[wplug] diagnosing hardware - machine no longer working ?

R.E.Coutch robert.coutch at verizon.net
Mon Apr 30 01:06:54 EDT 2007


It's been my experience that most system failures are related to a failed 
power supply or failed power transistors on the mother board.

It also seems to be most prevalent in systems where dust build up has blocked 
heat dissipation.

Geforce 2 MX video cards with no heat sink or fans also are a common culprit.

Most sysems I have encountered require a working CPU to access BIOS and most 
of them also require at least some minimal about of memory to be installed.

I would try swapping the power supply if you can to eliminate that 
possibility.

Also follow the advice about removing peripherals.

I'm real sick right now so I hope that made sense and I'm not spouting 
gibberish.

-Bob

On Sunday 29 April 2007 23:57, Larry Daberko wrote:
> I've had one or two systems that wouldn't boot up after a long downtime.
>
> Zach wrote:
> > One thing I did notice that seems odd is that the
> > DVD-ROM drive has power and I can eject the tray however neither the
> > CDRW drive appears to have power (no light comes on and I can't eject
> > the tray) nor does the FDD seem to have power (I recall the light
> > coming on in the past during bootup).
>
> What I would do is:
> Disconnect the drives from the mainboard and possibly pull out any cards
> plugged in.  If the system still doesn't display anything on the
> monitor, swap the video card.
> If unplugging things fixes the issue, plug each card and drive back in,
> one by one, and test.  I've seen a bad CD or hard drive keeping a system
> from booting up due to a short (or bad signal?)
>
> > card i can and see if that makes a difference? Or should I buy the
> > cheapest ATX case I can with a similar motherboard and CPU and then
> > swap in components one by one?i
>
> Do the troubleshooting steps first before spending money on a new
> case/board unless you needed an excuse :-)
>
> > If the CPU or RAM died would the BIOS still work and give me messages
> > assuming the video card is fine? Maybe the whole mother board was
> > somehow damaged? Everything looks fine to my eye, I checked that each
>
> It's possible that CPU or RAM issues may kill the system, or cause it
> beep on bootup.
>
> LBD
> _______________________________________________
> wplug mailing list
> wplug at wplug.org
> http://www.wplug.org/mailman/listinfo/wplug


More information about the wplug mailing list