Sis's old Socket A system won't boot

[rahzel]

first of all, the specs are (i did not build this for her):
amd xp1800
gigabyte ga-7vrx
2x256 pc2100
ati 7000 agp videocard
cheapo 350w psu

my sister leaves her computer on all the time and she came back to use it but it was off. she tried turning it back on and it did, but theres no video signal. she said she smelt something funny inside the case.

i narrowed it down to the motherboard or the CPU (leaning towards the CPU). i don't think its the psu because it does turn on. i dont think its the HDD because even if it was toast, there should still be a video signal. i tried swapping the videocard with one i had lying around and still no picture. then i tried booting up with 1 stick of ram (and i tried both sticks).

the reason im thinking its the cpu is because she NEVER cleans her case, so her hsf/case fans were full of dust, and she doesnt reapply thermal compound and her computer is like around 7+ years old.

also, i found the box for the motherboard, but i cant find the manual for it. i was trying to find out how to clear the cmos. theres is a installation guide showing where the cmos jumper is, but unlike systems ive worked with before, there is no jumper, just the pins. i dont think this is the problem because my sister would never fiddle around inside the case because shes not too computer literate.

also worth noting, there are no beeps or anything, but there is a frequent ticking sound (every few seconds) and the HDD led on the case lights up whenever this happens.

any ideas? im probably gonna try to find a cheap socket a amd xp cpu on ebay unless someone thinks its something else.

 

[unhuman]

I don't reapply thermal compound either. I'm beting it's the mobo...

you'd be way better off upgrading her to an Athlon 64 for < $100. Of course, then you have the cost of reinstalling the OS. If you get a mobo with the same chipset, you won't need to do that.

 

[rahzel]

my sister only uses her computer for school work and going on MSN. her system is sufficient for what she does.

i asked this question on another forum and someone told me to look at the motherboards capacitors; 2 of them are leaning quite a bit, so im pretty sure the capacitors are blown.

im aware that if i can find her a mb with the same chipset that i wont need to reinstall the os, and luckily, i found someone selling a brand new MSI socket a via kt motherboard that should work for only 20 bucks.

another question... the motherboard i found is a kt266 but the motherboard thats in there now is a kt333; both use the via chipset drivers, so will i need to reinstall the OS?

 

[Captante]

The KT266 & the KT333 were virtually the same motherboard except for the KT333 having the ability to run the RAM at 333mhz with the FSB at 266mhz officially supported so you should be fine without a re-install. The only concern is that depending on what the exact problem with her old board was, its possible that the old install won't be stable due to large amounts of corrupted data, so be sure to do a backup of any critical stuff she has stored if/when you get the system running.

 

[rahzel]

hi,

thanks a lot guys.

 

[rahzel]

Update

hmm, very strange. first of all, my sister does not live here, she brought her system over and i tried it on my monitor, and it DID not work either. there were 2-3 capacitors that were definitely blown.
anyway, i replaced the motherboard at MY house and her computer worked. my sister came to pick it up and took it to her house and she said that theres no video signal again.
i did have to install all of her drivers again (chipset, video, sound etc), but i did so when it was hooked up to my monitor. my monitor is a 19" LCD DVI and her monitor is a 17" CRT viewsonic VGA. i set the monitor to 1024x768 (her monitors native res) so that it wouldnt be too high.

any ideas what could be wrong now?

again, the motherboard was the source of the original problem and it was working at my place, but not hers. ill be going over there tomorrow sometime to see whats up.

 

[rahzel]

heh, fixed the problem.

went over there thinking that she probably plugged her monitor into the VGA connection of the motherboard, rather than the one from the videocard.