Motherboard riddle

:confused Quite some time ago i bought my first computer,it was built for gaming ...3 years ago:-D..but last year it all went horribly wrong and so i got one second hand from a Friend.
The thing is now i wont to see if i can resurrect the old girl !
Problem.....She starts but the grafts card doesn't seem to come to life and her CD drive seems to be looking for something over and over ...
i know the card works ,have had it working in other comps ive allso put a new hardrive in but to no avail.
has the CPU gone? is there a way i can get it to start anyone know the answer or perhaps a push in the rite direction with a fresh idea ...any suggestion would be helpfull as i haven't a clue

 

hello ta for answering ..i dont remember being here befor but maybe i am reincarnated:-D.i think most of the problem is due to me tinkering and cleaning dust etc:-ohope ive not damaged it i used the comp for gaming but it was allso for family use so i suspect i had a virus..it was over a year ago!Ok.. I push the start btn it comes on [fans but no beep]then almost mediately my CD/DVD drive starts as if there is something in it, there isn't!.no power seems to get to the graphics card as the monitor is still on stand by and i think the hard drive starts but carnt be sure .i once striped her down and rebuilt and this worked for a while but now nothing :cry
its an RZ series motherboard 8S648-RZ(-C) SiS 648 chipset and an Intel Pentium 4 3.2 i have Gainword graphic accelerator CD,Motherboard utilities CD and 3d prophet kyro CDrom if ive left something out sry just ask ..if i have to go off line for a bit and take notes of what happens i will ..

 

ok..here goes 3rd time luky..i press start all fans work moniter doesnt come on, stays on standby ..cd/dvd player starts nothing in it?no beep nothing thats all it does ,k...its an RZ series motherboard 8s648-RZ(-C) SiS 648 chipsetwith a Geforce FX 5200 128 MB graphix and pentium 4/3.2 hard drive..ive swaped hard drives so they ok allso swoped graphix...ok and now im clueless?????

 

So when you say "beep" what is that beep? A single beep or is it more complex (numerous beeps)?

Try and unplug the monitor and plug it back in, ensuring it hasn't wiggled loose.

Post back, as Halo indicates most won't even bother with a big chunk of text, were not here to read a book .

 

This may sound crazy, but remove the front panel header wires from the motherboard and short the power switch pins briefly with a screw driver to make the PC start.

The reason I suggest this is because I thought a motherboard of mine had died but it turned out that the reset switch was stuck closed.

 

thanks people,i dont think it beeps atall now and it was plugged in ok had that trouble before showed up in game play!"collins" will try your trick as once she went in for a broken of on switch due to power surge.i will run the old girl once more so ill be of line a bit ,no spare monitor etc!and ill write down what happens ok?

 

Well tried that trick and made no difference ,no beep hard drive does start but its like the bios isn't working i think ,Any:more tips ? :banghead

 

Well its time to do a BIOS reset. Have you looked inside the "guts' of the system yet? You want to pop the CMOS battery out and reset the jumpers for 10s.

 

what maybe the problem, is the beep you hear at the start is the sound card being tested it is related to the old in-bulit speakers older modeld computers have i believe. so if no sound then the sound card may have a problem.

also if the cd/dvd drive is starting up it may be the bios settings are only set to boot from the cd so i suggest trying to find a boot-up disk to see if that works if not then a BIOS reset maybe in order.

also check all connections withing the PC are tight and fitted properly.

hope this helps in some way

 

One of the things to do in a diagnostic like this is to unplug everything from the motherboard that is not critical to getting a picture on the screen. Doing this removes any possibly faulty devices from the equation. So- unplug all drives from both their data cables and power cables (CD drives, hard drives, floppy drives), remove all add-on cards (modems, sound cards, etc), unplug all USB devices and disconnect any wiring from the motherboard USB headers (like for front panel USB ports), disconnect any wiring for the front panel audio ports, remove all but one stick of memory that is known to be 100% functional, unplug any cables from the back of the PC (speakers, ethernet cable, etc) and leave only the keyboard and monitor plugged in. Now that the system is stripped down to the bare minimum, reset the BIOS using the motherboard jumper, then go ahead and plug in the power cord and power up. If you still get no picture on the screen, then it is one of four things: bad memory, bad motherboard, bad CPU, bad video card. Since you stated the video card worked in a different PC, we know the card works. Chances are, it's the motherboard. Carefully check all the capacitors on the motherboard, normal healthy capacitors look like this:

http://tbn3.google.com/images?q=tbn:l-O3uyAZWlRbFM:http://www.hardware-one.com/reviews/msi6309/images/capacitor.jpg http://www.fotosearch.com/bthumb/GLW/GLW137/gwc118050.jpg

Leaking/popped capacitors look like this:

http://tbn2.google.com/images?q=tbn:Y5WuxQTQI_nreM:http://www.op911.net/photos/story/capacitor.jpg http://tbn3.google.com/images?q=tbn:n6qnVlzrMn1XaM:http://i.ehow.com/images/GlobalPhoto/Articles/2162895/BadCapacitor01-main_Full.jpg

Sometimes bad capacitors won't actually have the crud leaking out the top as in the pics above, but if the top of the capacitor is not PERFECTLY flat, then it is failing. Even a very, very slight 'popped' top on just a single capacitor is bad news and means the board will require replacement. I have seen motherboards with numerous popped capacitors that still boot up and seem to function OK, but they are generally very unstable and tend to lock up, crash, or randomly power off, generally during time when the system requires a bit more power (like during a gaming session, or while converting video files). Anyway- good luck in your troubleshooting. Let us know what you find out!!!

[dlb]

Happy Thanksgiving!

 

Hi people,
Bold Eagle,ive done that m80 found that tip in the booklet that was with motherboard.
Yabba,hi yes i can set to boot from disc but no power to monitor cant see!and resetting bios to original state crossing pins removing battery puts floppy first hard drive second then disc drive etc.
dib,Very interesting ive herd of this befor but never acared to me to look at capacitors,Ill try the bare bones approach and let yes know.Once again Digi and all thank you

 

ok done that still no joy so rang my frendley pc shop bring it in he said ill sort it ,so ill let yes know what the outcome is.rolleyeshehe