Hi, hope someone has some insight into my little corner of nightmare.
I built my first computer in 1983 but that doesn't seem to have prevented me from still doing dumb things around computers, at least now and then...trouble is I'm not sure what happened this time.
I have a desktop system I've run successfully for 4 years with:
Quad core 6600 2.4 ghz cpu
Asus P5w Dh Deluxe mobo
newish Corsair 750W PSU
relatively new 512MB Radeon card PCI express 16 I think
8GB OCZ DDR2 RAM (2GBx4)
tons of SATA, couple IDE and several eSATA, firewire and USB external drives.
Cyberpower 800W USP
I think I fried my motherboard. I'd cloned my existing C drive in a Thermaltake BlackX eSATA dock, all worked fine.
opened up the case, disconnected power, pulled the old C drive, slapped in the new one, I have to pull the memory in my mid-tower case to get the drives out...had a [bleep] of a time getting the memory sticks back in to their slots and was pushing pretty hard on them to get them to seat (basically relearning what I'd forgotten since I built this system)
As always I was careful with static. Have never fried anything before.
hooked everything back up. turned on the power. Lots of fans and no beep whatsoever.
Here's what I've tried all afternoon:
removed all memory. no post beep
put one stick at a time in all four memory slots. no post beep
Was able to get one memory stick in one slot to give me the Asus splash screen, but no post beep...couldn't get beyond the splash screen.
pulled and replaced the CMOS battery (it was borderline according to the battery tester). Reset the CMOS jumpers. No post beep.
disconnected the new hard drive and reinstalled the old one. no post beep (NPB)
pulled the video card. NPB.
disconnected EVERYTHNG except the video card. NPB.
pulled the video card too. NPB.
I guess you get the idea: I've tried everyhting I can think of but I haven't had a single beep since I swapped the drives. I'm thinking I mangled something inside but always before, if I've had a config problem or failed component, I'd always at least get a post beep.
Anybody think it could be anything else?
If it is the mobo, I guess it would be smart to take it to a shop and have them do a definitive test. But it is a four year old mobo. If I rebuild using my components though I'm essentially getting a new computer, might as well for all the trouble...except I have so much stuff on my C: drive and I hate to recover it.
So, these questions please:
1. If I replace it with a new but identical Asus P5W DH Deluxe, will it boot without me having to reactivate with Big Brother Microsoft?
2. If I get any other motherboard, will the installed system even boot? Or will it be new installsville for me for everything?
3. Do you think it's a good idea to pull the motherboard and take it to a shop for a final troubleshoot, or just bag it and move on and quit whimpering? (And write the story that's due monday on my laptop?)
Thanks folks, hope somebody's got a clear and minimal time-spending solution for me, I'm ready to jump off a tall building.
I built my first computer in 1983 but that doesn't seem to have prevented me from still doing dumb things around computers, at least now and then...trouble is I'm not sure what happened this time.
I have a desktop system I've run successfully for 4 years with:
Quad core 6600 2.4 ghz cpu
Asus P5w Dh Deluxe mobo
newish Corsair 750W PSU
relatively new 512MB Radeon card PCI express 16 I think
8GB OCZ DDR2 RAM (2GBx4)
tons of SATA, couple IDE and several eSATA, firewire and USB external drives.
Cyberpower 800W USP
I think I fried my motherboard. I'd cloned my existing C drive in a Thermaltake BlackX eSATA dock, all worked fine.
opened up the case, disconnected power, pulled the old C drive, slapped in the new one, I have to pull the memory in my mid-tower case to get the drives out...had a [bleep] of a time getting the memory sticks back in to their slots and was pushing pretty hard on them to get them to seat (basically relearning what I'd forgotten since I built this system)
As always I was careful with static. Have never fried anything before.
hooked everything back up. turned on the power. Lots of fans and no beep whatsoever.
Here's what I've tried all afternoon:
removed all memory. no post beep
put one stick at a time in all four memory slots. no post beep
Was able to get one memory stick in one slot to give me the Asus splash screen, but no post beep...couldn't get beyond the splash screen.
pulled and replaced the CMOS battery (it was borderline according to the battery tester). Reset the CMOS jumpers. No post beep.
disconnected the new hard drive and reinstalled the old one. no post beep (NPB)
pulled the video card. NPB.
disconnected EVERYTHNG except the video card. NPB.
pulled the video card too. NPB.
I guess you get the idea: I've tried everyhting I can think of but I haven't had a single beep since I swapped the drives. I'm thinking I mangled something inside but always before, if I've had a config problem or failed component, I'd always at least get a post beep.
Anybody think it could be anything else?
If it is the mobo, I guess it would be smart to take it to a shop and have them do a definitive test. But it is a four year old mobo. If I rebuild using my components though I'm essentially getting a new computer, might as well for all the trouble...except I have so much stuff on my C: drive and I hate to recover it.
So, these questions please:
1. If I replace it with a new but identical Asus P5W DH Deluxe, will it boot without me having to reactivate with Big Brother Microsoft?
2. If I get any other motherboard, will the installed system even boot? Or will it be new installsville for me for everything?
3. Do you think it's a good idea to pull the motherboard and take it to a shop for a final troubleshoot, or just bag it and move on and quit whimpering? (And write the story that's due monday on my laptop?)
Thanks folks, hope somebody's got a clear and minimal time-spending solution for me, I'm ready to jump off a tall building.
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