HP Computer - MotherBoard or Cpu fried? How can i tell?

Hello, I have an older HP computer it has AMD Athlon (Socket A) 2.3 GHZ processor, 512 MB DDR 333 Ram (2700?), the motherboard is ASUS A7NBX-LA, ok so here's the symptoms, the power switch displays an on status when i plug the machine in, monitor displays nothing, cpu isn't running (at least not the cpu fan)... i was going to test to see if the problem was the Video card by turning it on and using a live cd, and listen for audio (Ubuntu live cd - the HDD is in a different comp as this happened a while back, (Novemeber i think) the thing is, i plug it in, the system switch displays an on status, i puch the button and nothing happens, no activity and i can't open cd drive, what i am asking is how do i diagnose this problem as motherboard or cpu ? or what else could it be. It happened a while back, it was working in the morning and when i came back from school, these symptoms were present (the comp was not working), no idea what made it happen. Any advice thoughts etc. are welcome and appreciated.
-P.S. it has integrated Nvidia Graphics and I have tried different power supplies with the same results.

 

Have you tried a different power supply? A power supply is more likely to fail than a motherboard or CPU. And, luckily, replacing a power supply is a whole lot easier (and cheaper) than a CPU or mobo replacement.... hopefully you or a friend has an extra power supply laying around to hook up.... let us know what happens..............

hd2k

 

I have already tried a different power supply, and nothing changes, so how do i diagnose this issue, i am basically wondering how do i know what is failing, the motherboard (mobo), or the CPU, or the Graphics processor/card ?, but i don't think it is the graphics card b/c the cpu isn't even running (the fan doesnt run) so it must be mobo or cpu right?, how do i figure our which? or can you tell from what i have posted? All responses are appreciated!, MJ

 

CPU's rarely fail, and when they do, you can usually still power up the PC so the fans spin at least. Because you get no fan spin, I'd go with bad motherboard. Look at your capacitors- are any of them 'popped' with the tops bowed out? Are any of them leaking browinsh crud? If so, the mobo is shot. Look at your BIOS chip- does it look discolored? If it has a foil sticker, is the sticker wrinkled or peeling off? If so, again the mobo is dead. The only way to be 100% sure, is to try a known good CPU on the questionable motherboard, or try the CPU on a known good motherboard. But it's like I said- CPU's rarely fail (it does happen, but not often), when they do it's usually due to overheating. If the CPU fan/heatsink is full of dirt, and/or the CPU fan doesn't spin easily without any resistance when poked with your finger, then the CPU might be dead. Not to be too repetative, I say it's a 90% chance that the motherboard is dead. Have you tried to power up with ALL the devices removed except for the necessities? Disconnect all drives, floppy drives, hard drives, CD drives, any/all PCI cards like modems.... I've seen a bad floppy drive prevent a PC from powering up..... I'm sure you've tried pretty much everything...... I'll say it one more time: 90% chance it's a dead motherboard.

 

Thanks, if i have anyomore questions i will post thanks very much.

 

P.S> can u check these pics out, i took them, tell me if anything looks wrong. Thanks http://mitchell7man.coconia.net/pics.htm