Is my Motherboard Toast? Problem Resolved!

[GarbMan]

I think my motherboard is blown. I have taken everything out but the floppy and the video card and it still won?t boot. I have tried a different video card, floppy, and a good power supply. The fans all work, but no picture and no beep, just darkness. I tried clearing the cmos also. I am scared to try another CPU because I once blew one in a bad motherboard. I am going to try the CPU in another board as soon as I can. The board is an ECS K7S5A. I think I may have blown it because I had too many things hooked to it. The power supply was only 300 watts.

I had:

3 case fans
1 CPU fan
1 video card fan
Power Supply fan
1 CD ROM
1 CD Burner
1 7200 RPM Hard rive
1 zip drive
Radeon 8500LE
1700XP CPU
SB 512
1 AMR modem
1 Supra Express modem

What do you guys think! Is the motherboard gone? Did I exceed the 300 watts and could that have caused it to blow?

 

[WhoDeeny]

I doubt you'd have blown it, its more likely grounded to the case somewhere (make sure its not making contact at all), or maybe you killed you CPU, but I'd try reseating your RAM and video card. Also, it might help if you can describe, what if anything, was going on prior to it not working any more.

 

[murphy55d]

300W powers everything in my system just fine. That's definitely not your problem.

Like WhoDeeny said, try re-seating everything...

 

[GarbMan]

I have reseated the ram and videocard. I will check to see if the MB is grounded. I hope it is the CPU because it is under warrenty.

The first time I noticed that something was wrong, I was trying to hook up a second hardrive in the place of the zip to backup my system. After this the computer did not want to boot, so I removed the hardrive and it booted, but then frooze after it loaded windows. I rebooted and everything worked well for a while. I installed a hot fix from microsoft. At first it did not like the hot fix (blue screen), but then it took off and worked fine. I played tribes2 and surfed the internet. I left it on for a while, came back and it was locked, the mouse would not move. Ctrl, Alt, Delete would not free it up. I hit the reset and it never booted again. The Hardrive light comes on constantly for a while, then finally goes off. The fans keep running.

 

[pitupepito2000]

Is the power cable connected properlly to the motherboard? What processor are you using?

Does your computer P.O.S.T. (Power On Self-Test)?

Have you tried clearing your bios? You can usually do this by shortening a jumper in your mohterboard.

Try to run your computer with the bare minimum hardware and see if that works.


Try to find a friend that has a computer similar to yours and try switching the different components such as cpu, ram, video card and others.


I hope this helps

 

[Bovinicus]

The problem lies in either memory, CPU, or motherboard if everything else has been eliminated. 300W should be sufficient for that setup, at least enough for a successful boot. Make sure the memory and CPU are not the problem, once you do that then you will know that the problem is the motherboard.

 

[GarbMan]

Wow! I put the motherboard and CPU in another computer and that particular board works now! However, the motherboard I took out is having the same problem and it too is a K7S5A. I checked the CPU in another (1700 XP) and it works in another computer. So now I have another motherboard with the same problem that the first one had. There has to be a common link somewhere. I tried booting this board outside and I tried booting it inside another case. It will not boot, post, or go into cmos. Only the fans run. I know this one was a good board before I took it out of it's case. I do have the memory and CPU from the first board in it. Bovinicus, I bet I have a problem with the memory or the CPU as you said. Has anyone ever experienced a CPU or Memory that works intermediately? Do any of the K7S5A motherboards have a problem with XP processors?

Here are some questions I need answered:

What is the bare minimum of hardware you need to boot a computer into cmos? I would think: A power supply, CPU (w/fan), memory, video card, and maybe a floppy drive.

Do I need a floppy installed to get to the bios setup do I?

If I have the board outside the case, do I have to ground the board somewhere or does it ground through the power connector to the powersupply? :disgust:

 

[GarbMan]

It was the memory! I had two bad sticks. When I tried a third, it worked. Every computer I put those two bad sticks of memory in, would not boot. Thanks guys for all the help! The bad news is the memory cost more than the motherboard. I think the memory has I life time warrenty if I can remember where I got it. It has been about two years. I wonder if there is some way to identify it. It appears to be generic.