Computer Conundrum

[Jediteo]

As a project, I am trying to get one of the old family computers running, a fine computer yet it has not been working for a year.

The problem is that it will not POST, yet the lights and fans activate, and the hardrive does its spool up when powered, but no real start.

I have cleared the CMOS, by moving the jumper to the 2,3 pins, then returning it to the 1,2. Strangely, the power only comes on when the jumper is at 2,3.

The PSU is fine as I have replaced it with a functioning unit. Rather strange.

I am thinking either the CPU or the Mobo has seen its last sunrise.

The question is, can the combined wits of the dogz overcome the cold hulk that is the computer in question?

Thank you,

Jedi.

[Perfesser]

I recall some mobo's had bad capacitors. Look at the board carefully for swollen or deformed ones.

[FoolTrottel]

I recall some mobo's had bad capacitors. Look at the board carefully for swollen or deformed ones.

+1

And when in doubt, take some pictures of the capacitors, and post 'm here...

Also, what happens when you try and boot it without any memory modules, and without graphics card.

Does is perform differently then?

[gec]

mobo's should make some beeps to. is there any?

[Jediteo]

No dice on the GPU and RAM removal. The lights and fans come on but nothing else. The CMOS issue is quite perplexing, I simply cannot figure it out. No visable damage on either the CPU or the Mobo, but it seems the Mobo is fried somehow. I would recommend a purchase of an update pack, containing a new mobo, Cpu and RAM. All other systems appear to be nominal. Quite strange really, never seen anything quite like it. The board does not give any audial cues (beeps), leading to a suspicion of a hardware failure in the motherboard.

[FoolTrottel]

Do you know how to recognize them bad caps? I mean, have you seen 'm before?

Sometimes damage to those is not that clearly visible... can you take pictures from close up to them?

[B16Enk]

Sometimes removing the battery and clearing CMOS at same time is in order.

It can take more than just a quick setting pins 2 and 3 to clear too, leave the jumper in position for 10+ minutes.

Some mobos have a built-in speaker, others do not and rely on a chassis mounted speaker too

[Jabo]

Sounds like mobo or processor to me, especially if you've disconnected everything else. Bundle deals are usually good value, but I'd advise looking carefully at the spec of the contents, sometimes less than scrupulous retailers will hide a pup in there (eg slow memory, or a naff chipset on the mobo etc)

Jabo

[Mayhem]

The CPU probably isn't the problem. If you are sure that the power supply is good it's probably your motherboard. It very well could be that capacitors especially if it's been sitting for some time. If I remember correctly the sorry goes like this. There was a formula for a dielectric used in between the plates in the capacitors that was stolen much like the way Plankton would love to get his hands on the crabby patty secret "formuler" (hey my daughter is 5). But I digress, when this formula was stolen apparently there was a mistake in the recipe that allowed for the buildup of hydrogen gas in the caps. This gas would eventually cause the caps to bulge, leak and cause premature failure. You can read more here http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Capacitor_plague . Anyways, I have successfully changed the out all the caps in one of these mobos before and it's actually my firewall computer now running constantly for the past year or so. I replaced the cheap old caps with some fairly high quality Panasonic brand. I think I got 12 caps for 9 bucks or something like that. At any rate, depending on how old the system is you can probably just find something similar on ebay for cheap. Or look in the local paper people are always trying to get rid of there old junk.

[Snacko]

Have you tried flashing a new or older bios?