Dead system...

[MrTufty]

Thought I'd pick the collective TechIMO brain here a bit, in my spare time I do a bit of PC repair stuff for friends and family - but I wouldn't regard myself as an expert, hence I don't feel a bit embarrassed about posting here

Anyway, my current problem is with a system I built a few months back for a friend of the family. Quite cool, based around an MSI board and an AthlonXP 2000+, w/512MB of lovely fast DDR :P

But, since yesterday, the system is refusing to boot. Apart from a few teething problems at the beginning, it has worked perfectly, and now it just seems to be dead. I haven't had chance to look at it myself yet, I thought it would help to go in prepared.

When the system is powered on, the monitor light comes on green, then switches to amber and stays that way. I've had mine do the same, and usually it's worked after being left for a while and then being turned on again. But the system gets no further - no POST beep, no nothing.

On the advice I've been given so far, I expect it to be either a card has come loose, or the CPU has blown - we're currently experiencing a serious heatwave in my part of the UK, and I know from experience that the guy keeps his computer in a room which gets very hot at times. However, the board does have CPU overheating protection which I would have thought would prevent (or at least reduce) the chance of the CPU blowing that way.

Does anyone have any other ideas what could be causing the problem? It's all under warranty still, but obviously I'd prefer not to have to be replacing parts if I can possibly avoid it.

Thanks in advance for your incredibly useful advice

[cracked]

is the power supply fan coming on when you turn it on? if not then the psu is probably the problem.

drew

[MrTufty]

Didn't think of asking the guy that... he didn't mention the PSU fan not coming on, but he's pretty much at a basic level of knowledge, so he probably wouldn't have thought about that in any case...

[MDS]

First thought without knowing anymore about the computer would be the PSU is bad but also check to see it the fans fire up upon trying to boot. Make sure the HS/fan is running as soon as you hit the power button if the fan died the mobo may not boot if it doesn't recieve a rpm reading from the hs/fan.

[sharder8]

Also check the video card.

And remove the modem.

I've seen the same symptoms with video card going kaput or the modem getting fried by a power surge through the tele line.

If either of these cards go out, it can prevent the computer from booting, especially if it has on-board video.

Harder

[MrTufty]

Right, after initial diagnosis, the PSU fan is coming on, but the hard drive doesn't appear to be powering up - the HD access light apparently comes on for about 10 seconds immediately after power on, but gets no further. Any more suggestions on what I should check for?

[MDS]

does the hs/fan spin? and are there any beeps?

[MrTufty]

No beeps, and as to the other point, no idea - I'm booked in to go and take a look at the weekend, so hopefully I should be able to decipher the problem a little more then.

[Redwolf]

Okay, time to do a 'strip'. Here's what you need to do.

First, go to http://www.knoppix.org/ and get KNOPPIX (you'll need a CD burner).

Now, get ahold of his machine. Unplug everything peice by peice. If it helps, use masking tape to write down where everything goes. Take out the cards too. Leave the RAM and the processor. Now plug in the following connections:

PSU->Mobo
Mobo Secondary IDE->Master CD drive (HINT:Look at jumper on CD drive(s)
PSU->That CD Drive
Video Card->Mobo (you'll need it.)

Plug in the mouse, keyboard, monitor, and power. Use a PS/2 mouse or a USB->PS/2 connector.

Turn on the machine, and put in the KNOPPIX CD. The CD should load. If not, then it's a problem with either:
The Processor
The Motherboard (Mobo)
The Graphics Card (If you have an extra that is KNOWN to work, try using that in the machine)
The RAM (ditto)


If it boots, shut down the machine (press the orange power button).

Now add back parts one by one. It will take a while, but you will see what is wrong. The order doesn't really matter. However, when the hard drive is added back, you can take out the CD.

[MrTufty]

Thanks Redwolf, I'll give that a try this weekend. As this is a machine I built myself, I shouldn't need to write down the connections, thank god! :P Let's hope I can report back successfully soon.