Won't boot

[tomcatelec]

I think my computer booted it's last boot and I think it's the motherboard but I'm looking for opinions.

I push the power button and all the fans inside the case and CPU spin but my hard drive light is on solid, my monitor doesn't even turn on and I hear a faint ticking in the DVD/RW drive.

The computer is an Asrock dual SATA II MB with and AMD 4000+, 1GB RAM, 6600GT video.

Does this sound like the MB to anyone else? I sold some old parts in a garage sale so now I can't even swap parts. The only thing I could do is disconnect the DVD drive which didn't do anything.

 

[robisbell]

could be the PSU especially if the optical drive is making ticking sound, usually that means it's not getting enough power to do a proper boot spin-up.

 

[DannJonnes]

When you say the motherboard doesn't even turn on do you mean that you dont hear that "beep" post message? To me, I am having a similar problem, it sounds like a PSU problem. It seems that PSU seems to fail much more often than any other components especially Mobos.

 

[tomcatelec]

No beep from the motherboard, monitor doesn't come on and the hard drive light is on steady. I have no visual or audio evidence that the computer is even beginning to boot.

I picked out new parts to build my next computer last night. I'll start by ordering a new PS first (and new video card) and try it in my old computer. If that doesn't do it then I'll start picking up the rest of the parts I need for the new system.

Thanks

 

[MagnusTheBrewer]

Dust, PSU, GPU, Ram, HDD are a few of the possible culprits. If you just want to spend money on new shiny goodies, spend away. If you want to learn troubleshooting, take the system back to basics. MB outside the case, one stick of ram, GPU and try for BIOS. That'll be $20, thank you.

 

[tomcatelec]

I wanted a new case and video card anyway so I just ordered an XFX 9600GT XXX, NZXT case and Corsair 650W PS.

I'll stick the PS in the old system then do a little more troubleshooting. If that doesn't do the job then I'll go ahead and order a new MB, Q6600 and 4GB of RAM and build a new system.

I've built only AMD systems for the last 10 years and I'm making the jump to Intel so I'm not too familiar with the Intel boards yet. I'll jump on the MB forum to get some ideas.

 

[tomcatelec]

I installed the new power supply tonight and the no post or boot condition did not change. I also tested the RAM by trying to boot with one stick at a time and that didn't help.

I have the rest of my new parts on order for a new system. I built my last system because the previous one kept rebooting on it's own and progressively got worse. I thought it was a heat issue so I changed fans and added fans with no luck. I ended up changing every piece of hardware in that machine including the HD, memory, MB right down to the optical drives and PS. The only thing that wasn't changed was the case and so help me it was the friggin reset button on the case that was intermittently failing!! I unplugged it from the MB and never had the problem again. That was the most frustrating rebuild ever!