Computer Issue (Opinions Wanted)

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ebe9

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Hi all.


Well the other evening I was browsing away on the web and ducked downstairs for a snack.

During that time we had three power outages in quick succession, lasting for no more than a few seconds to a couple minutes.

When I headed back upstairs to reboot my computer, it would not start.


The power and hard drive activity lights remained on permanently, and the machine emmited a high pitched continuous beep sound, there was no image on the monitor.

I powered off and tried again, only to be have the same issue.
I then opened the case and began disconnecting the hard drives in case there was a boot issue there. No luck.

I then removed one of the RAM modules (Running 2X 1GB DDR2 modules in parallel) and rebooted the machine. It continued as before, with the hard disk activity light on, however this time there was no beeping sound. I tried using the other ram module, but achieved the same effect.

The motherboard and all fans are powering up, so I don't want to write it off as the mothrboard being blown, but will accept this if it's the case.


From what I have described above, what do you think the potential issue could be?

Any opinions or suggestions would be appreciated.

Thanks
 
Have a look at the Power Supply! Try another if possible!
 
PSU is most likely toast and chances are it passed the surge on to your motherboard...

You will probably have to buy new one of each.

If you have to, spend extra cash and make sure the PSU is a proper tough and rugget muthafuka... The more expensive they are they better they are at handling stress...
 
Last edited:
Ryder_JHB said:
Have a look at the Power Supply! Try another if possible!
Click to expand...

I tested the power supply and everything seemed to be in order.

It is a 500W Antec that came with the case (The case is a server case)


Surely if the PSU had gone I would have 0 power?
 
ebe9 said:
I tested the power supply and everything seemed to be in order.

It is a 500W Antec that came with the case (The case is a server case)


Surely if the PSU had gone I would have 0 power?
Click to expand...

Not necessarily, but from your description of the test, it sounds like its ok!
 
Ryder_JHB said:
Not necessarily, but from your description of the test, it sounds like its ok!
Click to expand...

I sat with a little electric tester and checked the pins, and there was also not that lovely smell of popped capacitor in the air.
 
Maybe your motherboard was fried by the power surges/spikes. Probably the PSU didn't have enought time to react and protect your MB. My MB was fried by lightning (electrical surge) at the beginning of this month, even with a surge protector. PSU had no problem but no POST check beep and no screen output. Exactly like what you descripted. Now running new MB, CPU, RAM off the original PSU.
 
cyberarmy said:
Maybe your motherboard was fried by the power surges/spikes. Probably the PSU didn't have enought time to react and protect your MB. My MB was fried by lightning (electrical surge) at the beginning of this month, even with a surge protector. PSU had no problem but no POST check beep and no screen output. Exactly like what you descripted. Now running new MB, CPU, RAM off the original PSU.
Click to expand...

I am really hoping it is not the mobo, but I have the sneaky suspicion that it is. I have an order in for some new RAM and a UPS, so hopefully replacing the ram will do the trick.

If not, I get to call up Asus and see if they will replace it under warrenty.
 
ebe9 said:
I am really hoping it is not the mobo, but I have the sneaky suspicion that it is. I have an order in for some new RAM and a UPS, so hopefully replacing the ram will do the trick.

If not, I get to call up Asus and see if they will replace it under warrenty.
Click to expand...

What a coincidence, both of my fried MB were Asus too!! Mine still under 3 year warranty but won't bother since it will take them ages to fix it (Socket 754, won't have any stock available now). And it's time for a upgrade. I got Gigabyte this time around.
 
ebe9 said:
I tested the power supply and everything seemed to be in order.

It is a 500W Antec that came with the case (The case is a server case)


Surely if the PSU had gone I would have 0 power?
Click to expand...

And it is an Antec... They are very sturdy PSUs.
 
Check if there is burn damage on some of the hardware...

Do you smell something burnt when you stick your nose in? Can you see coloration on the mobo anywhere? Perhaps a blown capacitor?
 
antowan said:
Check if there is burn damage on some of the hardware...

Do you smell something burnt when you stick your nose in? Can you see coloration on the mobo anywhere? Perhaps a blown capacitor?
Click to expand...

I can't smell anything from the MB and visual checks confirmed no burned marks/blown capacitor.etc. Must be chipset level damage.
 
antowan said:
Check if there is burn damage on some of the hardware...

Do you smell something burnt when you stick your nose in? Can you see coloration on the mobo anywhere? Perhaps a blown capacitor?
Click to expand...

No burn damage is visible, and there was no smell of burning when I inspected the computer.
 
My suggestion would be to remove everything from the case and put on an anti-static mat - connect minimal items as GPU, boot HDD, 1 stick ram, mouse/keyboard - reset the BIOS and try it again... if still does not POST, then it could be the motherboard.

Do you have onboard GPU too?
 
howardb said:
My suggestion would be to remove everything from the case and put on an anti-static mat - connect minimal items as GPU, boot HDD, 1 stick ram, mouse/keyboard - reset the BIOS and try it again... if still does not POST, then it could be the motherboard.

Do you have onboard GPU too?
Click to expand...

Nope, no onboard GPU to my knowledge (Nvidia 680Sli was mentioned on the box), but am running two 7600GT's in SLi.
 
So its not the RAM.

Tired of messing around with this so just going to take it in to somebody to diagnose.

Can anyone recommend somebody in JHB who does good work?

And please don't say incredible corruption, I will not deal with them under any circumstances.
 
My PSU also gone bonkers before my upgrade. All fans, lights on FP came on and that was where it stayed. Measured the output of PSU: 11.4V and 6V. Got a new PSU, problem solved. I opened the old PSU saw 2 caps had blown.

I am running my PC from an UPS from 2002.

I didn't had any surge and/or spike damage from Eishkom to date.
 
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