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Question Need help troubleshooting my son's computer

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Blackhawk3339

Junior Member
Yesterday my youngest tried to start his computer and it didn't work. It spun up the fans, but that was it. We did a hard reboot and it started fine. Today I tried to start it up, and got the same result as yesterday - fans spun up, the USB ports got power (keyboard lit up), but that's all. No number of reboots would start it.

~I opened it up and checked connections, reseating everything.
~I looked for damaged caps, but they're all encased so I can't tell. Everything else seemed intact.
~I removed all of the RAM except for one stick. In the first slot I get the same result. In any other slot the computer doesn't respond at all.
~I removed all peripherals except for the monitor.
~I swapped in a different video card.
~I switched to a different power supply.

The only difference that any of it made was that with the original power supply the CPU fan would spin up very fast for a split second then slow to normal. With the swapped in power supply it would just start at normal speed. Neither power supply resulted in a boot.

The motherboard is a nine or ten year old MSI Big Bang x58, and I'm the second owner. The original owner said that he occasionally had issues getting it to boot, and that was five years ago.

Is it dead, or is there anything else I can try?
 
Off hand I will say the board is dead, or of if you can get it boot it may not be worthwhile as may be troublesome to start the system.

Perhaps it is time for a new system?
 
I wish. A new system isn't an option. I used to keep him current by upgrading mine and giving him hand-me-downs. I haven't been able to save for upgrades in several years.
 
Blackhawk3339 said:
I wish. A new system isn't an option. I used to keep him current by upgrading mine and giving him hand-me-downs. I haven't been able to save for upgrades in several years.
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Have you consider a refurbished system? Newegg has a lot of them with fairly decent specs for what they are selling for. I would avoid third party sellers for the most part, but if you look carefully you can find something at least midrange without spending a whole lot of money.
 
whm1974 said:
Have you consider a refurbished system? Newegg has a lot of them with fairly decent specs for what they are selling for. I would avoid third party sellers for the most part, but if you look carefully you can find something at least midrange without spending a whole lot of money.
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Yeah, and it's good advice, just not an option. My income has dropped while my expenses have skyrocketed in the past few years. I'm afraid that, if his system is dead, that's it for the foreseeable future. That's why I'm trying to find some way of reviving it.
 
Blackhawk3339 said:
Yeah, and it's good advice, just not an option. My income has dropped while my expenses have skyrocketed in the past few years. I'm afraid that, if his system is dead, that's it for the foreseeable future. That's why I'm trying to find some way of reviving it.
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Hopefully your situation improves this year, but I can't blame you for wanting to revive your son's computer.

Buying Refurbished is at least an option in the future at least.
 
VirtualLarry said:
Talk to @Kaido about his $2K every 2 plan, to save for upgrades.

And yes, if your son needs a working PC, a refurbished box is a possible answer..
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Larry, do you still have systems in storage that you want/need to find a home for? Granted most of them are low end older computers, but if the OP son does need a working PC, it will at get the kid by until the OP can afford a proper Replacement.
 
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