Shipped working PC to brother - now won't boot

[davidmac27]

I shipped a working PC to my brother and it didn't work when he turned it on. We found that the heatsink/CPU (P4 2.4Ghz) had partially pulled out of the socket during shipping and some pins were bent. He carefully re-bent all the pins and fit the P4 back into the socket and clamped down the arm (he removed the P4 and inspected it a couple of times to make sure no pins were re-bending - all is fine - he says the pins look good as new).

But the PC still won't boot. All the fans come on when you turn on the PC. The hard drives spin up too. The problem is that the monitor light stays at yellow and doesn't go to green and it sounds like the PC is not booting Windows. He has re-seated the 3 memory sticks numerous times and has done the same with the AGP video card. There are no other cards in the system.

What could be causing this? I have sent him a CRIMM to test the 3 different memory cards to see if one is bad. If the video card was bad, would the PC be doing this? Can you think of any other things that would be causing this? In my experience with PCs, typically it is a memory problem (not seated correctly or problem with the memory) when the monitor light won't come on.

Here is the PC configuration:

Gigabyte GA-8PE667 Ulta (has a Dual BIOS feature)
P4-2.4Ghz CPU
768GB of Rambus PC-800 memory (3x256MB)
2 80GB Western Digital HDs in a RAID 0 configuration
GeForce MX-440 AGP video card

Thanks for your suggestions!!!

 

[helpmeout]

 

[helpmeout]

Oh well, hit enter again. Since you found the loose heat sink, and checked mem and agp, this may be a wasted question- but has he checked EVERYTHING? Cables- tight connections, MOBO (screwed down tight, not grounded). Try mem one stick at a time and see if it will boot. Borrow a known good video card and try it.

 

[BT7990]

Machine is not posting-get the post codes from the mobo maker to narrow the cause.

He carefully re-bent all the pins and fit the P4 back into the socket and clamped down the arm (he removed the P4 and inspected it a couple of times to make sure no pins were re-bending - all is fine - he says the pins look good as new).

Between the bent pins and repeated removal, check it in a known good machine..............

 

[davidmac27]

Sorry, not trying to be smart but what are post codes and how do I read them if the PC isn't powering up the video or making any beeps when I turn it on?

 

[DAPUNISHER]

Given the circumstances it's very likely the CPU is physically damaged. The other usual suspects are the ram and PSU so if you eliminate the ram, and given that the PSU worked great before shipping the CPU would be the prime suspect again.

 

[labgeek]

Originally posted by: davidmac27
Sorry, not trying to be smart but what are post codes and how do I read them if the PC isn't powering up the video or making any beeps when I turn it on?

POST = Power On Self Test

Every computer does a basic Am I OK? series of tests when it's first being started up. The memory counting (and testing) is part of the POST. BIOSes set a particular address to a value every time they change from one test to the next. By knowing the sequence, and where it stopped, you know where to look for the problem - CPU, video, memory, etc. If the motherboard doesn't have "diagnostic leds" you're going to need a POST reader. These can get expensive for good ones. At least they were a couple hundred $ last time I had to buy one (the switch from ISA to PCI). The reader (usually called a "POST card") will display a 2 digit hex number for the test being performed. The beeps you are referring to are also part of the POST but occur after several tests have been performed. Your board is failing before that point.

You have pulled all the boards short of the cpu and memory (including video). To see if it would at least give you the beep error code for no-video? AGP is often a culprit because of the tiny pads on the connector. Paste that I would tend to agree - motherboard, cpu or memory is at fault. Check cpu and memory in a known good machine, and from there I'd suspect motherboard itself if those check out ok.

Good luck.

 

[davidmac27]

All - thanks for all the good responses. Here is where we are so far:

I had my brother remove the mobo from the PC and re-attach it. He installed the 3 sticks of RAMBUS memory, the AGP card and the CPU. It still doesn't boot (no beeps, monitor doesn't come on, all fans work and the HDs spin up).

I have sent him a CRIMM (empty memory stick) to test the memory with since all memory sockets have to be populated since using RAMBUS.

If this doesn't work and we continue to not be able to find the problem, what do you think the chances of me collecting insurance from UPS are? I insured the shipment for $750. Do you have any idea if this includes PCs being shaken up during transit causing them not to work? Do they X-ray packages? Would that harm anything?

Thanks,

David

 

[Knightlife]

How many memory slots does that motherboard have? Is it using the old RAMBUS or the new RAMBUS that you don't have to use the RAM in pairs? If it's the older-type of RAMBUS, 3X256 is impossible because you need to install the RAM in pairs...even with a continuity RIMM, I believe that you still need pairs of memory, so you either do 2X256 with 2 CRIMMs in that setup or nothing.

 

[davidmac27]

I'm not sure if it is new or old. It is PC800 and there are 3 slots (3x256).

Thanks,

Davdi

 

[labgeek]

I recently shipped a digital audio workstation (about $3000 worth). It may have been the value of the shipment, but UPS was unwilling to insure it against damage only loss unless it is packaged "professionally". When asked what they meant by that - simple it had to be packaged by "The UPS Store". My packaging was better than the UPS store had done that was used to send it to me had done by far. So it went via FedEx instead.