but the cpu and pci slots can still be in fine working order. my opinion would be to reset the CMOS for 5 minutes then move the jumper back, (with it unplugged and the battery out of course), then see if anyting is better. Also, the computer would get beep codes and such even with a bad cpu, the fan still spins so that tells you the port on the motherboard in which the cpu fan is plugged into is still getting power.

but first, get evidence of overeating/frying before assuming it, a motherboard shouldnt just do that for no reason. if hes succesfully played WoW for long periods of time before, then mosty likely he had adequate cooling.

[niknak123]

I've never actually reset cmos, would you mind walking me through it? I've got no idea where to start.

[Wrkngman]

A DFI should have a reset button on the board. Try this first and if that dose not work use the jumper to reset the CMOS. If this still dose not fix the problem it could be a bios issue. DFI is notorius for having outdated bios on its boards. The red light shows the ram is recognized (this is next to the dimm sockets. The other lights-are they down by the battery near the lower right hand corner. If you see just two look closely there should be four then see which two are on.
DFI has led codes that tell what is going on with the board.

[Wrkngman]

The clear cmos jumper is near the sata connections and battery/bios area.
It has three pins and the jumper is set on 1&2 as default. Unplug the system take out the battery then move the jumper to pins 2&3 for the time specified and then move it back and reconnect the battery and power.

[niknak123]

Theres no burns visible on any of the parts, he reset cmos, nothing happened. =[ Any other ideas? He says all 4 of the leds are red. You said it might be a bios issue, is there anyway he can repair it? He doesnt have a 2nd computer to dl new bios for it.

[l337_GuY]

It's either bad PSU or bad Motherboard. Bad motherboard, less likely. Unless it has swollen or bulged capacitors.

Try another PSU, from a known working computer, and see if it boots it. If not then the motherboard is dead. And it still can display LED's, turn on if it's dead, it will just never come to life (POST).

[niknak123]

He's buying a new psu tomorrow, i'll let you guys know what happens =]

[Wrkngman]

On the bios issue contact DFI and get them to send you another bios chip.