[XP] Fans

Close enough, thank You.

Take a look at this, thinking your new setup just may have bad caps.


http://www.badcaps.net/pages.php?vid=5

The first motherboard that this computer killed, showed serious damage to capacitors, the ones immediately to the side of the heatsink. The second motherboard - Gigabyte one that I assume was dead does not show damage to the capacitors, and the new ASRock one does not show any visible signs of breakdown or damage either.

I am hoping to get the power supply checked today but if I need to buy a multimeter it might be another few days :(

Virtual Patient

The PSU testor maybe cheaper.

have you checked the setting of the clear cmos jumper? I had one once with a silly default

Thanks saturdaygig for that ray of hope ...... lasted all of 30 seconds, the time it took me to take a peek. :( no, unfortunately the clear cmos jumper is not in place.

I am still waiting on a friend to turn up with a multimeter, seems it's not on his list of urgent things to do.

Virtual Patient

You say the clear CMOS jumper is not in place. Are you saying it's not on the Motherboard--it's actually missing? If so there's no need to do any further troubleshooting until you get a jumper on those pins--the jumper normally goes on pins 1 & 2. That jumper HAS to be in place. If you don't have one laying around maybe you can get one from an old Motherboard, a hard drive or CD drive.

A lot of boards do not even have the pins, there fore you must remove the battery.

But I have also seen the pins set as saturdaygig brought out.

sorry I should have been clearer, in order to clear cmos on this particular motherboard you need to put a jumper in place, the pins are there and have no jumper, therefore it is not set to clear cmos to default.

impatiently waiting on a psu tester still :(

Virtual Patient

Have you tried to clear the CMOS?

No I haven't tried to clear the CMOS. The main reason for this is that the state of the computer is exactly the same as it was before I replaced the motherboard, I am kind of thinking it wasn't the motherboard after all, and am hoping to check out the power supply shortly, after that I am going to be really unhappy if it ends up to be a dead processor :(

Virtual Patient

Back to the drawing board, just had an electrician friend check out the power supply and it's doing exactly what it is supposed to be doing, all voltages are as advertised.

Does this mean I have wasted loads of money and that my processor is dead?

Virtual Paitent

Possibly, but you need to try clearing that CMOS first, sometimes that's all it needs.

Hi there,

todays update, just did the clear cmos thing, no change

thought while I was there I'd try a different hard drive, no change

so far I have a new motherboard, new heatsink, two new fans, a fully tested power supply, cleared cmos, all ram sticks checked out individually and a new stick tested for good measure.

End of the road? Do I try a new processor now?

Virtual Patient

p.s. my router died at the weekend too ....and the washing machine ... do I see some kind of pattern here?

A couple of things you can try before buying a new processor. Double check that the processor is installed correctly, no bent or broken pins and the the heatsink is installed correctly with thermal compound. Also try to boot up with the motherboard removed and placed on some insulating material--cardboard, wood, paper etc. Sometimes a standoff in the wrong place will short out the motherboard. And for now just buy a new router and run around in dirty clothes.

Good luck!

Hi,

I rechecked the processor yesterday and took a close look at the pins, all seems ok there, seated correctly with thermal compound.

Do you mean just unscrew the motherboard and place something insulating under it (whilst in the machine) to check that out?

Virtual Patient

(got a replacement router, dirty clothes and ooops the exhaust just fell off my car :mad: )