No power whatsoever

[kbane]

Hi,

Last Saturday I came back from the store and tried to power on my machine. Nothing, no fan, no beeps, nothing.

So, I thought it might be the power supply because it was a generic 350.

I purchased a new power supply, and the machine still does nothing. However when I turned the power off with the switch on the power supply, I heard the current go out of it. So the power supply might not have been the problem (or the only problem).

Here are my specs, does anyone have any ideas how I can figure out what the problem is?

POWER SUPPLY ANTEC TRUE430 ATX RTL

MB nFORCE3-250 EP-8KDA3+ EPOX RTL

CPU AMD 64 |3200+ ATHLON 64 512KRTL

DDRAM 256MB|32X64 PC3200B 4TC3

CASE ASPIRE| XDREAMER II ATX BLK

VGA EVGA|GF 6800 128MB DDR R

HD 80GB|SAMSUNG 8MB 72R

SOUND BLASTER|AUDIGY ES

Thanks for any help!

Kevin

 

[kbane]

I just unplugged the hard drive and cd rom, tried again nothing.

Took out the Geforce 6800, tried again and nothing.

Took out the Soundblaster, tried again and nothing.

The motherboard was purchased just a couple of months ago along with the CPU. I'm guessing it has to be one of those at this point but I'm just not sure I'm testing this correctly.

Anyone have any thoughts?

Thanks,

Kevin

 

[Paperlantern]

reseat the CPU, what id do next, if that doesnt help bring it up, try the cpu in another board, or another cpu in your board, that should eliminate, or pinpoint it as the processor, if it ends up NOT being the processor, your probably looking at a board. did you try ANOTHER video card, known working? let us know

 

[Android8675]

sounds like the computer should power on with or without the video card. I've worked on a couple systems that recently exhibited weird power on behavior. turning the PSU on one system and the computer would turn on, but not post. Another system wouldn't do anything.

I reset the CMOS on both systems (Short out the jumper for a moment, should be listed in your mobo manual), then I pressed and held down the power button for 4-10 seconds (how you force the mobo to shutdown, also seems to reset something).

Both systems after "resetting" would power on and function normally.

Sure you've done this already, but if not try it.

Any status LEDs on your mobo that indicates it's getting power? If you already got a new power supply no reason to doubt that, could be the motherboard itself if it "just stopped working one day".

Good luck,
A.

 

[kuljc]

if you wanna test if the psu will turn on... lookup how to turn on the psu w/o connecting to a computer.

I've seen it several times... and all you have to remember is to hook it up to a fan or something while doing it.

 

[mechBgon]

Easy thing first: if your case has any front USB ports, unplug them from the motherboard and see if that makes a difference. I recollect back to my 8RDA+ which had a 5-volt pin in its auxiliary USB header in a position where most boards (and case wiring) would have a ground pin. 5-volt shorted to ground is a sure way to discourage your PSU from running, as I found out

Other than that... I can't remember the previous train of events, but as a last test, try this:

1) take the board out of the case (if it isn't already)

2) take off every single item as if you were going to send it in for RMA. No CPU, no fans, no case cables, no video, no keyboard, no cards, no memory, no nothing. Bare board.

3) plug the PSU's main ATX cable and ATX12V cable into the bare board.

4) try to turn on the PSU by connecting the mobo's ATX Power Button pins momentarily with a piece of metal. The pins are located here (note the missing pin on that header set, in case EPoX has depicted it upside down in the manual versus reality... happens sometimes).

5) If the PSU doesn't run its fans, then the board is dead for sure.

 

[kbanework]

Thanks everyone. Unfortunately I won't get a chance to try all of this until much later this evening.

Paperlantern: The only other video card I have is a GeForce 3 from like the end of 2000. I could try that in there but have not yet. I definitely do not have another CPU or board that I could try, this is my first AMD machine.

Android8675: When you say 'held down the power button for 4-10 seconds' do you mean on the case? I had no idea that reset anything, thanks for the tip.

Kuljc: I'll try and look that up today. I bought that Antec fan so I'm sure I can find something. I thought the power supply wouldn't turn on without it being plugged into something that will cause it to fully send electricity through. I'll try that with the fan tonight, but from what I heard last night I truly believe the PSU is ok.

mechBgon: Yes, it does have front USB ports although I thought I left them unplugged. I'l have to check.

One more piece of info, I had an ASROCK motherboard and Intel 3.2 in this same case and was having problems where I could not unzip large files nor do anything that took extensive calculations such as play Doom3. It would always crash, and for example when I downloaded the beta of World Of Warcraft which was about 2 gigs or so I could not unarchive the files while 100,000 other people did not have this problem. I sent the Intel chip back, got a new one, and bent the pins on it. I got frustrated so I thought I'd give AMD a shot, which was working perfectly and running very fast until this happened.

Does any of that point to the case maybe? When I read it again it sounds like bad coincidence, but the cost of this computer is really starting to get to the point that I should have just purchased a premade one so I figure too much information at this point can't hurt anything.

Thanks everyone for all of the input. When I finallly get home from work this evening I will be trying all of your suggestions and posting what happens.

Kevin

 

[mechBgon]

My speculations in a nutshell: cheap PSU goes *POOF*, takes mobo with it in the process. Sort of a homocide-suicide thing.

 

[kbanework]

Damn that PSU and it's evil ways.

Tonight I'll find out at least that much for sure and hopefully a lot more. I'll plug the old PSU into a fan and power it on, see what happens. Testing results will follow here.

Kevin

 

[kbane]

Sorry for the delay in replying, went to the back doc Friday evening and didn't get to do much of anything yesterday.

Just took the mobo out, still has the cpu in it, pluged in the two main cords and then touched the screw driver to those pings, nothing happened.

Is there any way to know if the chip is bad too or do I have to wait and replace the mobo first?

Thanks again everyone,

Kevin

 

[mechBgon]

I haven't heard of a way to test an A64 out of the mobo, other than putting it into a known-working system to see if it runs. Anyone else?

 

[kbanework]

Just got the RMA number for the Mobo, I will return it and then post the progress here. Do you think it's worth ordering a new case too? Is it more likely that the PSU died on its own, or that the case shorted something out?

Thanks,

Kevin

 

[Fern]

Hi Kevin,

Not trying to be a mod or anything. But looks like your have two accounts you are posting from. AFAIK, that's verboten and will land you in hot water with the mods. Might wanna kill off one of those b4 they get you.

 

[kbanework]

A mod would post it so everyone learns a lesson, a helpful user would send a PM. So while I appreciate you pointing it out, and I'll get my home account at work so I only use one, please don't start your message with not trying to be a mod as that's EXACTLY what you're doing. Especially when that's all you have to contribute to a thread.

 

[Fern]

Nah, if I was trying to be a mod I would've posted it in Forum Issues, which would likely have gotten you in trouble (warning, vacation etc.)

 

[kbane]

This is all extremely useful information, thanks.