Help Please- System wont boot at all and I have 2 weeks to fix

[NotoriousTAT]

thank you all in advance for your input.

My original set up was amd 1800xp - k7s5a - 512mb pc2100 (256mb - PNY and crucial) - geforce 4t 4200 - 40gb 7200rpm - 2x DVD-RW - 16x DVD - 16x CD-RW. I had no problems with my system since i put it together until about 1 month ago. While I was in the process of ripping and burning a dvd the screen went black, yet the 2 case fans and processor fan continued to spin at full speed. (although the video card fan did not) I tired to revive the computer with no luck. So then I tried to reset it and there still was no response... so I tried the power button... still no response. I could'nt get it to turn off until I used the power supply button.
I gave it about two hours and when I came back to turn the power back on, the computer imediately went back to the same state, ( no screen - Fans spinning) none of the drive lights or anything flashed.
After posting some questions on this forum, I tried some troubleshooting.
1) I opend the case and looked for any noticable damage
2) I checked all connections
3) I put in all new IDE cables
4) I used a cold cathode to check the 2 and 4 pin power connectors (they all worked)
5) I replaced the video card with an older but still working geforce 3
6) I put a friends Athlon 1400 processor in my computer. ( still did the same thing)

I did all of those tasks one by one and they yielded the exact same results.--- Case fan and processor fan spins at full speed --- video card fan does not---- and no led's light up on any of the cd drives, floopy drives, or hard drive.

Afterr discussing the problem with many people in the forum I was ultamitely led to buying a new mother board. I choose the ECS K7VTA3 and when I installed it about a week ago the SAME THING HAPPEN... the only diference was that I can turn on and off the computer from the button in the front. Besides that no change.

I leave for school in about two weeks and I have to get this computer fixed. I dont have much money so Please give many any suggestions you can... tell me what I need to buy so I can avoid wasting money on any more components that work fine already.
Thank you all very much for your help.

 

[Actaeon]

Rip everything out.

Only have Case, PSU, Mobo, CPU (yes, make sure HSF is on ), Videocard and Harddrive with OS.

PSU seems works fine, Mobo is Brand new, so that shouldn't be the problem.

If it does not boot up. It has to be one of those. It looks like everything has been replaced, and you still have the problem, other than the harddrive, so I'd take that into possiblities, change parts one by one, until you nail the problem.

If it does boot up, start inserting your PCI cards, and cd-rom/floppy/harddrives one by one, until it does not boot, and chances are, thats the culprit.

Thats pretty much all I can think of, thats my usual "Oh Crap, its not booting" procedure when something goes wrong.

LMK what happens.

EDIT: Grammar

 

[Knight3058]

Try this out....just in case you havn't already...I keep an off brand PCI video card around for just such a problem(and it does not have to be fancy or anything...just a test card for figuring out what is wrong...see if you can find someone with a copy of Micro2000s Micro-Scope(awesome diagnostic tool...no OS required)...that should also help in figuring out what is the matter...other than that, it could be a short in your power supply...I know you are pressed for time, so if this is just some more of the same advice, sorry...anyway, good luck!

Knight3058

 

[GAZZA]

Like Actaeon mentions I would deffinitely take everything out including the motherboard leaving the memory ,cpu and video card attached and seat it on the antistatic bag the mobo came in plug your psu in and then try booting it up.

If nothing still happens then from what I have read I suspect either your Ram or your PSU is giving you problems .

 

[Actaeon]

Originally posted by: GAZZA
Like Actaeon mentions I would deffinitely take everything out including the motherboard leaving the memory ,cpu and video card attached and seat it on the antistatic bag the mobo came in plug your psu in and then try booting it up.

If nothing still happens then from what I have read I suspect either your Ram or your PSU is giving you problems .

Arg, I forgot the RAM! Thanks for mentioning that though.

What brand is this PSU? If its weak, that could be the problem, as you are running several drives, and a power hungry cpu/videocard.

 

[Lint21]

Make sure the motherboard is properly seated, like there's no excess metal spacers touching the back where they shouldnt be. I don't think this is the problem, since that will usually keep a machine from booting at all, but it could be.

Like others have mentioned, the PSU could be the problem. It could just be bad, and is sending surges to your machine or something. Have you used it before? What about your power source further down the line? Are you using a surge protector, or is the electrical wiring where you are suspect?

Maybe you got a surge, and that fried the motherboard and ram. That would explain why it wouldn't boot at all with the old board, and now you have some functionality with the new one.

Tough situation, I feel for you. If it's any consolation, it sounds like you've done the right things mostly in troubleshooting the problem. Plus, you have a leg-up by knowing about this forum

 

[NotoriousTAT]

Thank you all for your continued help... The PSU is in fact a cheap 300wt unit that I got with a $26 case. I figured It was running ok after I checked the leads with the cold cathode but I have no way of checking the lead to the motherboard. I'll have to use my friends comp for that. I will check further into the problem tomarrow. I have also noticed that we have alot of power outages around where I live, prob atleast 1 a week.... Also a week before my comp went out a tree outside my house was struck by lighting ( that messed a lot of things up). I wonder if there may be some correlation between these power shortages and my computer problems. Then agian I only added The dvd rw and geforce 4ti 4200 a few days before the computer went out--- so that could have been soaking up too much power.