Motherboard done for?

[NomarFachix]

When I turned my PC on this morning, the motherboard beeps were.. different. One of them seemed to lag and it just didn't match what I'm used to hearing when I fire it up. Oh well, I thought.

Was installing a program when the system froze. Wouldn't respond, ctrl+alt+del did nothing. Left it for an hour, didn't respond, so I shut it down.

On reboot, there were no beeps from the motherboard. Everything powered up, all fans were spinning, but nothing would boot.

Decided to piece it apart. Removed the battery from the mobo to see if this would reset anything, to no avail. Tried removing a stick of ram.. voila! Got my mobo beeps, system booted up fine and Windows Restore fired up (as the system was shut down improperly.. whatever).

Windows Restore finishes, the computer reboots (with mobo beeps and everything), but.. there is no picture. Monitor is blank.

Restarted the computer again, this time there were no beeps from the mobo at all. No load.

Tried fiddling with other pieces (removed ram, other parts, no dice). It is sitting at a standstill, nothing I do can get the mobo beeps or a boot from the PC.

Does this sound like a motherboard problem? If so, how long of warranties do they usually dole out to the shleps that buy them?

EDIT: Another piece of info.. when I flip the power switch back on my computer when I'm done fiddling inside of it and hit the power button, there is about a 5 second delay between the pressing of the power button and the power actually kicking in. Not sure if this is a help, but there you have it.

 

[ilisidi]

did you try switching ram to the other slot? it could be motherboard, or power related, or ram related (although I'd expect beeps if this).

 

[NomarFachix]

did you try switching ram to the other slot? it could be motherboard, or power related, or ram related (although I'd expect beeps if this).

I did. After taking out the 'bad' RAM and it booted successfully, I tried a boot with the bad RAM in and good RAM out, and then with the bad RAM in the good slot. No dice. No boot without both RAM, and now no boot with only the good RAM, either.

 

[ilisidi]

I'd say...possibly either the motherboard or your PSU. I'd test the pc with a different PSU and see what happens (with the 'good' stick of RAM where the cpu actually booted).

 

[NomarFachix]

I don't have another psu.. this was my first build

 

[Ketchup]

Are you familiar with the beep codes for your BIOS? The different beep you heard may have been a clue as to what it wrong.

 

[NomarFachix]

No clue

 

[Ketchup]

Maybe this will help:

1 short DRAM refresh failure
2 short Parity circuit failure
3 short Base 64K RAM failure
4 short System timer failure
5 short Process failure
6 short Keyboard controller Gate A20 error
7 short Virtual mode exception error
8 short Display memory Read/Write test failure
9 short ROM BIOS checksum failure
10 short CMOS shutdown Read/Write error
11 short Cache Memory error
1 long, 3 short Conventional/Extended memory failure
1 long, 8 short Display/Retrace test failed

from http://www.computerhope.com/beep.htm

 

[ilisidi]

could you pick up a cheap psu to just test with (and then return)? might be worth doing as a troubleshooting option, to either rule it out or not.

 

[mfenn]

I agree that this sounds like a mobo or PSU problem. I'm leaning towards mobo though.

What I would recommend is taking the mobo (w/ CPU and RAM) out of the case and sitting it on non-conductive surface like a piece of cardboard. Take the PSU out as well and hook the mobo up (no drives, GPU, etc. necessary). You can then attempt to power it on by shorting the power button pins with a screwdriver or key. If it posts, then you know that you have some sort of grounding problem in the case.

If it doesn't, I'd recommend going out and buying a cheap PSU to rule that part out and it's good to have a spare around anyway.

If none of that works, it is time to RMA the mobo. Your board has a 3 year warranty so it should be covered.

 

[bononos]

I did. After taking out the 'bad' RAM and it booted successfully, I tried a boot with the bad RAM in and good RAM out, and then with the bad RAM in the good slot. No dice. No boot without both RAM, and now no boot with only the good RAM, either.

Did you make sure all the cables were seated properly?
The fact that it booted after some fiddling around makes me think that something might've been loose.

 

[NomarFachix]

Something was definitely loose.. which is weird, because I disconnected and reconnected everything before making the thread.. meh

Took everything out and booted up outside of the case, and then put it all back together and it works like a charm. Strange happenings, for sure!

Huge thanks to mfenn for his (expectedly) fantastic assistance with this!