Hi,
The patients are an MSI K8N Neo Platinum (MS-7030 original version, S754 NF3) and an Antec 350W PSU (comes with SLK3700BQE).
Recently, the system started randomly powering down -- no hang, no freeze, just complete shut-down. Following such a shut-down, you'd have to disconnect the power-cord, wait a few minutes, and then maybe, just maybe, it would power up again. Normally it would power up after 10-20 tries.
The situation has escalated. The system is now unable to boot an OS, even DOS of a floppy -- it just powers down in the middle of it. Even in the BIOS screens, it will just power down. If you actually get "Save and Exit" from the BIOS, it seldom reboots after exit.
I've upgraded the BIOS -- same situation.
I've tried clearing CMOS more often than I care to count, even left it without power, without CMOS battery, with jumper on clear for 16 hours -- same behaviour.
In all of this, I just now noticed that the plastic around 3 of the pins on the PSU's 20-pin main power connector look brown, as if they've been burnt.
Referring to this diagram, the burnt ones appear to be pins 1,2, and 11, all of which carry the 3.3V signal.
Link to image: power connector pin-out
If I'm not mistaken, the 3.3V lines feed the cpu, which would be consistent with the "cpu initialization errors" I've been seeing on failed boots.
With all that in mind, which do you think is the case?
1) the psu is pooched
2) the motherboard is fried
3) both psu and motherboard are questionable
Also, is there any chance hte cpu would have been damaged? All parts are still under warranty and I can think of no event (power outage/surge), etc that could have caused this.
The computer belongs to a friend who pretty much surfs, does Office, and mail.
Thoughts?
The patients are an MSI K8N Neo Platinum (MS-7030 original version, S754 NF3) and an Antec 350W PSU (comes with SLK3700BQE).
Recently, the system started randomly powering down -- no hang, no freeze, just complete shut-down. Following such a shut-down, you'd have to disconnect the power-cord, wait a few minutes, and then maybe, just maybe, it would power up again. Normally it would power up after 10-20 tries.
The situation has escalated. The system is now unable to boot an OS, even DOS of a floppy -- it just powers down in the middle of it. Even in the BIOS screens, it will just power down. If you actually get "Save and Exit" from the BIOS, it seldom reboots after exit.
I've upgraded the BIOS -- same situation.
I've tried clearing CMOS more often than I care to count, even left it without power, without CMOS battery, with jumper on clear for 16 hours -- same behaviour.
In all of this, I just now noticed that the plastic around 3 of the pins on the PSU's 20-pin main power connector look brown, as if they've been burnt.
Referring to this diagram, the burnt ones appear to be pins 1,2, and 11, all of which carry the 3.3V signal.
Link to image: power connector pin-out
If I'm not mistaken, the 3.3V lines feed the cpu, which would be consistent with the "cpu initialization errors" I've been seeing on failed boots.
With all that in mind, which do you think is the case?
1) the psu is pooched
2) the motherboard is fried
3) both psu and motherboard are questionable
Also, is there any chance hte cpu would have been damaged? All parts are still under warranty and I can think of no event (power outage/surge), etc that could have caused this.
The computer belongs to a friend who pretty much surfs, does Office, and mail.
Thoughts?
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