Help please - motherboard won't post.

[Malthor]

My mate is here with his PC which appears to have been foobarred after he installed a new Thermaltake Butterfly 480W PSU.

First, newish HDD stopped responding, and appears to be dead as it won't detect in another computer. Then a 3 pin fan connector on the motherboard died. After troubleshooting (to discover the dead 3 pin fan connector), the PC now won't post (no beep, no signal to monitor).

It won't post with nothing but the RAM and video card in. The lights on the motherboard go on, and the fan on the video card spins

It is not the video card (5200) or AGP port as we have stuck in a working MX400 and old 4 MB S3 PCI card into the board and it still doesn't post.

Have put the old PSU back in with just the video card and RAM and again it is not posting. Have cleared CMOS too.

He is running:

MSI 865PE/G Neo2LS motherboard
P4 2.4 (800 FSB)
2 x 512 MB Kingmax DDR 3200 (dual channel)

Given the HDD and 3 pin connector have died, he is concerned that the new PSU is damaging stuff. Nothing smells burnt, doesn't appear to be the Mobo shorting as the fans are going. Any ideas anybody?

Thanks heaps for your help.

 

[preet2u]

SInce u've already tried a lot of stuff out ... there's not much left to try out ...

Make sure the aux power is connected properly .....

Also have u tried the processor n' Ram on another machine to ensure it's workin' properly

 

[Malthor]

Given the board isn't posting, and the monitor is not getting a signal, could it be the RAM or chip? I thought a motherboard checks the video card (and displays its stats on the monitor) before checking the processor and RAM? Would rather not change chips around if we can avoid it.

Auxillory power cable and 20 pin connections checked carefully each time we tried to boot up.

Am thinking the motherboard is damaged in some way:X

 

[preet2u]

That's not the way it works ... The system gives u beep codes only n' only if mobo n' cpu both are functional... IF it were the Video card or the Ram ..there should be beep error codes that u can hear ...

From the sounds of it ... it does look like the mobo ... But then such things happen b'coz of a faulty PSU too ...
Are u sure the PSU is workin' fine ??

All i can do here is guess .. So post whatever u try .. n' we'll try n' fix this thing up.

Also ..while trying all this ..keep all ur drives ..i.e HDD, cdroms etc.. disconnected ...
Just connect the board with the bare essentials to just boot up to bios.

 

[Malthor]

Thanks for your help.

We have been trying to boot with nothing but RAM, chip and different video cards (AGP and PCI) already.

We tried the old PSU (a 300W cheapie that was running the machine fine before) with the motherboard too and it is doing the same (no beeps, no signal to the monitor, but all fans work, lights on the motherboard work).

We don't want to mess around with thermal paste and the chip so it looks like off to the retailer with the chip and mobo then for a warranty job we hope...

 

[preet2u]

Both the MSI mobo n' the Processor have 3 yrs warranty on 'em .. so u should be able to get a replacement without a problem ..

N' just b4 u do that ..i final try ... Does the system beep if u try booting it without the ram or the video card ??

 

[scoe4]

your bios chip may be dead. If you are getting no beeps at all and no video signal but you have power to the fans,, go to a shop and get a post probe diagnostic done,, it is simple and easy and fast to do, that will tell you if your bios chip is dead. If your bios chip is dead, you will get nothing when you power up. You can replace any bios chip,, they are readily availiable from the board manufacturer and they are cheap to get. Good Luck!!

 

[Malthor]

Tried booting with the RAM and video card out and no joy.

My friend is going to ask the shop to do the probe test.

Thanks for your help preetu2 and scoe4

 

[DarkAngel]

Try re-seating everything, and take everything out.
Reset the BIOS by setting a jumper on the mobo (this will be documented in the manual) or alternatively take the BIOS battery out and leave it like that for a while.
Also try buying a new BIOS battery.
Make sure you have the special 4 pin P4 only ATX connection from the PSU connected to the mobo (usually above your AGP slot between your CPU and the back of your case)