[shortysnmn2010]

Hey,

Well, here's my situation: Whenever I try to turn on my computer, it will turn on for a split second before turning off again. After that, the only way I can get it running for that split second again is if I unplug the power supply and plug it back in after a few seconds. This happened immediately after replacing my power supply with the one from my mom's computer.

I replaced the power supplies because my mom's computer got fried due to a power surge. She wanted me to see if it was the power supply or the motherboard, so I put the power supply into my computer. I connected the main connector that went into the motherboard and connected one other to my hard drive. When I turned on my computer, the hard drive was working, but the CPU fan was not. Nothing was on the monitor, either. After about 10 seconds, I turned it off and replaced it with my original power supply. THe first time it turned on, it worked well, except that there was no video connection. After a few tries, it went to the situation I described above. I did not mess with any cables or connectors, other than the one that powers the motherboard and the one that powers the hard drive.

I took a picture of my processor (I tried to get it the best I could), as seen below:


My finger isn't touching the back of the processor, just looks like that from the angle. It looks normal, I think, but there is some sort of black outlining along the edges of the center. I can't recall if that was there before this happened or not, but I wanted to see if that is a sign of a blown processor. It wasn't hot at all when I picked it up and I really can't smell for anything burnt due to my cold. Is it dead? I don't know how I can check to see if it is or not - It's a 2.0 GHz AMD athlon, if I remember correctly.

Could it also be a motherboard issue? I have no idea what to do . Any help would be greatly appreciated .

Thanks in advance!

- Nick

Edit: I took apart my computer today, to see if there may have been a screw shortening the motherboard, but nothing happened when i put it back together again. =\

Edited by shortysnmn2010, 27 January 2006 - 04:03 PM.

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Hi there

For future reference.... if you suspect a power supply may have been damaged, do NOT connect it to working computer in order to find out! There are other ways of testing which are far safer than this.

The cpu looks fine. That doesn't necessarily mean it IS fine, but the black edging you can see in the photo is normal.

Can you give me the specifications of the following components please :
For both yours & your mums computer, can you tell me:
1) If either of them are branded names (such as Dell or HP etc), then let me know what make & model they are.

2)If they are generic (or not big brand name) systems, can you tell me what the motherboards are. Make & model in preference but if not, then the cpu socket type will do. Also the power supply specs (eg manufacturer & power rating in watts)

[Samm]

Hi there

For future reference.... if you suspect a power supply may have been damaged, do NOT connect it to working computer in order to find out! There are other ways of testing which are far safer than this.

The cpu looks fine. That doesn't necessarily mean it IS fine, but the black edging you can see in the photo is normal.

Can you give me the specifications of the following components please :
For both yours & your mums computer, can you tell me:
1) If either of them are branded names (such as Dell or HP etc), then let me know what make & model they are.

2)If they are generic (or not big brand name) systems, can you tell me what the motherboards are. Make & model in preference but if not, then the cpu socket type will do. Also the power supply specs (eg manufacturer & power rating in watts)

[shortysnmn2010]

Hey, thanks for the quick reply!

Here are the specs from my mom's computer (didn't get it from this site - just the same comp):
http://shopping.yaho...HNlYwNzaWJzcGVj
- Emachines T2692
- Power supply: 250w (http://www.justpower...ower-supply.htm)

My computer is pretty much self-made, with parts baught from Fry's.
- Motherboard: ASUS A7N8X-E Deluxe (http://www.hothardwa...leid=56&catid=3)
- Processor: Came from my old comp, socket 462
- Power supply: 450w - I can't find a webpage for it =\

I also run a lot of stuff on my computer, such as: 6 fans, 2 hard drives, 2 cd-rom drives, a long blue light (forgot what it is falled), and a lot of usb devices.

I hope some of this is useful.

[Samm]

Thanks for the specs.

OK, I'm going to give you the bad news first...
A good friend of mine, up until very recently, worked for a PC maintenence company serving computers under warranty, including Emachines amongst others.
One of the most common problems he came across was with machines using Bestec power supplies. These power supplies are very cheap & very nasty. The common problem was that the power supply would blow (or simply overload) & in many cases it would take the motherboard out with it. This shouldn't happen with a good quality PSU because of the built-in protection inside the power supply. A power surge is likely to blow a fuse or possibly the psu itself but the motherboard normally survives. But like I said, Bestec PSUs aren't good quality!

First thing to do it to chuck the PSU in the bin (unless of course your mums machine is still under warranty, in which case she should reassemble her PC as it was before & call the people she bought it from).

I assume your machine isn't under warranty so it's worth trying to fix yourself.
Please follow these steps very carefully. If you have any questions, please ask.
Wear an anti-static strap if you have one or at very least, make sure you discharge your static by touching a metal surface before touching any of the internal components in the PC :

1) Disconnect the external power lead, open up the case & disconnect the internal power leads that connect the PSU to the motherboard

2) Make sure you disconnect any USB devices (except keyboard), any internal USB fly leads, all drive cabling (disconnect at the motherboard end), cards, the Leave the cpu+heatsink/fan, ram & video card in place. Also make sure you still have the internal speaker or buzzer connected.

3) Look for a jumper near the cmos battery (round flat silver battery on the motherboad). It may be labelled something like CLR_CMOS or JP1. You should see a plastic jumper cap which is covering 2 pins, and a third (bare) pin next to it. Move the cap so that it covers the bare pin & the middle pin (pins 2-3). Leave in this position for about 30 seconds, then replace the jumper over the original pins.

4) Reconnect the main 20pin ATX power connector to the board & the 4 pin square power connector, near to the CPU.

5) Power the system on again & let me know what happens i.e do you hear any beeps, get a picture on screen, do the keyboard lights flash?


By the way, I just remembered that you took the heatsink/fan off of the cpu to photograph it. When you replace the heatsink, you must clean off the old thermal compound first & apply fresh compound to the base of the heatsink.

[shortysnmn2010]

'ello again,

I tried what you said, the only thing is that I don't see a 4-pin square connector on my motherboard. I have the connector from the power supply, though.

I think i may have done something wrong - it pretty much did what it did before. Nothing showed up on the keyboard, no sounds beeped, but I noticed something with the monitor. When I turn on the monitor (with the computer off), it'll had a dialog box to ask to check the connection. When the computer is turned on for a split second, the screen goes black, as if you just turn on your computer. A second or so later, it'll go back to the dialog box.

I did notice a few things, though:
- When I connect the power supply, but not into the motherboard, i can hear a quiet humming from the power supply...don't know if this is normal or not.
- A few times (i tried this a few times), I didn't need to push the on button. As soon as i connected the 20-pin connector it would turn on for a split second.
- When i try to push the on button after turning it on once, it will not do anything. I need to disconnect the power supply from the motherboard first.
- Even though everything will be on briefly when powered, the green light indicating power is going to the motherboard is on as long as the power supply is in. It works normally.

Hopefully there was something you were looking for in there

Edit: I put the 20-pin connector, the cpu/fan, ram, the main hard drive, and video into my motherboard from my old computer, and it loaded up just fine (thank god for saving old computer parts!). Only thing is though that it turned on as soon as i put the plug in the power connector - didn't have to push the "on" button. I guess that means it's definitely my motherboard? If so, is there any way to save it, or am I stuck with buying a new motherboard?

Edited by shortysnmn2010, 28 January 2006 - 02:57 PM.

[MrCanard]

shortysnmn2010,
You might want to take a look at this forum,
http://vip.asus.com/...SLanguage=en-us
from there you can use the drop down menus to find your mobo.
Having an asus a7n8x-e deluxe and problems somewhat like yours I was almost ready to buy a new psu.
my story;
The first part of this week my machine shut itself down.
When I tried to boot only the board light, hdd light on front of box, and power light on front of box came on.
After unplugging the power cable from the back of the psu and plugging it back in I tried to start the machine with the power button on the front of the box.
The power light & hdd light lit up on the front of the box but no joy.
For grins I pressed the reset button on the front of the box.
A message came up telling me I was trying to run at an unsafe speed.
Pressing the reset button again I was able to get into bios and change from 166 (normal for amd xp 2600+ and pc 3200 ram) to 133.
On next try the machine booted as normal.
The good news is the machine has been on and stable for 4 days now.
The not so good news is the machine is running at 1.5g and not 1.9 as it should. Plus I see higher voltage on all rails than I would expect to see.
But if the board was going bad I'd expect to see lower voltage as the board pulled more current wouldn't I?

[Samm]

Hi shortsnmn2010

When you said you tried the components in your old motherboard, did you use the same power supply? (i.e the one you normally use)

Did you manage to find the jumper near the cmos battery OK? I've checked your manual now & it's labelled CLRTC1, in case you had trouble locating it.

I also realise that your motherboard doesn't use the square 4 pin connector, so don't worry about that.

You sais in your last post that when you connected the 20 pin ATX connector to the board, the board powered up for a split second. Did you have the main lead (external power lead) connected at this time?

[shortysnmn2010]

The same power supply was used when I connected it into my old motherboard. I just remembered that my old computer (the one whose motherboard i used) would turn on whenever i put the power cord into the power supply, so that should be normal (I think the cmos battery is dead or something). I also noticed that whenever i took out the power, the date would reset to 12:00 AM 1/1/2001. This is a different story, though .

I was able to find the jumper - there was two next to the cmos battery, and the one to the right had white text above it saying "1-2 <forgot>, 2-3 clear cmos."

By the main power lead, do you mean the plug that powers the power supply? If so, then yeah - it would turn on as soon as I put the 20-pin connector in. I also did that without the plug powering the power supply. I put the 20-pin connector in, then put in the plug, then it turned on briefly (without turning on the "on" button).

On a sitenote, I'm posting on the computer we're working on right now. I installed the old motherboard so I can see how it works, and it is working perfectly...I just have no sound, but that's due to not connected the jumpers, I believe. I can reinstall the other motherboard if there are other tests to see if it is ok...I need the other one (or need to buy one like it) since it has more pci slots, ram slots, and the correct jumpers for everything - I have a lot of unconncected jumpers right now because I couldn't pair it up with anything on this motherboard.

Any other ways to see if it is still alive? I really appreciate this help

MrCanard:
- I appreciate the site referall. I briefly checked it out, but I don't think it will be much help to me, seeing I can't find a topic that described my situation (I can't even keep the power on). Thanks, though

Edited by shortysnmn2010, 28 January 2006 - 05:09 PM.

[Samm]

I have to agree, it does look like the motherboard needs replacing.
For future reference though, never ever connect the 20pin ATX connector while the main power lead is plugged in! And yes, by that I do mean the one that powers the power supply!

In reference to your old motherboard & the date resetting to 01/01/2001 whenever the power was off....this will be caused by the cmos battery being flat. Simply replace the battery to fix the problem.

Let us know how you get on with the replacement motherboard