[Joemo1127]

Hi. My motherboard has stopped working.

It is a G31T-M7.

At first I thought it could be the button thats worn out so I unplugged that and tried shorting the ONswitch on the front panel. Does the same. It comes on for about one second, the CPU fan starts spinning, and then it dies. Does anyone know how to fix this please?

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Welcome to Geeks to Go.

It does not sound like the motherboard to me - not yet. I would suspect the Power Supply first. But a failed CPU or RAM will also cause a system to not boot.

I would recommend starting by swapping in a known good power supply.

[Digerati]

Welcome to Geeks to Go.

It does not sound like the motherboard to me - not yet. I would suspect the Power Supply first. But a failed CPU or RAM will also cause a system to not boot.

I would recommend starting by swapping in a known good power supply.

[Joemo1127]

Hi. Thnx for getting back to me.

I've swopped out the ram and the psu with known working ones.
Getting another CPU could take me a minute.

Hang on.

[Digerati]

Sounds like a plan.

[Joemo1127]

gonna get one tomorrow morning and let u know the results.

[Joemo1127]

ok so something strange has happened. i was about to swop out the cpu as well, but i thought i'd try it one more time. it miraculously started up, went all the way to windows, and ran fine. then i decided that i need to test whether it will work again, or was just a one time thing. seems it was just a fluke. now it does the same as it did before. the board starts up for a second, the cpu fan spins, and then it dies. what can this be?

(note: the board started up without having to swop the cpu.

[Joemo1127]

i have now swopped the cpu as well. no effect.

[Joemo1127]

update. the board will sometimes start and work fine. when its then turned off, it wont come back on again.

[Joemo1127]

update. the board will sometimes start and work fine. when its then turned off, it wont come back on again.

[Joemo1127]

ended up figuring out the problem myself. replaced the jumpers on the cmos reset pins and flashed the bios. that seemed to do it. i'm just posting it here coz i thought perhaps theres someone out there with a similar problem.

[Digerati]

ended up figuring out the problem myself. replaced the jumpers on the cmos reset pins and flashed the bios. that seemed to do it. i'm just posting it here coz i thought perhaps theres someone out there with a similar problem.

And we appreciate you posting your findings too!

When you say you "replaced" the "jumpers", what do you mean? Jumper don't go bad, unless physically damaged by abuse (stepped on, or hit with a hammer-type forces required). And also, there typically is only 1 jumper, not jumpers.

So did you actually put a different jumper, or jumpers in there? Or do you mean you moved the jumper back where it belonged? I have seen where jumpers were moved to the reset position, then forgotten and left there, forcing a reset every time the system booted. Very frustrating to troubleshoot - then embarrassing when the cause, and simple solution, is discovered.

[Joemo1127]

yeah sorry i meant jumper. i always tend to use the plural for those.
i discovered that when i removed that jumper and shorted the pins to reset the cmos with a screwdriver, the pc would start. so i took it off and replaced it with a new one. to be honest i couldn't say what was wrong with it if anything. but having the new jumper in the reset position for the cmos, i could start the pc, and update the bios. then i moved it back to its normal position, and the pc still starts every time. i turned it on and off like 20 times before i screwed the side panel back on, so it definitely works now

[Digerati]

Okay. Note the jumper is just a wire in a plastic case. When the jumper is on two pins, it shorts those two pins together. So the typical process of resetting the CMOS is to move momentarily the jumper from where it is doing nothing, to the reset pins. This does the same thing as the tip of your screwdriver, but without the risky business of poking a hardened steel, highly conductive screwdriver tip into the heart of the computer.

Also note that you only have to move the jumper (short the reset pins) for a second, then you move it back. When the pins are shorted, that instantly removes the "holding voltage" from the inputs of the CMOS module, instantly causing the module to reset, (dump it's programming). Shorting the pins also instantly shorts any capacitors in the circuit causing them to totally discharge any voltage they may be clinging on to.

So the trick may be to check your motherboard manual for a picture layout of the motherboard and reset pin to determine where you should put the jumper when it is not being used to reset. Alternatively, and what I do when too lazy to look it up, is to just put the jumper over a single pin only.