Damaged RAM, can't see Sata's [I think].

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Q

QUOTH

Senior member
Jan 17, 2008
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OK, I have just cleaned my pc, the works. I dusted [with aerosol air] everywhere and replaced the TIM and the heatsink on my graphics card, and added some fans. Some cables run under the motherboard. No new hardware, no hardware taken away. Before I clened it out i installed the new graphics card and PSU, setup drivers and everything was fine for a couple of days, up until I cleaned it out.

To make things clear button=pc switch=psu

So this is where it gets weird. I turn the switch on at the power source, BEFORE i hit the power button the pc turns on. I'm like WTF because i'm pretty new to this stuff.

So no video comes on. I try turning the monitor off and on again, no change. Try the other DVI, nothing. Try the onboard video, nothing [don't know if it worked before]. Try the old video card[kinda faulty, but gives picture], nothing.

Next thing. I hold the pc power button for a few seconds and it shuts down. i press it to start up, and nothing happens. The only way i can get it to turn on is to turn it off and on at the powersource.

One final thing, I found if i turned the pc off at the powersource, and turned it back on before the light on the motherboard could go out it would NOT turn on.


So whats wrong? Only other info I can think to mention is the DVD drives still open and close.


DELL E521
mBTX
amd athlon 64 x2 5000+
2gb ram
Nvidia Geforce EVGA 8600gts 512mb
Zalman 1000 GPU fan

*UPDATE*

After reading some of the active threads in this section, I tried upluging everything but 2 fans the ram and the old graphics card from the MOBO. Same symptoms


picture
picture
picture
 
Q

QUOTH

Senior member
Jan 17, 2008
288
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No longer under dell warranty, so dosen't matter. PSU is new, was working fine for a couple of days until cleaning. Still think it's PSU?? No chance of motherboard shorting out [don't know enough about that, shooting in the dark].?
 
Q

QUOTH

Senior member
Jan 17, 2008
288
0
0
OK, checked the old power supply, no change.

So I'm guessing a problem with my motherboard. I'm kinda guessing here, help would really be appreciated. I know nothing about CMOS, I just picked up the word from similar threads.

Still no idea what has caused this, or whats really wrong. Please someone help. I'll give all info I can, do whatever tests need to be done [as long as it's not gonna somehow make things worse :p].
 
Q

QUOTH

Senior member
Jan 17, 2008
288
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*UPDATE*

OK, so I pulled the motherboard out of the case and tried again, no change.

But I noticed that there where some small holes [damage] in the ide that goes from the mobo to the powerswitch/front usb's, jacks and lights.

Seeing that the pc is powering on in a strage way, it would make some sense that this may be the problem. But I can't see how this affects videe. Am i right or wrong? Where can i get another IDE, its not as wide as the ones on cd or floppy drives.

its 20x2 [40 in all ] with one missing in the centre but it's smaller than the normal IDE. Whats this called? Is this a dell specific thing? is the problem something else?
 
Q

Qutlass

Member
Mar 15, 2006
73
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check the memory. Similar thing happened to me also. after a new MB and psu, it turned out to be both sticks of my memory got fried.
 
Q

QUOTH

Senior member
Jan 17, 2008
288
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0
ok, check with everything or just 1 stick ram processor and pcie graphics?
 
Q

QUOTH

Senior member
Jan 17, 2008
288
0
0
OK, i get picture with 1 stick of ram and normal power button.

diskerre drive 0 seek failure
invalid configuration infirmatopn - please run setup

Have i connected the hard drives/disc drives wrong? Ive tried swapping them around with no luck. give me options of f1 to contine f2 for setup. What do i need to do in setup?

*EDIT*

pc sees sata 0 [dvd] sata 1[dvd rw, but no deails] and cant see 3 or 4 which are hard drives

This happens even if the drives are unplugged [but i get no details from sata 0]
 
Q

QUOTH

Senior member
Jan 17, 2008
288
0
0
OK, mopre turning on info.

Now that i have video the power situation is different.

i turn it on at the PSU, the pc dosen't turn it's self on like it did before, so i press the pc's power button and it comes on. so i press the power button on the pc and it turns off[ i nolonger have to hol it].

If i press the pc power button again it won't turn on, i have to turn it off and on at the psu then press the pc on button.

*EDIT* I only get video with a stick of ram in DIMM 4. All for sticks work in dimm 4

also clock has reset to 2003

*EDIT* it also says it can't see the usb keyboard, but only some of the time.
 
Quiksilver

Quiksilver

Diamond Member
Jul 3, 2005
4,725
0
71
Sounds like the motherboard or somehow the psu is shorted out. Motherboard seems more likely though.
 
DSF

DSF

Diamond Member
Oct 6, 2007
4,902
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71
I could be mistaken, but I seem to recall some E521's having problems with bad capacitors on the motherboard. If nothing else is working, you might try carefully looking over the capacitors on your motherboard for leaks, splits, bulges, etc.
 
R

robisbell

Banned
Oct 27, 2007
3,621
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the front panel cable was run undeer the case and shorted out on the mobo, I advised that a new FP caable be procured before doing anything else. I advised that to test system without said cable and to manually jumpered the pins for the switch on the mobo to test the system out fully.
 
Q

QUOTH

Senior member
Jan 17, 2008
288
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0
If the mobo is shorted, doesn't that mean it's damaged, and a new cable with this mobo will make no difference?

I have a new cable in the post for backup mobo.

I have no idea how to turn the pc on without the on button. If theres a fair chance of me damaging something I'd prefer to wait a couple of days for the new cable.
 
M

Mondoman

Senior member
Jan 4, 2008
356
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0
To turn on the PC without the on button connected, simply momentarily touch both the on button's header pins on the motherboard with something conductive, like a metal screwdriver blade.
I'm suspecting you may have incorrectly replugged some of the wires/cables after your cleaning.

PS - What you call an "ide" is normally called a "ribbon cable"; "ide" refers to integrated drive electronics, a type of hard drive interface, and to the cable it uses.
 
Q

QUOTH

Senior member
Jan 17, 2008
288
0
0
Thanks, someone has already corrected me. We all learn this stuff sometime.

And if I connect the wrong pins?

Which ones? Apart from the sata data cables [sata=data, pata=power????] I'm confident everything is correct. If its a mistake on my part how do i fix it?

Is it safe to say my motherboard is damaged, and the new ribbon cable won't help much?

 
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