A buddy of someone I work with got a new computer and he didn't know what to do with his old one. I told him that I'm into fixing computers so he just gave it to me for nothing. Supposedly someone custom built it for him, but its nothing special. I have no use for another computer so I was hoping to touch this one up a little and sell it for $20 or something.
As far as I know, the computer worked when he gave it to me. The first thing I did was open it up to see how much dust was inside and there was a lot of it. I gutted the whole thing so I could do a good job of getting 8+ years of dust out of it. The CPU fan/heatsink had the most amount of dust so I went ahead and removed both so I could get them clean. This is where I think something went wrong.
There was no locking mechanism holding the heatsink in place so I gingerly tried to remove it. When it finally came loose, the processor was "glued" to the bottom of the heatsink because of the thermal paste. However, the socket (478 ZIF) was still in the locked position. I thought, "its screwed now." I cleaned the paste of off both the processor and heatsink, reapplied new thermal paste and reinstalled both. I put the whole computer back together and when I pressed the power button, nothing happened.
I checked all of my connections and they're good. I wore an anti static wristband even though I've worked on plenty of computers without wearing one. I replaced the power supply and that didn't fix the problem. I took apart the power button itself and that seemed to be functioning. I reset the RAM and the CMOS battery and still nothing. I unhooked all of the drives (HDD, floppy, CDROM) and tried to boot and still nothing.
My questions is, what's busted? The motherboard? The processor socket? I've taken apart plenty of computers and have never had any problems whatsoever and I took more precautions on this one than I ever have with any other computer.
It sounds like the cpu may be hosed. Although, I'd think the box would at least post, and if the chip were bad, it should beep out an error message and then do nothing.
You said you replaced the power supply (and I'm assuming it's one that either worked in another box or you bought new) and that didn't do anything. So it does sound like it's the mobo. Woulda been a good idea to fire it up when you brought it home before taking it apart, just to make sure. I always do that with any box I bring home just to make sure 1) it works and 2) it's what I was told it was.
When I first saw this thread I thought 'oh no, his play box from last Fall died.'
Since I know you like to play with these type of things for fun, I'd first try dropping that chip into a different case that can accomodate it and that you know works. That can at least show you if the chip is dead. If you're sure the power supply is good, can skip that. You checked the power switch. Did you try a different cord? sounds silly, but ya never know. Unfortunately, it's rather difficult to swap out a motherboard to troubleshoot it. It's possible something shorted it. I've seen things as silly as the zipper on a jacket sent a mobo to the afterlife.
I'd love to test the processor, but I don't have another box laying around and I don't want to mess with the DVR system. None of the pins are bent and the processor looks to be in good physical condition.
The thing that gets me is the fact that nothing happens at all. When I first plugged the computer into the wall outlet, the CPU fan spun one or two revolutions. But none of the lights on the front of the case come on, none of the fans come on and none of the drives can be heard. I did get a new power cord and used that, but it didn't help.
On a side note, the DVR system has been running great. I got an HD PVR so I'm now recording in high definition
sox 06 wrote:The thing that gets me is the fact that nothing happens at all. When I first plugged the computer into the wall outlet, the CPU fan spun one or two revolutions. But none of the lights on the front of the case come on, none of the fans come on and none of the drives can be heard. L
that's what bugs me as well. When you say when you first plugged it in you heard a couple spins, does that mean everytime you plug it in it starts to start up? Or did it do that once, and now, there's no physical reaction to the fans/drives attached to the mobo whatsever?
sox 06 wrote:The thing that gets me is the fact that nothing happens at all. When I first plugged the computer into the wall outlet, the CPU fan spun one or two revolutions. But none of the lights on the front of the case come on, none of the fans come on and none of the drives can be heard. L
that's what bugs me as well. When you say when you first plugged it in you heard a couple spins, does that mean everytime you plug it in it starts to start up? Or did it do that once, and now, there's no physical reaction to the fans/drives attached to the mobo whatsever?
The CPU fan spun one or two revolutions the very first time I plugged it in after I put it all back together. Since then, absolutely nothing happens when I plug it in/press the power button.
that really sounds like a dead power supply. But you said you swapped that out. I'm assuming you swapped it after the system went unresponsive?
If it's not the power supply then I have to believe it's something w/ the mobo. Have you googled the make/model of the board? Could be some weird item with it. If only it was as easy as checking the circuit breakers.
glad to hear the DVR box is humming along nicely. I'm kicking around the idea of putting Win98se on an old box to run all my ancient apps that don't get along with Win7. Just a game machine to toy with.
scottaa1 wrote:that really sounds like a dead power supply. But you said you swapped that out. I'm assuming you swapped it after the system went unresponsive?
If it's not the power supply then I have to believe it's something w/ the mobo. Have you googled the make/model of the board? Could be some weird item with it. If only it was as easy as checking the circuit breakers.
glad to hear the DVR box is humming along nicely. I'm kicking around the idea of putting Win98se on an old box to run all my ancient apps that don't get along with Win7. Just a game machine to toy with.
I talked to the guy that gave me the computer and he said it was working just fine before he gave it to me. He said it was setup on his desk and he used it everyday.
I think I might know what's wrong with it. Three of the capacitors on the motherboard that are near the processor socket are kind of crooked. I touched them and they were loose and wiggled easily. I probably knocked into them when I was getting the processor heat sink and fan assembly apart.
Cafe Home
Fantasy Baseball
Fantasy Basketball
Fantasy Hockey
by sox 06 » Wed Mar 23, 2011 2:02 pm 
