Motherboard has died

[statalite]

Whilst using my PC at the weekend it completely froze. I did a hard reset, and after it won't go past the bios, no beeps, nothing.

I'm assuming the motherboard has gone (more likely?) than the power supply which still powers on the unit.

 

[Analoguesat]

Its possible for the psu to go but still provide enough power to give indications its ok - Ive seen it many times over the years at work where we had a bunch of computers with bad caps in the psu box. At one point I had about one base a week failing....

However Ive also seen a failed transistor blow a hole through a motherboard.

If you have a voltmeter see whats coming out of the drive connectors - should be 5 & 12V

 

[Lazarus]

Maybe as simple as a failed BIOS battery?

 

[Channel Hopper]

Have you left a floppy in the drive ?

 

[Captain Jack]

Yeah, some of my PSUs went with a bang and smoke for no apparent reason. T'was the caps but I replaced the whole PSU - thankfully, no damage to the motherboard.

 

[william-1]

My PSU went very quietly & was easily replaced
Advice Needed - PSU for my pc not powering up

 

[rolfw]

Had a similar problem a year or so back, took a chance and got a used PSU on ebay, was quickly back up and running.

 

[Analoguesat]

Back in 2006 we were decommissioning our old network kit at the end of the summer term. I picked up the computer in the woodwork room and the psu area was so hot it took the skin off the end of my fingers.. Some little darling had stuck a screw through the psu fan grille and jammed up the workings!

 

[drats]

I invested in a PSU tester from scan. Was very cheap and its saved me loads of time and messing. Just plugs into 12v,5v ect and throws a warning light up if one of the rails has given up. I've never had a board go on me in 15 years its always been the PSU. One was even a 2 week old platinum seasonic lol

 

[2cvbloke]

I almost had my dirty old Pentium4's PSU die on me, but it was just the fan that was "failing" (dry sleeve bearing, applied fresh oil and it's no longer sounding like a diesel generator), the motherboard has its issues though (USB has failed, forgets to engage the smart fan to slow the CPU fan down, randomly decides to lock up (tested RAM & CPU, they checked out fine), etc.), so it's not got long left...

 

[statalite]

I have changed the PSU for an older one, took me ages because could not remove the old one from the case without taking the motherboard out.
Alas the same error code translating to:
"Complete uGuru inital process, AWARD BIOS take over booting job"
But as I say nothing happens, connected a floppy drive but nothing seeks on start up.
As I have tried another PSU I can only conlcude the motherboard has died?

 

[Analoguesat]

I have changed the PSU for an older one, took me ages because could not remove the old one from the case without taking the motherboard out.
Alas the same error code translating to:
"Complete uGuru inital process, AWARD BIOS take over booting job"
But as I say nothing happens, connected a floppy drive but nothing seeks on start up.
As I have tried another PSU I can only conlcude the motherboard has died?

Possibly bios fried or corrupt:

http://forums.majorgeeks.com/index.php?threads/can-this-motherboard-be-saved.193398/

 

[skomedal]

Had probs with my ASUS lappy also, used for streaming

Asus lappy finaly died

Binned it and bought an el-cheapo tower

Best move I have ever made, works like a dream.

Regards


Good luck

 

[statalite]

Think il get on eBay. My CPU is a Core 2 quad Q6600. Which is actually getting on a bit but does everything I need.
Il see if I can get a cheap motherboard off eBay, trouble is finding one that supports the Q6600.
I don't have the funds to buy a complete new set of kit (although the thought of an i3 or i5 is nice)

 

[2cvbloke]

trouble is finding one that supports the Q6600.

The ASrock board in my C2D system supports the Q6600 up to the Q9550S, and with a tweak or two, even Xeon processors, can't recall it's full model, but it has G41M in there, it's only a MicroATX, but does the job...

 

[statalite]

There's someone on eBay in the netherlands selling the bios chip for my motherboard, in a separate listing an "extractor tool".
Has anyone heard of this method of replacement?

 

[Analoguesat]

The extractor tool just helps pull the bios chip out nice and easily without having to stick dangerous items (to the mobo) like screwdrivers under it.

 

[statalite]

I'm just wondering why the system would just suddenly stop and corrupt the bios.

I'm wondering if I buy a replacement chip would it do the exact same. It's been ok for God knows how many years.

 

[2cvbloke]

I'm just wondering why the system would just suddenly stop and corrupt the bios.

I was doing winderps updates on my Lenovo T410, it went to restart, and it never restarted again, diagnosed a burgered BIOS, but being a laptop, the BIOS chip is hard-soldered to the board, so bought another motherboard, and it lives to this day, so, I blame windows...

 

[Topper]

I assume you have tried a bios reset as this will revert the bios to its eeprom stored factory defaults