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How exactly can i determine whether board is dead or CPU?

flexy

flexy

Diamond Member
Ok, try to describe the situation in short form

* Old DFI X48 lanparty board, worked in PC for over 4 years w/o problems

* Power outage (rapid power off/on due to power outage) PROBABLY killed voltage regulator on board, but that's only a guess.

* Power LED / HD LED is always on, but thats about it.

* Board does NOT post at all, diagnostic post-code led doesnt light up, no codes, nothing, no beeps

* LEDs on board for DIMM power and stand-by power are ON (implying there is power on the board and dimm sockets)

* Fan of gtx275 graphics card doesnt spin (not sure whether this is turned on later by bios). If i plug an ancient Ati X850 in the fan runs full blast tho

(Board defintly hanging before POST)

* All case fans etc. seem to work

* PSU tested with DMM, PSU definetely looks ok

The problem now is although i am guessing the power outage killed a voltage regulator on the board i am not sure. It could also be the CPU and the board being allright?

How can i test this? I dread the thought getting a board shipped (i am in Spain) just to find out its not the board but the CPU?
(Its a old, trusty SLACR Q6600 quad)

Also, i tried already every trick in the book regarding CMOS clears and jumpers etc.
 
I am guessing that the problem is more with the CPU than it is with the motherboard. Hard to tell whether it is actually the motherboard or the CPU but if a spare motherboard can be found then testing for the cause of the problem would be easier.
 
only way I know of to verify is access to spare parts and to swap them in and out.

Unless, of course, you have access to expensive test equipment such as an oscilloscope, a multimeter and such things
 
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About the only way to now for sure is to try the cpu in another board if possible. But from the sounds of it seems to be more a board problem just from my experience with similar issues where the board will not post it usually was the board.
 
flexy said:
* PSU tested with DMM, PSU definetely looks ok
Click to expand...

Nuh-uh -- test PSU by substituting a known working one. Don't rely on a meter or a test gizmo to tell you if the supply is good.

My money is on you having a bad PSU, and you not realizing it yet. Basing this on personal experience, by the way.
 
flexy said:
Ok, try to describe the situation in short form

* Old DFI X48 lanparty board, worked in PC for over 4 years w/o problems

* Power outage (rapid power off/on due to power outage) PROBABLY killed voltage regulator on board, but that's only a guess.

* Power LED / HD LED is always on, but thats about it.

* Board does NOT post at all, diagnostic post-code led doesnt light up, no codes, nothing, no beeps

* LEDs on board for DIMM power and stand-by power are ON (implying there is power on the board and dimm sockets)

* Fan of gtx275 graphics card doesnt spin (not sure whether this is turned on later by bios). If i plug an ancient Ati X850 in the fan runs full blast tho

(Board defintly hanging before POST)

* All case fans etc. seem to work

* PSU tested with DMM, PSU definetely looks ok

The problem now is although i am guessing the power outage killed a voltage regulator on the board i am not sure. It could also be the CPU and the board being allright?

How can i test this? I dread the thought getting a board shipped (i am in Spain) just to find out its not the board but the CPU?
(Its a old, trusty SLACR Q6600 quad)

Also, i tried already every trick in the book regarding CMOS clears and jumpers etc.
Click to expand...

Wow, sounds like what just happened to mine....Abit board, went to sleep, need morning wouldnt wake up...LOL. Im hoping its the board, so I can sell the CPU!
 
Once you are sure it isn't the RAM/GPU/PSU (test using known good parts) and are left with just the CPU/mobo, then you have a 90% chance it is the motherboard that is dead. Socket 775 CPUs are really robust.
 
i am a point where i am really clueless whether its the MoBo, CPU or even PSU.

I actually measured MoBo (CPU) voltages and PSU rails now...what i does it starts out with the right voltages but switches down voltages after about 5 seconds.

So i measure 12V rail etc....12 VOlts for 5 secs and then 0.082

Problem is i dont know whether the BOARD shuts down the voltages automatcially (due to CPU/BOard/Fan not plugged in etc...) or whether the PSU shuts down the voltages? (I measured this with the board out of the case and only the most necesary things plugged in).

HOWEVER...when i had the board still in the case...rails obviously did not switch down since Fans and everything were working all right.

Or maybe the board switches back to standby mode if it sees it cannot POST.

Any idea?
 
a power surge can knock out a shitload, anything from just the PSU to frying the whole system where all you have left is just the case.

you should see what a lightning strike can do.
 
Keep in mind that a power supply behaves differently at idle or under load. Just because something produces 12 V at idle doesn't mean it produces 12 V when it's feeding 10 amps. Your DMM measurement verifies that the power supply isn't totally fubared as it's producing something but it does not rule out failure at all.
 
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