troubleshooting steps to determine if motherboard is dead

[10101a]

My system was working for many months, but the other day when I came to work this (NT 4) computer was 'frozen' and I had to switch off the computer, i.e. couldn't reboot. Now, the system will not POST. All fans (case, CPU cooler, video card) are working, and case lights (power and hard drive) remain lit. I have swapped in/out the memory, CPU, and videocard with known good components. I have also removed the NIC and sound card, to further isolate this. Still no POST. Is there another obvious troubleshooting step that I am missing? Or one that will definitivly finger the motherboard? System specs below, if this helps.

Thank you in advance for your help!

-Dennis


System (all components about 8 months old)

• 
  Asus A7V motherboard w/ latest (1007? BIOS)
  Athlon Tbird 900 w/ cooler
  Maxtor ATA 100 40Gb drive
  Asus V7100 video card
  256Mb PC133 DRAM
  Win NT 4 w/sp4
  2 surge devices in line (1 is UPS)

(I don't think anything else matters)

 

[F3user]

I would think at this point it is the MB also. Do you have another MB you can put these parts on to see if they all work together? If another MB wouldn't work with your parts (in the same case)then I would look at the Power Supply. You didn't mention trying another HD, try a spare drive with a good os on it.

 

[Padriac]

Can I bounce in here too, I have an Abit be6-II rev 2 that is doing the exact same thing. When powered up everything sounds like its running but all of the heatsinks feel dead cold. Sounds good, words bad. This stuff all works fine in other systems. AHHHHHHhhhhhhhhhh,.... If I do have to RMA it does anyone now to go about doing that? Abit's site is less than helpful.

If you don't want me jumping in your thread LMK and I'll edit my post. Goodluck getting it fixed by the way.

 

[10101a]

F3user:

Thanks for your assistance.

I don't think it is the power supply, because all those fans are working. There is also an LED on this particular motherboard (near the AGP slot) that lights up.

I do have another motherboard, but did not want to disembowel another working machine to that extent if I don't have to. I will if I must. Even if the HD was bad, would't the system still POST?

I actually have another system that has nearly identical parts (but uses Win98), so if I have to I can swap just about anything. But I had hoped I could isolate the motherboard as the culprit without spending all of that additional time.

-Dennis

 

[copyfixer]

Whoa!! Before you do anything else.
1. Hit the reset sw/jumper to your motherboard cmos bios or pop out the backup battery.
2. Disconnect all components other than Ram, video, and keyboard and see if you can get into bios.
3. If you can't get this far, I would suspect bad mb.
Good luck