Death in the family : (

[DanontheMoon]

My Roomie's old emachines T2080 crapped out, it won't even turn on. Okay, well, it turns on, but doesn't post or even go to the BIOS. I replaced the power supply (250w), to no avail, and tried dropping a new CPU in it to see if either worked. No dice.

My first assumption was that if it was a corrupted HD, which my other roomie postulated, then it would at least Boot before hanging. Am I right about that?

The RAM looks ok, I've heard that if it were fried it would look darker in spots than normal. So, I'm willing to bet that the mobo is fried. Fair assumption?

If the mobo is fried then the processor likely is as well, right? I found my roomie a deal on a microATX, 184-pin ram PC Chips mobo w/ an Intel LGA-775 socket and Pentium D 3.2 GHz CPU (kiss that old AMD 1.16 goodbye!) for like $84 and I'm pretty sure that this will fix the problem.

Does anyone else have any advice about this? Anything y'all can contribute would rock as this is only the 5th or 6th PC I've dismantled and rebuilt.
-Dan

[grimdeath]

Have you tried changing the vga card? that seems to be the problem if thats not it then its most definitely the motherboard since a pc can turn on without ram I really dont think ram could be the problem although all pcs are diffrent.

And the processor could work if the mobo is dead it really doesnt have to mean theyre both dead although with current prices a mobo with processor upgrade is kinda cheap.

Check the vga card first then if you can pop that processor into a compatible mobo you will find the culprit responsible :lol:

[BradLee]

I would say that if your computer doesn't even boot up, it's most likely not a HD problem.

It is possible for RAM to be bad without actually looking bad.

Since you've already tried a different CPU, you are pretty much left with either the motherboard being fried, or bad RAM.

If you've got some different RAM you could try I would do that first. But it looks like your gonna need a new motherboard.

Without another motherboard to test with you can't be sure whether the CPU is fried or not. It's probably cheaper just to buy that new mobo/CPU combo anyway.

[BradLee]

a pc can turn on without ram I really dont think ram could be the problem although all pcs are diffrent.

I can confirm from first hand experience that bad RAM can stop a PC from booting. Although when you remove the bad RAM the PC should still turn on and beep at you.

[DanontheMoon]

:lol: What VGA card? it's just a naked AGP slot in there.

I want to test the processor, except the only other compatible board I have is an old Soyo Dragon KT400 that I have jacked into a P4 tower. There's no VGA out on the board! Just serial video out. So I've no way to tell if the KT400 actually posts. I could fix that with an adaptor, or by dropping a GPU with VGA-out in there. Thankfully, both of these dinosaurs run socket 462 CPUs.

[DanontheMoon]

Meh, for $84 my roomie (SuburbanFiasco is her Kirupa Forum SN, PM her if y'all want because she won't be expecting it! :lol:) should treat herself to an upgrade anyways.

[foodpk]

TheSpork: There's a difference between posting and booting up. A computer can post without RAM. Post actually means power-on self-test. It's the phase where the BIOS checks its own integrity, if there is RAM at all, finds the devices for booting etc. The post phase is usually identified by a beep when you turn on the computer. If there's no beep, that means either the post phase didn't go off or the internal speaker is dead (less likely).

[grimdeath]

I can confirm from first hand experience that bad RAM can stop a PC from booting. Although when you remove the bad RAM the PC should still turn on and beep at you.


Thats what I meant when it can turn on without ram it'll beep a few times or propietary pcs like dells have light patterns which tell you eaxactly what is the problem.

Anyways try putting a pci vga card (if you can find one) or just get one for the agp slot it has just to test if the person does not want to upgrade which IMHO should.

[grimdeath]

If there's no beep, that means either the post phase didn't go off or the internal speaker is dead (less likely).

You'd be surprised how many PCs dont have speakers or they are just busted from people tinkering with their pcs

[foodpk]

Haha, I probably would.
Another thing though is that it could be a component attached to the motherboard that's short circuited. That happened to my once, my gfx card died and the computer wouldn't post at all. But if I removed the card it would beep but obviously not go along much further.

[BradLee]

TheSpork: There's a difference between posting and booting up. A computer can post without RAM. Post actually means power-on self-test. It's the phase where the BIOS checks its own integrity, if there is RAM at all, finds the devices for booting etc. The post phase is usually identified by a beep when you turn on the computer. If there's no beep, that means either the post phase didn't go off or the internal speaker is dead (less likely).

I know the difference between booting and posting. I have had fried RAM keep a computer from posting before. It didn't post until I removed the bad RAM. Sorry, I just used the incorrect terminology.

[Vexir]

Sorry for your loss. Before you replace the motherboard just take some unnecessary-to-run components individually and see if it boots.

[DanontheMoon]

Did and done. The Verdict: Yah, it's the mobo. Thanks for the feedback everyone, Now I'm sure I didn't miss anything.