[neutrino]

Our town had a brief power surge/outage today, which is probably the cause of my latest computer problem. I have only the cheapest power strip, which isn't rated to protect from any normal surge, so I'm afraid some component of my system has been fried.

Here are the only clues I have to go on right now:

I got home from work and my computer was off--I believe I left it on when I left in the morning. I turned on the computer and it was working normally for about an hour. However I did notice a few issues of having to replug/change a few of my usb ports to get, for example, my flash drive recognized.

After maybe an hour my display went black as it apparently stopped getting a signal from the computer. The computer hadn't shut off, as the led was still on and the fans were all still running.

This worried me, so I hit the power button to shut down the computer and reboot. No response, the computer made no indication to be shutting off. So I held down the power button to force it off.

Now, when I try to turn it on again, it appears to be starting up--the leds light up and the fans start spinning. But after a few seconds it just shuts back off.

Is this typical of any particular component being fried, power supply or motherboard, for example? Any insight on how I can troubleshoot this? Any help you guys can give would be greatly appreciated.

Home-built system:

WinXP
MSI K8N Neo Platinum Socket 754
AMD64 3000+
512x2 PC 3200
NVidia MX420 PCI 64MB

[Advertisements]

Hi,

I would start with the psu, it could have other problems but with what you descibed the psu would be the first suspect and with out a good psu it is dificult to troubleshoot other things.

It is typical to fry a psu after a power surge.

Rick

[Doby]

Hi,

I would start with the psu, it could have other problems but with what you descibed the psu would be the first suspect and with out a good psu it is dificult to troubleshoot other things.

It is typical to fry a psu after a power surge.

Rick

[neutrino]

Thanks, Rick. I will start with finding a replacement PSU and will report back.

Appreciate the help!

[neutrino]

I've tried a PSU that I know to be good and there is no change. I've torn out or disconnected every component of the computer and it still gives the same behavior--shuts off exactly 10 seconds in. When the floppy was still connected it didn't get to a point where it could boot off a 3.5.

Is it fair to say that my motherboard is toast? Are there any more things I can try before I go buy a new motherboard? Would switching motherboard manufacturers require a clean OS install (driver conflicts, etc?)?

Thanks again

[Doby]

Ok so we know the psu ain't the cause.

Can you tell me if in this 10 seconds the cpu fan is spinning up.

What troubles me is if all the drives, cards ect. are disconnected and the computer restarts then it only leaves the ram, mobo, cpu or video card seeing as we know the psu is good.

If somehow the cpu fan is not spinning the mobo will sense this and shutdown to prevent damage to the cpu so check this first.

If the cpu fan is spinning up then could you try another stick of ram and possibly another video card?

You could also try removing the ram and power on to see if you get any beeps this sometimes indicates by the lack of beeps that the board is bad but is not absolute.

Try these and let us know the resultes.

Rick

[neutrino]

Yes, the CPU fan is spinning up for the entire 10 seconds that it runs.

I've tried it now with and without ram and got the same result--no beeps, although I've never had the case speaker connected before so I don't know what is normal.

With or without the video card gives the same result.

I've ordered a new motherboard, but am afraid the problem could just as easiliy be the CPU at this point. We'll see. I'll certainly never skimp on a surge protector again.

Thanks again for the advice.

[Doby]

Keep me posted on this my guess is the board two but its hard to tell if the cpu is bad also, hope not.

Rick

[neutrino]

It was the motherboard that was gimped. I got her up and running again now with the replacement.

Thanks again for the advices! Appreciate the help.

[Doby]

Glad you got her up and running and thanks for letting us know what the fix was.
I sorta figuard it was the board because of the lack of beeps but sometimes this don't hold true and the cpu is bad but most times its the mobo. I just hate to recomend to replace a part and have someone spend thier hard earned cash when I'm only about 75% sure of something, you know what I mean.

AnywayI guess this worked out as good as it could with no other comonents bad.

Rick