Testing out an older Asus

Have an Asus P5LD2-VM board here spare and know of a young fellow that could do with it as it has half decent specs.

Now I have set it up on the table hooked up an old PSU and power up - get the Asus model screen goes to detecting IDE's I then get the BIOS when the thing just powers down again out of the blue.

So could it be just my PSU no good? volts seem ok.

Mind you I only have the power switch hooked up no HDD LED or stuff but should that make a difference or is the board shot?

Here is the drill:

New System Failure Diagnostic

Basic diagnostic procedure is to uninstall the entire build and start over. Some people do this out of the case by placing the motherboard on an anti-static surface. This eliminates the possibility that there is a short circuit between the motherboard and the case through the connection posts (stand-offs). A standoff in the wrong location or a sloppy job will cause a short.

The Test (power off, power cord unplugged):

• Disconnect everything externally connected except the mouse and keyboard (printers, USB devices, etc). If you are not using a wired mouse and keyboard see if you can borrow one. The wireless device is just another component you have to deal with.
• Disconnect the power and data cables from all the drives inside the computer (Hard drives, DVD/CD drives, etc).
• Remove all the cards installed in the expansion slots (PCI/PCI-e) including the video card. (Be careful handling them and place them on a non conductive surface while testing).
• Remove all the RAM sticks (same rules as above).

Now connect the power cord and turn the PC on.

• The motherboard should start beeping. You should get a beep code that tells you there is no memory. This is good, it means the processor is functioning and the motherboard is good so far.
• Now add one stick of memory in Slot A1 and power on. More beeping: "no video card" beep code. This is good.
• Then add the video card and connect it to the monitor. You should get no beeping and you should see the BIOS start screens, ending with the message that there is no boot device.
• If you get no video then switch the one memory stick installed for another one and test.
• If you do get video then start adding components back, one at a time, until the system fails to boot. The last component you added is then the problem component.

For the Power Supply:

You hook up a multimeter to one of the spare connections from the supply. It helps to fashion some "spear" type connectors to the probes so they will insert and stay.

Then start the system and watch the voltages. If you see a drop off on any voltage line, particularly the 12v line (yellow wires), at the same time the system blinks out then you can assume it is a poor power supply.

Hope that helps!

TVeblen said:

Here is the drill:

New System Failure Diagnostic

Basic diagnostic procedure is to uninstall the entire build and start over. Some people do this out of the case by placing the motherboard on an anti-static surface. This eliminates the possibility that there is a short circuit between the motherboard and the case through the connection posts (stand-offs). A standoff in the wrong location or a sloppy job will cause a short.

The Test (power off, power cord unplugged):

• Disconnect everything externally connected except the mouse and keyboard (printers, USB devices, etc). If you are not using a wired mouse and keyboard see if you can borrow one. The wireless device is just another component you have to deal with.
• Disconnect the power and data cables from all the drives inside the computer (Hard drives, DVD/CD drives, etc).
• Remove all the cards installed in the expansion slots (PCI/PCI-e) including the video card. (Be careful handling them and place them on a non conductive surface while testing).
• Remove all the RAM sticks (same rules as above).

Now connect the power cord and turn the PC on.

• The motherboard should start beeping. You should get a beep code that tells you there is no memory. This is good, it means the processor is functioning and the motherboard is good so far.
• Now add one stick of memory in Slot A1 and power on. More beeping: "no video card" beep code. This is good.
• Then add the video card and connect it to the monitor. You should get no beeping and you should see the BIOS start screens, ending with the message that there is no boot device.
• If you get no video then switch the one memory stick installed for another one and test.
• If you do get video then start adding components back, one at a time, until the system fails to boot. The last component you added is then the problem component.

For the Power Supply:

You hook up a multimeter to one of the spare connections from the supply. It helps to fashion some "spear" type connectors to the probes so they will insert and stay.

Then start the system and watch the voltages. If you see a drop off on any voltage line, particularly the 12v line (yellow wires), at the same time the system blinks out then you can assume it is a poor power supply.

Hope that helps!

Yep thanks TV I did go through most of that and the problem turned out to be something VERY simple and rather embarrassing. I used a cooler for a Sandy Bridge and it had an aluminium core and just wasn't up to the job - stuck in a "recycled" solid copper core cooler and the thing flew.

Mind you it didn't like the 7 clone of my main machine I used for trial purposes.

Anyway the young fella who was in desperate need of a half decent board now has one and 3Gb DDR2 I threw in for good measure. Am shipping it tomorrow and I hope he can wag both tails at once!