No boot: Fans and CD drive start, but no LEDs or DVD drive

[joshdoe]

Hello. Thank you first for any help. Yesterday when I shut my computer down, it was working fine. Tonight I tried to boot it up, and I got nothing, no boot!

So the symptoms:
- No display (monitor doesn't even go green->amber, nothing at all)
- CPU and PSU fans start
- CD drive is ejectable
- DVD drive is NOT ejectable
- Case LEDs do NOT light
- LED on wireless NIC do light

I thought possibly that the CD drive ran off 5V and the DVD 12V, so maybe the 12V rail was dead. But I checked, and the 12V and 5V both work fine, within tolerances.

What could be the problem? It seems like it could possibly be a power supply issue, but the 5V and 12V rails appear fine. Load shouldn't be a problem, though I even tried disconnecting power to all the drives (1HDD,1CD,1DVD).

Thanks for any suggestions!

 

[Crucial]

Dead psu or motherboard would be my first guesses. I would disconnect everything and try booting it with only the memory, cpu, and video card inserted. These are the same symptoms I would get when the capacitors would blow on a bunch of Epox 8RGA+ boards we used.

 

[joshdoe]

Crucial:
I tried only with the RAM, CPU and video, but still no go. I then removed everything inc battery, except the CPU, and I got nothing, not so much as a complaining beep. I guess you're right, dead motherboard. Now if only it was still under warranty . . .

Unless, someone happens to have other suggestions?

 

[mechBgon]

When you disconnected the drives, did you disconnect the data cables as well as the power cables? If not, try that next.

 

[joshdoe]

mechBgon:
I tried disconnecting data cables and power supply cables. I've since realized that the DVD drive wasn't ejecting because it was connected to the mobo, I guess some sort of override. The CD IDE cable wasn't connected, so it could open freely. As soon as I unplugged the IDE cable from the DVD drive, the DVD drive would open fine.

I bought the Biostar N4SLI-A9 mobo from Newegg back in November. I trust that Newegg will honor their warranty.