Need help - My PC won't post

[Slick5150]

My PC was running fine, until I went to the store, came back, and the power was on, but nothing would work. So, I shut it off, and try to power it back on, but it won't post. It powers on, the drives spin, but it doesn't try to boot.

The motherboard code just sits at FF, which according to the manual just means it's trying to boot.

I tried unplugging all of my devices, PCI cards, even the AGP card, but nothign changed it. Cleared the CMOS. Nothing

Any thoughts on what happened, and how I can go about fixing it?

Here's my computer:
EPOX 8RDA+ nforce2 motherboard
AMD Athlon XP 2500+
eVGA GeForce 6600GT
1gb PC3200 RAM
160gb Seagate IDE drive
300gb Maxtor SATA
300gb Seagate SATA (both SATA's hooked up via PCI controller card)

Thanks very much for any help.

 

[themusgrat]

Make sure that you leave the battery out and the jumper to clear, to completely clear the CMOS, and follow any instructions from the manufacturer. Try it with video, 1 stick of RAM (switch them out), only the boot drive, and no external audio. If you have an extra PSU on hand, try it.

 

[Slick5150]

Tried taking the battery out, no help there.

Though, if I power off the power supply, turn it back on then try to boot, the motherboard will display C1 (detecting the memory), but stick there and never post. If I power off and reboot, it will stick at FF again.

I've tried using only 1 RAM stick (tried both sticks seperately) and that didn't help.

Any other thoughts?

 

[deathwalker]

Most likely Power Supply.

 

[mechBgon]

Also, there was somewhat of a sudden-death trend with EPoX 8RDA+'s. Mine failed on a routine reboot. I fussed with it and got a couple more boots out of it, but after a while it was apparent that it had passed away into The Great ATX Case In The Sky. So I got an A7N8X Deluxe, which is still in use today in one of my sisters' rigs

 

[Slick5150]

Originally posted by: deathwalker
Most likely Power Supply.

I don't see how it could be the power supply. The computer powers on, the drives spin, etc..., it just won't do anything. Seems more like a motherboard issue to me, right?

 

[imported_nocturne]

Same thing happened to me last week. I ended up unplugging everything, plugging it back in, and everything worked fine.

 

[Smilin]

Originally posted by: Slick5150

Originally posted by: deathwalker
Most likely Power Supply.

I don't see how it could be the power supply. The computer powers on, the drives spin, etc..., it just won't do anything. Seems more like a motherboard issue to me, right?

Could be all of the above. Power sounds possible because you are getting two dissimilar results from consecutive posts. This sounds like components aren't getting enough juice to post properly.

A multimeter+resistor+paperclip are all you need to be sure. Google for how to test a PSU.

 

[deathwalker]

Your power supply does not have to be "dead" to be bad..you have multiple of rail voltages...they all need to be stable under all load conditions. Although it is possible the mobo went tits up also.

 

[Slowlearner]

Check for leaking caps - I had one do exactly this about a 15 months back and I sent it to Epox who repaired it

 

[Slick5150]

Originally posted by: Slowlearner
Check for leaking caps - I had one do exactly this about a 15 months back and I sent it to Epox who repaired it

Leaking caps? Can you explain what that means?

Thanks

 

[Slick5150]

We can rule out the power supply. I got ahold of another one and tried that, same thing happened (C1 code on first boot attempt, FF after that)

 

[Slowlearner]

Many major motherboard manufacturers (certainly Epox, MSI, Gigabyte) used defective capacitors - large cylinders with plastic sheathing in different colors - over time these capacitors oozed brownish stuff at the top or bulged ( ). Thats what happened to my board - as a result it would POST normally sometimes or not post at all - the code varied usually C8 or something never FF - luckily it was within the two year warranty period for retail boards and I was able to rma it to Epox at my expense. While I was expecting a new board as replacement, they sent the same board back after replacing the caps and it been working fine (the pc I am typing this on).

Before you replace anything, check all capacitors on the motherboard for bulging or leaking goo at the top.

For more info on this general problem google leaking caps