[amitnyc]

My home-built system had been working beautifuly for 5 months till a couple of days ago the computer crashed, i.e. it didn't respond to keyboard, mouse, etc. I turned it off and when I started it up again a few minutes later, the computer powered up but wouldn't even POST or give me any error beeps or messages; the monitor gets no video signal at all.

The power supply seems to be working - cpu and case fan are working, CD and HD are getting power. Also, the only extra component I had was my video card which i removed for testing. Even tried testing w/o HD and swapped my 2 RAM DIMMMs in one by one - all to no avail. I inspected the mobo and it doesn't look damaged at all. Even took it out of case and reinstalled it - no difference. Finally, I have also switched the jumpers around to clear CMOS.

It feels like the mobo or perhaps the CPU are blown. Any help will be greatly appreciated to further diagnose the problem so that I can fix it or buy the right part. In so much pain w/o my daily dose of CSS...

Thanks.

system specs:
Mobo: Chaintech 7NJL6 Socket A 400FSB
CPU: AMD Athlon XP 3000+ 400FSB
RAM: 2 PC3200 512MB DIMMs (Samsung)

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disconnect all the drives and then take out the video and try and start it... it should beep.

Also try taking all memory out of computer and try to start it.... it should beep.

if you get no beeps your main culprits are

1) bad Power supply..... not stable or out of voltage tolerances..
2) bad motherboard...
3) bad cpu

or possibly a combination of the above...

[shard92]

disconnect all the drives and then take out the video and try and start it... it should beep.

Also try taking all memory out of computer and try to start it.... it should beep.

if you get no beeps your main culprits are

1) bad Power supply..... not stable or out of voltage tolerances..
2) bad motherboard...
3) bad cpu

or possibly a combination of the above...

[amitnyc]

Dear Shard92,

I tried the steps you mentioned. will rule out power supply later tonight by trying a new one. Any way to figure out between CPU and mobo which one is the culprit?

thanks.

[shard92]

None that I know without swapping out, unless you have a post code detector on yours or a post card ( usually come with Professional diagnostic software ) More often than not though ( unless you suspect overheating ) it will end up being the motherboard ( in my experience anyway )