How to determine if CPU or motherboard is dead?

BentValve

Diamond Member
Dec 26, 2001
4,190
0
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I recently picked up a used Athlon XP CPU and MSI board and 512mb memory from the FS/FT area.

Fans wont spin up, no beeping , no nothing. I pulled the board out and have it on a bench so only the CPU and ram is installed.

Is there any way to dermine if the CPU or mobo is bad without swapping out components? I dont have any other XP stuff so swapping out stuff is going to be hard.


Ive exhausted pretty much all of the basics such as resetting the bios, setting the FSB to 100mhz , unplugging everything and letting it rest over night.


Oh, I swapped out PSUs as well so its pretty much narrowed down to a bad CPU ro mobo.


 

lenjack

Platinum Member
Oct 10, 1999
2,706
7
81
Easiest and first thing to do is to make sure the cpu heatsink fan is connected to the correct board connector. If not, usually wont boot. Next thing to try is to try the cpu in another computer which is compatible with the cpu. If the other computer boots, the cpu is OK.
 

sandorski

No Lifer
Oct 10, 1999
70,791
6,351
126
Mobo is likely culprit, there should be at least a beep if the cpu is fried.
 

imported_kouch

Senior member
Sep 24, 2004
220
0
0
yep most mobo's even when you don't put in a cpu at all and boot, they will give you some annoying beeping to let you know. So if there is no beeping at all, then its probably the mobo.