[acmatters]

Hi. My tower wouldn't power up. I took it to a local computer service place, and they said that it has a "bad motherboard or CPU." My question is ... if it wouldn't power up, how can they tell the motherboard is bad? Now he's trying to sell me a new computer, so I'm skeptical. Any thoughts/advice/intelligent questions I could ask? Thanks in advance.

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Hi acmatters...

My first thought would be power supply, but without a little more information about your computer, it's hard to say.

Is this a laptop machine or a desktop machine?

wannabe1

[wannabe1]

Hi acmatters...

My first thought would be power supply, but without a little more information about your computer, it's hard to say.

Is this a laptop machine or a desktop machine?

wannabe1

[acmatters]

Someone else said they thought it would be power supply. This is a desktop. It's an eMachine. "T2824cel" is what it says on the receipt. I bought it in August of 2004, and we've added some RAM since then. Does that help?

[wannabe1]

I can't rule out the motherboard or the cpu, but I'd sure try the power supply first. Either have it tested somewhere else, or try a known good power supply on the machine and see if it powers up.

[happyrock]

were you there when they tested the psu...they would have unplugged the power supply connection on the mobo and plugged in a tester...that would let you know if the psu was good ... eMachines use cheap psu's and that would be my guess...

[Doby]

Could you also explain exactly what happens when you push the power button,,,,,,,
Do fans spin?
Do the keyboard lights flash?
Or is it completely dead?

[wannabe1]

If the power supply is dead, nothing happens.

[wannabe1]

Answered directly from the e-mail...sorry Doby........

[acmatters]

I was not there when they tested the psu. Nothing happened when I pushed the power button. I had it plugged into a power strip surge protector with other hardware. The monitor powered up, the printer powered up, but the tower was just dead. No lights, no fan, no nothing.

Ah, what's a mobo? And I'm assuming psu stands for power supply unit? Sorry ... don't speak the language. :-)

Thanks!

[wannabe1]

There should be a fan on the power supply. If it doesn't spin up, chances are good that the power supply is shot.

mobo = motherboard

cpu = central processing unit or processor

psu = power supply unit

[acmatters]

So if the power supply was shot, how could the tech have determined that the mobo was shot?

[hfcg]

E-machines have a lot of motherboard issues, so the tech may not have done a though check.
It is an easy test. Do you have a known good power supply?

Edited by hfcg, 05 February 2008 - 07:38 PM.

[Doby]

Answered directly from the e-mail...sorry Doby........

No problem wannabe1

The tech should have tried a known working psu in it and that would be a good question to ask.

If you are comfortable with removing parts there is a simple test to see if the psu (power supply) is dead and will explain it to you, but this test only will show it its dead it could still be the motherboard (mobo) is bad, emachines are notorious for blown psu's and taking the motherboard with it

[acmatters]

My husband will be home tomorrow and is comfortable with removing parts. Me - not so much. What is the simple test to see if the psu is dead? They still have my tower, but we can pick it up in the morning and give it a try.

[Doby]

Remove the side of the case,work on a tile or wood floor no carpet, this is because of static that is harmful to parts, touch the metal part of the case before touching anything inside.

In the rear upper part of the case is the psu, it has wires with connectors on the ends that lead to the drives and motherboard. Disconnect all of these, the drives just pull out but will be snug, rock back and forth slightly.

The connectors on the motherboard have a snap on the side you have to pinch with your finger, again gently rock back and forth and pull off.

When everthing is disconnected plug the power cord into the wall outlet now look at the 20 pin power connector that connected to the motherboard(the big one) using a paper clip touch the green wire and any black wire, this should start the psu and you can tell by the fan spinning. If the psu does not start it is dead and you may want to try another one.

Again though this only tests if the psu is dead or not, the motherboard could have been damaged. Also even if the psu turns on this test does not guarantee that the psu is producing the required voltage to start the computer but this is the first step to determining whats wrong and with a shop telling you that the motherboard is bad you have nothing to loose and you can use this as a learning experiance