Hi All,

I have a dead system. I have gone through all my diagnostic tests, including
replacing the PSU, removing all the components, testing HDD on another
system (which is fine).

The motherboard powers up, but goes no further than that. I get no beep code
and no video.

Two questions - without any beep codes, and pretty much only the mobo & CPU
installed, how can I test which is faulty - mobo or CPU?

Secondly - does anybody have any other suggestions???

Thanks very much in advance

Mav

Previously Mav <Mav (AT) miramar (DOT) com> wrote:
Remove the CPU. If the board gives you the beep-code for "no CPU",
the there is a chance the baord is fine. Otherwise the board is defect.
(Yes, the board can give beep-codes without the CPU, because there
is an additional microcontroller for the keyboard that does the
beeping.)

Arno

Mav wrote:

here's a longShot:
is the monitor good? (does the monitor led come on on boot-up?)
also: as suggested in a prior post, bad ram (and or bad ram bank) can cause no
beep.
could try to use 1 proven chip only in each mem slot (testing 1 at a time)

Thanks very much for all the help so far.

Further developments...It powered up okay last night with just minimal
components, so I have rebuilt it this morning, and it powered up okay.
However it ran for about an hour, then froze.

As I said, I am convinced it is not software, as the HDD booted up and ran
another machine with no problems. Could this be a symptom of a bad
motherboard as well....?

Thanks again.

Mav


"Tanya" <tjtmdREMOVE_THIS (AT) attglobal (DOT) net> wrote

Mav wrote:

it ran with the hd?
what was going on when it froze?

imho could be the board...although the fact that it will boot (imho) sort of
indicates the board is ok.......

you should try a different power cord, surge protector (if you have one) and a
different electrical outlet.

also did anything precede the problem? (like a bios flash; addition, removal of
h/w OR s/w)
(was the pc running normally and the problem occurred suddenly or did it start
gradually?)
finally as has been mentioned, bad ram can cause the problem and freezes.

First off, thanks for everybody's help. I really appreciate people putting
themselves out to help me.

When it froze, it wasn't doing anything - just stopped responding. I was
keeping an eye on it, just moving the mouse every now and then. After about
an hour I tried it & it was frozen. No error messages, nothing.

Then I re-booted, and it got into a continuous loop restarting itself.

I have treated myself to new RAM, processor & board, so now I can do full
swap out tests...hope I get somewhere.....

Mav wrote:

it would be interesting to know what the problem was due to -- if you find
out...
1 thing: make certain that the fans (case; psu; cpu) are spinning, clean,
functioning (*can* cause sporadic problems if overheating (afaik))
good luck!
sincerely
Tanya

Mav wrote:
In my experience if the keyboard lights blink at power-up
it's likely to be the CPU. otherwise the system board.

YMMV, of course.

--
-- Marten Kemp
(Fix name and ISP to reply)
-=-=-
.... *** EVENT HORIZON * DO NOT CROSS ***
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..sig stolen from Satya on alt.sysadmin.recovery
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Previously Marten Kemp <martendotkemp (AT) thisplanet-link (DOT) net> wrote:
If the CPU is broken, you still get beep-codes (generated by
the keyboard interface microcontoller). If nothing happens
at all, then it usually is the mainboard or the PSU.

Arno