Two questions on a PC that stopped booting

[Craig234]

PC: old. K7S5A, Athlon 2200+, Win XP.

Symptoms: Powers up, disks kept active. No video signal even from bios, no motherboard beeps like normal.

1. Can I conclude a bad MB? No other component seems consistent with symptoms.

2. How can I replace MB and CPU if so and use current install of OS, not new install, since I have years of installed software I want to keep not have to redo?

 

[The Merg]

Good chance the motherboard could be done. Have you tried removing the CPU and memory to see if you get the motherboard tones when turning it on?

If you do end up replacing it, you'll be able to keep the rest of your setup as long as the parts you currently have are still compatible with your new board (e.g. IDE vs. SATA HDD, AGP vs. PCI-E video card, etc.). When you boot up your system for the first time, the computer will recognize the new hardware and should install the appropriate drivers.

- Merg

 

[Craig234]

Good chance the motherboard could be done. Have you tried removing the CPU and memory to see if you get the motherboard tones when turning it on?

If you do end up replacing it, you'll be able to keep the rest of your setup as long as the parts you currently have are still compatible with your new board (e.g. IDE vs. SATA HDD, AGP vs. PCI-E video card, etc.). When you boot up your system for the first time, the computer will recognize the new hardware and should install the appropriate drivers.

- Merg

Thanks, I was interested in upgrading years ago but was told you can't replace the MB. that's good news.

Unfortunately the graphics card AGP went bad a few weeks ago and I blew $120 on a new on to keep the system running, and now this, where it makes sense to just move to a more modern setup and lose the AGP card, the DDR RAM, etc., instead of buying yet another ancient and slow motherboard just to keep those components (right? I guess I might shop used, but odnt remember seeing such old stuff).

I'm not used to doing this stuff for a long time, so I haven't tried much, especially not removing the CPU.

It's ridiculously expensive to buy service for this ($170 at Best Buy or Fry's just to diagnose and labor for a new MB/CPU, no setup), so that doesn't sound good.

I'm starting to ponder grabbing an inexpensive PC and putting the hard drive and a graphics card/sounds card in it.

 

[brandonwh64]

MSI K9N6PGM2-V Motherboard & AMD Athlon II X2 215 Dual Core Processor Bundle

http://www.tigerdirect.com/applicati...307&CatId=2417

Corsair Dual Channel TWINX 4096MB PC6400 DDR2 800MHz Memory (2 x 2048MB)

http://www.tigerdirect.com/applicati...139&CatId=3412

ASUS GeForce 9600 GT Video Card - 512MB GDDR3, PCI Express 2.0, Dual DVI, HDTV

http://www.tigerdirect.com/applicati...74434&CatId=28

just under 300$ (270$ ish and tigers over 100 free shipping)

 

[pcgeek11]

MSI K9N6PGM2-V Motherboard & AMD Athlon II X2 215 Dual Core Processor Bundle

http://www.tigerdirect.com/applicati...307&CatId=2417

Corsair Dual Channel TWINX 4096MB PC6400 DDR2 800MHz Memory (2 x 2048MB)

http://www.tigerdirect.com/applicati...139&CatId=3412

ASUS GeForce 9600 GT Video Card - 512MB GDDR3, PCI Express 2.0, Dual DVI, HDTV

http://www.tigerdirect.com/applicati...74434&CatId=28

just under 300$ (270$ ish and tigers over 100 free shipping)

Good luck getting this to just bootup with the old installation of Windows XP. It would be quite a leap in technology from that old hardware to the new. I don't have a lot of faith that it will just work.
Make sure you backup your years of data first; just for safety.

pcgeek11

 

[dfuze]

Your symptoms sound identical to when I had a motherboard die two years ago.

I agree with pcgeek11, your system will probably not run very well just tossing your old parts in w/ the new (does look like a nice upgrade though). I've read if you uninstall motherboard and chipset drivers it can help with an attempted motherboard swap, but it said more often than not you will require a complete reinstall, which is what I would recommend anyway.