Motherboard, power supply, or both dead Created 18 years ago2006-11-02 00:35:41 UTC by srry

My power supply recently decided to give up on me, while giving off a foul smell. So I did what anybody would, and ordered a new one. While I was waiting for it to arrive, I decided to transfer all my components into a new case I had bought for an upcoming build.

Today, my power supply came. I hooked everything up, and prepared to turn it on. I turned the power supply on, hit the front power button... and it didn't come on. At first, I thought it was just the connectors that went to the front switch, but after trying quite a few different configurations, I think I can rule that out.

So what's going on? Is the motherboard dead too? The only reason I'm inclined to think it's not is because the lights on my card reader are on. Power is getting to the USB headers, but the motherboard will not turn on. Is there any way to test whether it's dead or not?

:

There are ALOT of reasons why A computer wont boot, It can even be as simple as plugging something in wrong. Make sure you check ALL your plugs, sometimes it is hard to find where pin 1 is and you can plug it in backwards. If power is getting to your USB ports maybe the motherboard isn't dead. If I can only remember the Interupts of the Boot system, I can see what is after the USB and that might help isolate the problem. Also note I am not a computer crazy expert so I could be wrong.

i doubt its the power supply if your using a new one, it may sound tedious but check EVERY wire in your computer. in the process of transferring on the parts you may have accidentally forgotten to plug something back in

if it continues to not boot then listen for system beeps, these are Morse code like messages that can give an indication to the problem

If a ram chip is baarely loose, it wont boot. Give those a push,

Exos: I'm pretty damn sure everything is plugged in right, but I'll check again. Not EVERYTHING has to be plugged up right for the computer to start up, though. I could probably go withour everything but the RAM, and it would still turn on.

Crazylikeafox: What beeps? It doesn't turn on at all, except that the lights on the card reader light up. Pressing the power button does nothing, do I don't know how the motherboard could possibly emit any sound.

TheGrimReafer: I'll be sure to check that.

motherboards beep when something is wrong, for example 2 beeps mean corrupt RAM or whatever...if your motherboard doesn't beep it probably isn't getting any power...
is the board's LED lighting up when you turn your PC on?
Does the CPU fan spin up? (check your power leads)
does the power supply fan spin up? if it doesn't, your power supply's screwed.
is the motherboard 20 pin or 24 pin? if its 20, make sure you haven't accidentally used the leftover 4 pins for the CPU power socket, because iirc they fit in as well.

EDIT: reset the BIOS by popping out the battery for a few minutes, couldn't hurt.

Try connecting only the PSU with the Mobo - no case wires or anything. Then activate the power using a pencil or screwdriver or something by touching the 2 power-trigger thingies (the ones that the case power-on button go to (I really don't know the lingo)) and see if anything happens. If it lights up, it's not the mobo.

Try connecting only the PSU with the Mobo - no case wires or anything. Then activate the power using a pencil or screwdriver or something by touching the 2 power-trigger thingies (the ones that the case power-on button go to (I really don't know the lingo)) and see if anything happens. If it lights up, it's not the mobo.

What the hell?

Ugh.

You know the case's power button? It's wires connect somewhere on the motherboard.
The little pins that they connect to can be activated by touching both of them at once with any metal object (screwdriver ftw).

Connect ONLY the PSU and motherboard - nothing else - then try activating those little pins. If the PSU starts spinning, you win. If not, either the PSU or Mobo are b0rk.

TheGrimReafer: RAM sticks are fine.

penguinboy: I know my power supply isn't b0rked, because I just tested it last night. It runs fine. My motherboard has a 20 pin main connector and a 4 pin 12V connector. The new power suply I got has the same main power hookups as my old one, but the difference is that it says it complies with the new ATX12V V2.2 specification. I'm not sure what my old one was, or if this would make a difference.

I'll try resetting the BIOS, if nothing else works, but it'll be a pain to redo all my settings.

ZombieLoffe: I'll try that. I guess it's possible my power button could be screwed, but I would expect more from my expensive Thermaltake Shark case. :

Ohh Mobo stands for Mother Board! Never seen that used before, that is why I was like "WHat in the hell?!"

Stands? He's not talking about stands, he's talking about crossing two pins with a wire to complete a circuit that would otherwise have to be completed by a possibly faulty power button.

Stands? He's not talking about stands, he's talking about crossing two pins with a wire to complete a circuit that would otherwise have to be completed by a possibly faulty power button.

I think you misunderstood him.

MAKE SURE THE POWERSWITCH IN THE BACK OF THE POWER SUPPLY IS SWITCHED ON!

Pfft, dumbass.

j/j

Uh... I don't think so.

You know the case's power button? It's wires connect somewhere on the motherboard. The little pins that they connect to can be activated by touching both of them at once with any metal object (screwdriver ftw).

He's talking about the connector pins on the motherboard that need to be crossed to turn the power on. It's something like this:

Pin1 Pin2
| |
_/ <-- Wire to cross the connections (the power button does the exact same thing)

Connect ONLY the PSU and motherboard - nothing else - then try activating those little pins. If the PSU starts spinning, you win. If not, either the PSU or Mobo are b0rk.

He's saying to hook the power up ONLY to the motherboard, not any devices like the hard drives, video card, ect. Connect the power pins like I showed above, and hope it starts running.

The thing is, I just tried disconnecting everything except the motherboard from the PSU, and hitting the power button. It gave off a single short, slowly rising beep (like a car alarm), and the power was cut. For a very short time, there was power getting to the CPU fan, because it started spinning. Now I just have to figure out what it means.

Edit: Diagrams suck on TWHL. I can't have more than one space in a row.

Edit 2: I just crossed the wires manually, and got the same results as when I hit the power button.

While were bringing up issues with power...

Ever since I upgraded my motherboard and CPU last week my computer has been about as stable as napalm. When I turn the power on manually (flipping the power supplies switch in the back) all the lights will turn on for like 1 second and shut off... Then when I hit the power switch it will either:
A) Blink on for 2 secs, shut off, blink on for 2 more, off, repeat
B) Turn on for 10 seconds or so, start to boot, shut off half way through

It doesn't normally do this, only after being off for a while.. It did this today after being off a day.. And after doing option B about 10 times it just gradually kept turning on longer and longer and now... It is on for good (I hope)

Power supply came with teh case but its 450 watts and was okay - but I'de put all I have that its the problem, right?

Don't hijack my thread, kthnxbai.

But, really, how stable is napalm?

Stands? He's not talking about stands, he's talking about crossing two pins with a wire to complete a circuit that would otherwise have to be completed by a possibly faulty power button.

You did misunderstand Exos, Srry. He said that the term "mobo" means ("stands for") motherboard, he's not talking about (noun) stands.

Also, use the [ pre ] tags for diagrams.

As for your problem, I dunno :P. If it completes POST (the beeping), you can figure out what's wrong by some clever Google searching.

Perhaps the Case has some proritised pins you have to use for the case power button, that arent the same as the previous case. I dont know if you tried it yet, but just to rule certain things out, does it all work in the older case?

It DID work in the older case, but I don't know about now. I'll look into that more.

Zombie, here's a video of what happens when I do what you told me to (the sound is pretty wonky, but you should get the general idea.) As you can see, everything is unhooked from the power supply except for the motherboard.

Heh, wonky is an understatement. Did I see a SATA cable there (the red one)? Disconnect everything except the 20/24 pin ATX (this one) cable, if you hadn't. Can't really see properly in the video.

I'd say your Motherboard is b0rken.
Oh, by the way, tried resetting your BIOS settings using the CMOS jumpers?

You mean, even all the peripheral's cables should be disconnected from the motherboard? I thought you meant to just disconnect the PSU power cables from everything but the motherboard.

I also just cleared the CMOS. No luck there.

Edit: I get the same result when I disconnect all the cables but the main 20+4 pin power cable.

Yeah, well, I think I can say with certainty that your motherboard is broken.

ya, you probably hit one of the tiny switches on your motherboard, happen to me once as well.

Well, what's done is done, I suppose (err, whatever it was that was done.) Thankfully, I'm going to be ordering a new motherboard, video card, and processor tonight, so I won't be without my own computer for much longer. Thanks for all the great help.