PC Has Died
 

Help!

I was using my PC until mid afternoon today when I smelt some burning coming from the base unit so I switched it off. I couldn't find where it was coming from so reset the PC backup on the top of my desk as I was sick of reaching down under to turn it on and off etc. I powered it back up and I get no display, the PC boots up and sounds to be ok but I get no display. I have reseated everything in the case and checked everything but it doesn't seem to make any difference, the monitor is ok as I have it connected to my laptop.

Anyone any ideas? Could it be the graphics card, I would try another one but its PCI-E so cannot, I have tried it in the other PCI-E slot and it makes no difference.

Please help as I'm pulling my hair out on this one.

Cheers

Matt

Re: PC Has Died
 

Are there any beebs

Re: PC Has Died
 

No beeps or anything, I took the memory out to see if I got any and I didn't. Could it be the motherboard? If so it's the 2nd one I've had since day one!!!

Re: PC Has Died
 

Possible PSU failure?

Re: PC Has Died
 

Everything powers up, hard drive, fans, optical drive.

Re: PC Has Died
 

Have you got a spare graphic card you could try?

Re: PC Has Died
 

Not got any spare PCI-E cards I can try unless I go and buy one.

Re: PC Has Died
 

Don't spose its one of those motherboards that has onboard graphics?

Re: PC Has Died
 

No on board graphics on the board.

Re: PC Has Died
 

was a bit of a long shot i must admit.

Re: PC Has Died
 

Certainly sounds like a good chance it's mobo or graphics card.

If you smelt burning it's got to be something fairly drastic. In your position I'd benchstrip the base unit and examine both sides of the card and mobo very carefully for signs.

Is it a no-name power supply? If the PSU is failing it could be spiking voltage levels. Remove the psu from the case and initially apply the nose test. Smell it carefully all around and check for any burning insulation aroma..

Re: PC Has Died
 

Got a graphics card this morning and it's not that it's looking like it's the board so just sorting out a replacement.

Re: PC Has Died
 

I place my bets on being the Power supply.

Have a look at the power supply. Does it smell of burnt electrics ?

Just before you turned off was the power light on the motherboard still lit ?
Some power supplies will cut power to components if a fault occurs.

Re: PC Has Died
 

The power supply is working fine, everything is powering ok, spoke to technical support and they said its the board so waiting for it to be collected on Monday and a new one dispatched.

Re: PC Has Died
 

You say this is the second motherboard you've had since day one. What time period are we talking here? And is it still the same PSU?

I ask because, although it sounds like the PSU is still providing power, it could be the PSU is causing the problem. If you're still on the original PSU I'd definitely consider replacing it.

Ed.

Re: PC Has Died
 

The first board had a NIC fail on it, well from day one of putting it in the case that NIC never failed.

Re: PC Has Died
 

If your motherboard has a buzzer or speaker attached, then the fact that it gave no beeps means that its the board or CPU. Does the CPU smell burned?

Re: PC Has Died
 

normally no beeps and no vga relates to a dead cpu

Re: PC Has Died
 

Right, eBuyer have got back to me, the board has tested ok, the PSU works fine so the only thing could be a dead CPU, I am not missing anything here am I?

What would cause the CPU to die?

Re: PC Has Died
 

heatsink not fitted properly is the main one, i remeber killing a 1gb amd years ago as the heatsink was the wrong way around

Re: PC Has Died
 

Unlike the earlier ones the modern CPUS tend to halt or slowdown if that happens rather than just go up in smoke.

Re: PC Has Died
 

I'm amazed at what some of the recent CPUs can tolerate. I had an AMD box recently with the cooler upside down and kicked up at one end. It couldn't have had more than a thin line of contact with the heat spreader and yet it didn't burn out. Incredible..

Re: PC Has Died
 

yep.

I think even p2/p3's would't burn out, p3's would just Halt, P4's would speedstep to a stupidly slow speed but carry on going.


it was the early athlon XP's that used to go into meltdown :Yikes:

Bit like this really.

http://uk.youtube.com/watch?v=yRn8ri...eature=related

http://uk.youtube.com/watch?v=xG0sGu...eature=related

Re: PC Has Died
 

Got the board back today, plugged it all in and it works, all they did was flash the BIOS. Odd.

Can anyone recommend any utilities that I can use to monitor my PC temperature and other vital numbers?

Cheers

Re: PC Has Died
 

Speedfan.

http://www.almico.com/speedfan.php

good to hear you got a result.
:)