Computer Died - Need to Pick Your Brain

[RadioJoe]

My wife was on the computer last night. Nothing complicated, just her usual Facebook surfing. Suddenly the screen goes blank. It was similar to when the computer goes into sleep mode. Although, the mouse and the keyboard did not have power.

I pressed the Enter key a few times to wake up the computer and nothing happened. Next, I pressed the reset/restart button on the case. Nothing happened. Then I pressed and held the power button on the case. I have it set to power down after 4 seconds. It did not power down. The next step was to flip the power switch on the PSU. And, of course, it shuts down.

After a few seconds, I switch the power back on and pressed the case power button. I here the case fans spin up, the DVD drives activate, listening carefully I hear the hard drive spin up, and then ... no POST. Nothing. Under normal conditions, I would continue to hear the hard drive read. Not this time.

After a couple of repeats of power off/power on, I call it quits for the night. I had just finished a 13-hour day at work and was too tired to deal with this.

Today, I popped open the case and did a visual inspection. No obviously blown capacitors. Case fans running properly. I broke out my volt meter and checked the various power outputs from the PSU and everything was fine. 12.5 volts, 5 volts, etc.

Here's where it gets interesting.

The next step was to remove the RAM one stick at a time and restart, no change. I remove ALL RAM, and the computer reacts the same way. Then, I notice there is no heat generated from the CPU. The heat sinks are cold to the touch. My CPU cooler has copper heat pipes and they were cold.

In a last ditch effort to narrow the problem, I remove the CPU. After rebooting, the computer performs the same way ... no POST.

So, are you thinking what I am thinking? Have I lost my CPU? Or, could it be the mother board? I would love to hear your thoughts.

Thanks.

Joe

 

[Jonathan_King]

Sounds like MB to me, as the keyboard lights were off.

 

[skunksmash]

im willing to bet the CPU is fine, they're very hardy little beasts.....

the motherboard would be my guess, have you reset the CMOS with the jumper..??

what are the specs of her machine..??

 

[pebbly]

are the test leds on the mobo lit? that should be a good (or bad) indicator of the state of the mobo , remove and reconnect all of the cables from power supply to mobo normally a failing psu will start to give random bsods often mistaken for memory issues good luck with it hope its not to serious

 

[RadioJoe]

im willing to bet the CPU is fine, they're very hardy little beasts.....

the motherboard would be my guess, have you reset the CMOS with the jumper..??

what are the specs of her machine..??

I forgot to memtion, I reset the CMOS too. One other thing - no beeps. Isn't the mobo supposed to beep when certain components are not present? I has a small case speaker.

And, this is the same machine listed in my Seven Forms specs. I am lucky enough to have access to post using work access thru a Winterm/Brick at home.

 

[RadioJoe]

are the test leds on the mobo lit? that should be a good (or bad) indicator of the state of the mobo , remove and reconnect all of the cables from power supply to mobo normally a failing psu will start to give random bsods often mistaken for memory issues good luck with it hope its not to serious

I'm checking. Will post back.

 

[PC WhizzKid]

I am quite sure that is the motherboard. I say this because something similar happened to my PC last year and when it came back from repair (under warranty) it was the motherboard.

 

[theog]

Try resitting the video card, or if you have spare card try that one.

 

[RadioJoe]

The more I think about it, the more I agree that it is the motherboard.

 

[RadioJoe]

With nothing else to check - I ordered a new mobo today. Once installed, I'll post back the results. The old one may still be under warranty, so it gets shipped back to the factory.

 

[fseal]

I'd suspect the PSU actually and test that first since it may be easiest. Just because there is no visible blown caps doesn;t mean that something didn't fry. And just because there is V on all rails doesn;t mean that there is any A to speak of. WHen the machine starts pulling the amps, the PSU may just be shutting down.

On the other hand, a short on the MB will also shut the PSU down so it could be either...

If you have a spare just try replacing that first, then go for the MB (since that is a LOT harder to deal with including reinstalling the OS and everything)

 

[RadioJoe]

If you guessed the motherboard you were spot on. Dropped in another motherboard and everything worked perfectly.

 

[madtownidiot]

Looks like a good excuse to build a new system.. working on an ATX box with DX58SO motherboard and an i7 extreme 975 right now