Is the CPU chip or the motherboard broken?

Hello.

My brothers computer died on him and he sent it to me to determine what was wrong with it.

He had his computer on, left the room, came back and the monitor was black (no picture). He restarted it and nothing would load up. No windows loading screen, no start up screen where you can select the BIOS, nothing.

When the power is turned on the light on the front of the tower turns on, the PSU fan spins and the fan on the motherboard spins. It's safe to say the PSU works. I took out the hard drive and put it in my computer and it works fine and there is no corruption on the disk. It must be either the motherboard or the CPU chip that's broken. The motherboard is sending power to the fan on it so it might not be the motherboard. I dont' know much about this stuff so I could be wrong. The "hums" and "grind" noises the computer used to make while it booted up arn't there anymore.

How do I determine what is wrong with either the motherboard or the CPU chip? The computer is only a year old and conveniently broke once the warrenty expired.

The specs are:
AMD Sempron 3200+
256mbs of RAM
40gig hard drive

Thanks in advance.

 

Your problems could be many things including the PSU.
I'd check the PSU with Multimeter.

Any beep codes?
No video can result from memory or video card failure or from hardware not seated properly.
The same can happen from a short or grounded MOBO

Hums & grinds two things come to mind:
HDD going south
Fans contacting wiring? shorting out of wiring possibly leading to a short or grounding condition?



What brand & exact model is this PC?

 

Im with Asus on the power supply, also some "grinding" can come from floppy drive when booting. ed

 

Pull the RAM and reseat it.

Pull the CMOS Battery and reseat or replace it.

It will be assumed you have tried this system with another Monitor.

Have you checked that all the cables are plugged into the mobo properly? If not pull out the power cables and reseat them, consider all mobo cables.

These may not be the prob but just trying to rule out the obvious.

Can you place the CPU on another mobo?

 

@ ASUS - Where would I get a multimeter? I've never head of a multimeter before but I assume it's something you hook-up to the PSU to test the voltage.

- I took the computer apart and looked over everything. I took the motherboard out of the tower casing, took out the RAM, unhooked all connectiong wires then hooked everything back up and it didn't make a difference. The computer has onboard video so we can rule out a video card problem.

- The hard drive works. I hooked it up to my computer as a slave drive and it worked fine. I scanned it for damage and it was fine. No corrupt data or anything. I haven't tried putting in a different hard drive in my brothers computer and booting it up that way though. I'll try that and see what happens.

- It doesn't look like the wires are coming in contact with the fan. If the wires did somehow short out the motherboard or computer or whatever, would I just need a new motherboard? Or would I need a new CPU chip too?

- The mobo brand is an ASRock and model # is K7S31GX. I think that's what it is. I had to look on the actual mobo to get that #. My brother didn't bring over any documents or info for me.

@ Bold Eagle - I reseated the RAM. I pulled out the CMOS battery and put it back in, but I didn't try putting in a new battery. I tried a different monitor and it was the same. I checked all the cables; uplugged them and plugged them a back in. I don't have another mobo I can test the CPU in. I don't have another mobo to test the CPU chip with.

Thanks for your replies.

 

Dont know if you have circuit city stores around you or not but they have a psu checker that you just plug your power supply into and it tells you if bad or not, any local pc repair will have one of these, carry your psu to them and in 10 seconds they can tell you , good or bad. ed

 

CMOS batteries are very generic so another one from any other PC will probabaly fit or you can buy one for $1-2 dollars so try another battery in there.

 

I'm going to try putting in my PSU and my CMOS battery into my brothers computer and see what happens.

I want to be sure of things before I take it into get repaired. It's so expensive to have a PC repaired that I would like to find out things formyself first.

 

if the screen is black then maby ur video card is shot. Happend 2 me 2

 

The PC has onboard video. No video card.

 

I used a different PSU and a different CMOS battery and no change in the computer. I am certain it is either the motherboard or the CPU chip. How would I be able to find out if it's the mobo or CPU chip? I don't want to take the computer to a repair place because they would charge too much money to fix it.

 

What would I take out?

 

I tried it and it didn't work. And what are beep codes?
I'm going to try a different IDE cable for my hard drive and a different hard drive in my brothers computer.

 

Oh, but I don't even get to the BIOS screen or a BIOS chek or a start up screen. It just stays black and never changes.

 

For Diagnostics, The HDD is not needed to post or boot to Bios

Only the most basic hardware is needed

psu
mobo
cpu HSF
one stick of memory
Onboard video or Video card if no onboard video exists
Monitor
I would do this with the hardware outside of the Case on a non conductive surface, this eliminates Possibility of a short between the MOBO & the case
(No other Hardware is needed, Period!)

Before attempt to Post or Boot to BIOS, reset CMOS, Try remove battery for Ten minutes or so & while the Battery is out Press the Power button to expel the existing juice from the capacitors.
If the above doesn't work I would suggest a 24 hr CMOS reset then when try to power up tap the Insert key

I would do this with the hardware out side of the case

CPU testing, if possible try in another PC
MOBO's well Asrocks are dirt cheap, at least in the USA

 

I tried taking out the hardware and leaving the CMOS battery out - turning the computer on with the battery out and turning the computer on with the battery in - and it didn't work. I tried a different hard drive in the computer and it didn't work. I tried using different IDE cables and it didn't work.

All this effort because I'm cheap. At least I'm learning.

I don't think the CPU would work in my other computer. It's an old Dell Pentium 3. I don't think the CPU chip would fit in the motherboards pin configuration or whatever you call it.

I don't think leaving out the CMOS battery for 24 hours will help. I say that not having tried it. I'm getting impatient and 24 hours is a long time.

 

I ment trying the cpu in maybe a friends PC ofcourse it would have to be the same type of socket

Sometimes a Long CMOS clear is whats needed, impatient or not, While theres no gurantee it will work, it doesnt cost anything except time.

Many NF2, NF3 & NF4 based MOBO's will require Long CMOS clears (Long being 24 hr)

Ide cables or HDD wont matter they arnt needed to Post or to boot into BIOS
Those will only matter trying to boot into Windows, with the exception of if a cable or a HDD had a short that might make for problems such as yours so that's why for Diagnostics you simply would disconnect the IDE cables & HDD & perform the test by trying to Post & boot into bios with only the Hardware suggested.


Your MOBO & even CPU may very well be dead,
Good Luck

 

I know that my friends wouldn't let me try the CPU in their machines for fear that I would break something.

I will try the 24-hour CMOS clear then. I will be anxiously waiting but I'll wait.

Thanks for your help, ASUS and TimW. I'll let you know what happens tomorrow.

 

I put the CMOS battery back in the computer while all the parts were out of the case and still nothing. I guess it's dead. Anymore suggestions? I think I'll tell my brother to buy a new computer then.

 

No, but it doesn't matter now. My brother is going to buy a new computer.

Thanks for all the help, TimW and ASUS.