Power on problems began with only a motherboard pilot light and fan

loninappleton · 01 Sep 2018

The problem:

No POst but power to the motherboard apparently for devices, fans and the motherboard pilot light.

Everything else dark including the from panel Power light, HDD Light etc.

No monitor display
no beeps.
I did a few things:

I tried the drain the capacitor test by holding in the power switch for thirty secs.
Changed the battery
Changed the power supply
Checked mem stick one at a time
Cleared CMOS

System behavior was the same. I'm making this post for anyone who can spot errors I've made.

Since the front panel yoke only works on the power button (seemingly) I'm going to put on a spare
green light, red light and reset power yoke (the same kind that runs the PC I'm using for this post.) The yoke which is attached was the one running and is part of a Presario case I found-- yes found.
It's possible Compaq had something switched around from their case header. It's just unknown
as to why things woulkd just stop.

A CPU burnout just sudden like that does not seem likely since the dvd drive I have on it to test lights up and churns at power on.

This is an older board--an MSI 880GM-E41 with onboard video. I have looked at Toms Hardware and
Tech Support Forum and anything they have I've shown here.

Time passes. Progress Got three beeps with nothing else connected but a power switch for the panel.

I'll see if I can get the whole yoke on and lit up.

Not finished yet but the new yoke is on and monitor is active.

This has been an unusual problem. Panel light yoke. Who knew?

(who knew is just a US expression.)

Will mark solved shortly.

Megahertz07 · 01 Sep 2018

It may be a memory issue.
Computer POST and beep codes

Take the power cable from the PSU and wait one minute to discharge the capacitors.
Take the memory sticks and clean with a cloth. If you have a contact cleaner use it on the memory and on the socket.
Put one memory at a time.
Remember to discharge the capacitors before inserting or removing the memory sticks.

iko22 · 01 Sep 2018

Sorry, am I missing something? What is "front panel yoke"/"Panel light yoke"?

gldndragn · 01 Sep 2018

iko22 said:

Sorry, am I missing something? What is "front panel yoke"/"Panel light yoke"?

Front panel buttons (reset, Power) and hdd and power leds

loninappleton · 02 Sep 2018

Those yokes or harnesses are a good thing to have around. I'll look up where I got them. As I recall I had two because two was the quatity I could order. And you never can find them if you don't know what they're called. I went through that for a while.

loninappleton · 02 Sep 2018

iko22 said:

Sorry, am I missing something? What is "front panel yoke"/"Panel light yoke"?

I was talking about these:
SoundOriginal Computer Case LED Light ATX Power Supply Reset HDD Switch Cable 50 713458089359 | eBay

The one shown is overly expensive but the same search term should find some 'singles' or whatever you need. Good to have a spare.

Megahertz07 · 02 Sep 2018

Back to the problem, did you cleaned the memory sticks contacts?

townsbg · 05 Sep 2018

I would check the capacitors. How to check your desktop computer for failed capacitors

You might also check ALL of the connections and the memory as megahertz suggested.

loninappleton · 05 Sep 2018

I'll meet you half way on the memsticks by running the Memtest Program again. However since this
is all old stuff the less twiddling with mem sticks the better. And I have never used things like

isopropyl on anything. Compressed air for the slot is a good thing if you happen and need to remove the

memory. And taping the tops of slots if not in use for long periods is something I do.

Yes, visually inspecting capcitors for bulges at the top or foam like from an old flashlight battery is a good tip. You can see that on youtubes-- even capacitor replacement.

loninappleton · 05 Sep 2018

This was interesting. As promised I ran Memtest86 free program from cd. All kinds of troubles. The PC shut down each time I started the program. I then I tested each slot with each stick separately. Same result.
I thought it might be overheating since I have an unusual fan arrangement.

After all the Memtest runs from CD I just put both back in and booted from SSD. Everything has come up for normal boot. I think M$ has a memtest in the Windows10 OS which I have installed. I will look for the MS utitlity and report back.

I have used the Memtest86 from CD before and not found all these errors. I'm stumped. But this actually
seems to be a source for a separate topic of memory testing.

Also will check with my version of Everest to see what that reports. This is all on a spare old machine
I've used for testing.