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death of a mobo?


ChrisM
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My partner's PC has just this morning, it seems, crashed and died. It doesn't boot up at all.

 

I've re set the mobo jumpers - still nothing.

 

Last year the board 's (a Soyo 7IWMLV10) bios was flashed without any problems. This was about 15+ months ago and its been used regularly (on an almost daily basis) without any problems.

 

Today, nothing, no beep codes, no nothing.

 

Does anyone have any suggestions of what else I might try? Is it usual if a mobo packs in not to give any kind of warning?

Edited by ChrisM
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does he run linux or windows on his computer? i once had a virus in windows (95) that made its way into the bios, deactivating the mobo. maybe he is experiencing something similar (i had to pay 200 bucks for repairing that stuff...)

but it could have died, too, from what you describe unless ... the power supply is damaged.

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Thanks for the replies.

 

The box was running only MDK10. No other OS installed, and no winblows for over a year.

 

The psu powers up , but nothing else happens. I have a couple of old spare boxes, I'll see if any of the psu are compatible.

 

I tried to re set the bios by altering the jumper, but it didn't work at all.

 

I'll try out these suggestions, and hope that I don't need to buy a new board - cuz I've been wanting a new one for myself for a while before this happened :P

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oh... just a tip: there is another way to reset the bios. but it is a bit tricky. (use at own risk) remove carefully the battery that is in the mobo for some five minutes, then plug it back in. this will reset all bios settings.

 

just another idea as we are talking of batteries... maybe only the mobo battery needs

replacement.

 

anyways, good luck :)

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Thanks arctic. I'll give this a go. I've taken out batteries from mobos before - in fact I'm almost sure there was a battey change before the flash upgrade - eck if its gone already, that didn't last long.

 

Cheers. :beer:

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Yes well, just because the battery is new, doesn't mean it really is. Just like a car battery, fresh is what is important. See a really good battery sale? Don't buy a battery from it, it usually means they're old ;) This 2 year old pc has had 3 batteries. My 5 year old pc is still on its 2. Buying batteries is like rolling dice. :beer:

Edited by bvc
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I tried arctics suggestion, but unfortunately without any further joy - maybe the battery is simply dud. So I have 2 immediate priorities:

 

1)buy new battery - easy, inexpensive (but not from a sale as bvc commented :D )

2)should this fail - try out new psu

 

I didn't notice any problems with the capacitors/etc this morning, and I've just double checked and everything looks to be OK.

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I have the same problem on one of my Linux boxes running Fedora Core 3. When I power on the power light just turns on and off quickly. The fans turn once and the motherboard ram light is on. In the manual it says if the ram light is on check ram, psu and cpu. I checked the ram and bought a new psu so its more than likely the cpu. This thread reminds me to buy another one. I did overclock it by 100 Mhz and it ran for about 2 years.

If your fans turn a little when you turn it on and you know your ram is good its more than likely your cpu.

 

Dakota

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If you have a multimeter, you could also check out the voltages from the PSU (you can do this for the +5 and +12v lines easily from a spare HDD power connector).

 

When my last mobo died, if failed with a short across the PSU inputs, so +5V was about +2V, and +12V was about +5V if I recall correctly.

 

I was impressed that there was no smoke!

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One thing worth doing, is check the PSU at the back when you turn it on. Does the fan move, and then does it stop? Or is it continually moving.

 

I found that my hardware in my machine was at it's max for the psu. So when you turned it on, all the juice went to the components straightaway, but it wasn't enough to power up the system. Try disconnecting CD-ROM drives, hard disks, etc, etc, so that you have the least amount of power being drawn from the system. Also remove all PCI cards, just leave the video card in.

 

Example, 300W power supply, processor takes 80w roughly, memory 10w per stick, video card another 80w, hard disks 30w for each drive, cdrom 20-30w. Then you have however much per PCI card after that.

 

When all this adds up and gets close to or exceeds your psu wattage, you'll have problems. This might be the better option to try before you buy a new psu.

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Cheers ianw - that's it. bvc - arctic, you guys were right, the psu was indeedy the problem, it seems.

 

1) the fan continually moves when it its started.

2) I removed all components as suggested - and she booted up :D

 

Thanks to all for posting your helpful input. Much appreciated. :thanks:

 

So, to the shops for a new psu with some high voltage - sorry, wattage :D

 

I wonder why this has happened now though, as it has worked well for so long - actually its the (was the) best running pc at home (its my partners PC, and before that it was her mothers - so its been used for some time.) Its been great for the past couple years, and the last time any hardware was added was about 6 or 7 months ago with a replacement CDRW - wear and tear on the psu perhaps?

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