Do I need a case to test a MB and CPU?

[Smoke]

I've pretty much determined that I've got a bad motherboard (corrupted bios?) or a bad CPU. A buddy has just sent me his known good cpu. So I want to now try his CPU and see it I can get a bootup.

Problem: I have since cannibalized that computer and used its parts to build another computer. I don't have a case readily available right now but I do have a Power Supply that is known good.

Question: My plan is to place the "known good" Power Supply, Motherboard on top of a card table. Plug in a floppy drive, video card, CPU/fan, and memory. Place a bootable floppy in the FD and try to start it up. If it can make it to the floppy, I believe I will have determined that I had a bad CPU. If I can't get the floppy to startup then it will definitely look like a motherboard problem. What's wrong with this plan....if anything?

BTW, the symptoms on hitting the start button: CPU Fan, Power Supply Fan spin up to speed. Nothing else happens. No hit on the Hard Drive or the Floppy or the CD-Rom. All connections have been checked and double-checked. I'm suspicious that a virus may have corrupted the BIOS. If not that then something else had just quit on the motherboard.

Question: Do I need to have the motherboard grounded to anything to try this test?

 

[ianbergman]

Nope, you're good to go. Just take all the usual static electricity precautions and check it out. Running a computer outside a case is all kinds of fun. ::

 

[sohcrates]

yep, you should be fine booting w/out a case

i'd suggest clearing the BIOS before declaring the system dead

 

[Smoke]

That's the problem, if the computer would boot to a floppy or anything. I could flash the BIOS but I can't reach anything. Only the fans spin.

Starting to setup the test.

 

[sohcrates]

well, flashing and clearing are two different things

to clear , just use "clear cmos" jumpers or take the battery out for about 30 minutes

 

[Smoke]

I'm sorry I misunderstood what you clearly typed as "clearing the BIOS" and read it as "flashing the BIOS" . Yes, I have cleared the CMOS several different times before I decided to start cannibilzing the old computer.

OK, I'm about ready for this test but have just reached a point (without a case, remember) where I'm not sure what to do to start the system up. There is no OFF/ON button. Should I put a jumper across the two pins that would go to the OFF/ON button? Or do I need to short them momentarily?

 

[sohcrates]

<< I'm sorry I misunderstood what you clearly typed as "clearing the BIOS" and read it as "flashing the BIOS" . Yes, I have cleared the CMOS several different times before I decided to start cannibilzing the old computer.

OK, I'm about ready for this test but have just reached a point (without a case, remember) where I'm not sure what to do to start the system up. There is no OFF/ON button. Should I put a jumper across the two pins that would go to the OFF/ON button? Or do I need to short them momentarily? >>



they need to be shorted MOMENTARILY. should work fine if you do that

 

[Smoke]

Here goes "nothing".

 

[Smoke]

Got the same result as before when this motherboard was in a case. The CPU fan started right up but no other noises. No beeps, and no hit on the Floppy Drive.

So I thinks this pretty much means the problem lies in the motherboard.

About a week or so before the rig crapped out I had gotten hit with a hugh number of virus. I was using this computer as a server for the SETI project. During the setup of what is known as SetiQueue I had left port 80 open on my router and got blasted. I closed port 80 and cleaned the computer. It ran fine for two or three weeks but then started rebooting on its own.

The rig is an Abit BE6-II with a Celeron 566/850. I had run at 850 for over a year with no problems. When the computer started rebooting I went into the bios and returned all settings to nominal and ran it at 566. It ran just fine for about an hour and then started rebooting itself again. I then shut it down, opened it up to see what was going on. I thought I'd find a dead fan and the CPU was suffering from overheating but all of the fans were running. I tried to start it up again and that is when the current situation began. Case fans, Cpu fans all spin up but no beeps, no taps on any of the other devices. My best guess is that the BIOS has gone bad. Gone bad or was corrupted by a virus.

Thanks for the help fellas. Any other suggestions appreciated.

 

[KGB]

Smokeball,

Random rebooting is a classic sign of the power regulator(s) on the mobo going bad.
When the CPU voltage falls below the threshold, the system reboots.
I don't think your BIOS is bad but rather you are seeing the symptoms of protracted overclocking effects on the mobo (no flames please).

As a last ditch attempt have you tried pumping the CPU voltage to remedy this?

 

[Smoke]

I'm not sure how to pump... the CPU voltage . I tried different (new and known good) 300 Watt Power Supplies without any success. Are you talking about something else? Do you mean try a 350W or a 400W?

 

[sohcrates]

<< I'm not sure how to pump... the CPU voltage . I tried different (new and known good) 300 Watt Power Supplies without any success. Are you talking about something else? Do you mean try a 350W or a 400W? >>



increasing the cpu voltage is usually done in the bios...it's changing the cpu "core voltage"

 

[Smoke]

That's what I thought. I wish I could get to the BIOS. HA LOL

Since this setup does use a sloket, I may see if the Sloket has any settings that could increase voltage. I just looked and YES I can vary the CPU Voltage from 1.3V up to 3.5V. I have taken down the table top Computer and I'll have to reassemble it again so I can try this idea. Thanks for the tip.

 

[TheBaby]

I once had a similar problem. After a failed OC attemp the computer would boot only after a few minutes rest but when it did boot, it would shut off after a few minutes

The problem was in the bios. When I had to clear CMOS, the CPU voltage when to 1.3 instead of the default for the processor which I think is 1.65 (P 3 600 e). I put it to auto and the problem went away

 

[BadThad]

Hey Smokey!

I once had a soyo board that wouldn't post so I sent it to soyo for repair. They claimed all they did was replace the CMOS battery! If that's true, that's the first time I EVER saw a board that wouldn't POST because of a battery. Might be worth trying as strange as it sounds. I tend to lean with KGBMAN, random reboots are 99% of the time caused by insufficient power to the cpu.

 

[stockjock]

I've got the exact same problem...I can't get this system I'm building to post either. I'm glad to hear I can pull the board out of the case and try booting it that way. I'm hoping my problem is a grounding problem with the board and the case because this is all new stuff.

 

[Smoke]

Since, as I've said earlier, I have a SLOKET for this CPU/MB combination I decided to just change the jumpers on the SLOKET to higher and higher Voltages to the CPU. I gave up after hitting 2.2V. If I remember correctly the default voltage for this CPU was either 1.65V or 1.75....somewhere in that range.

I've actually written an email to ABIT over a month ago but it appears they are not going to answer.

It really is a shame because I've now got two good Celeron 566s and 512 MB of Crucial Cas2 that are sitting idle. Since I do SETI, I hate to see any processing power go to waste.

It is just I can get a whole lot more for my money by going for one of the AMD XPs rather than buying a couple of new/used BX boards.

At least, this is MHO.

 

[BadThad]

When you guys take out those mobo's, I hope you're putting a piece of cardboard or something insulating UNDER them.

I hear you Smokie....the non-DCer's just don't understand the heart-felt pain of lost CPU time, hehehehehe.

 

[KGB]

SmokeBall,

"I feel you pain"

Perhaps if you try some of the "surplus" hardware sites you can get a couple of MoBos really cheap (I've seen them as low as ~$35.00 each).
For the sake of the TeAm, don't let those Celerons go to waste.