A friend dropped of a computer to resusitate and I am stuck at the beginning. He indicated that it had been having problems for a while (unspecified) and then just stopped working. When I plug it in and turn it on, the CPU and power supply fans spin and a sound equalizer in the front lights up, but nothing else. No POST, no sounds, nothing. I can't get it to turn off by the switch and have to unplug it to shut it down. Here are the specs that I have:

Future Power brand 433Mhz Celeron CPU
Future Power NEWQ 3D Surround Equalizer
Onboard 4MB video
Onboard sound
Supra 56K V.90 PCI modem
Floppy
32X CDRom
Motherboard has Award 1998 sticker on it
system diagram inside case has CB649M-SI printed on it.
112Watt Hipro power supply (I think micro-ATX type)
About 160MB SDRAM

My friend knows very little about computers and can't tell me much about what was wrong. He sent me an email a couple of weeks ago saying that he couldn't use MailWasher because he lost his password and MailWasher doesn't even use passwords.

All I have done so far is to open the case and look to see if the fans are working and everything is connected. It appears that everything is.

Any ideas about what to do next would be appreciated.

Thanks,
Budfred

Edit:
Just did Google search on CB649M-SI and it is the motherboard. Found the manual and I will take a look at it for clues.

Budfred again

OK. Budfred. You know the drill.

1) You could clear the C-mos if it has a clear C-mos jumper.

2) Disconnect everything - floppy, CD, HD, any extra cards - NIC, sound, etc., and try to boot with just RAM, video, keyboard. If it posts, add components back one at a time.

id suggest testing the voltages on the power supply. im not sure how to test the actual atx-plug since the power supply needs to be connected to the mobo to run. when mine died, i just tested the 4 hole connectors (forgot the name) and found out my psu was bad. there is a way to test the voltages on the atx plug by shorting out a connection with a wire or paper clip. i tried searchng google for it, but am sorta pressed for time and could only find sites that required membership. someone here likely knows how to short it, or you could probably find something on google. in the meanwhile, maybe you could just check the 4 hole connector.

gwallen,

Thanks for the suggestions, I thought about doing those things before I posted, but I couldn't figure out how this problem might be clarified by doing so, but I did it anyway after your suggestion and the update is thus:

Nothing. No beep, nothing... I cleared CMOS, disconnected the surround sound thing, the floppy, and the HD...turned it on and no change. Fans still run, no beeps or anything else.

Greetings...,

Thanks as well. Unfortunately, I don't have a multimeter and wouldn't know how to use one if I did.

I suspect that the mobo is dead, but I don't know what would have killed it and I don't know how to confirm its demise. OH! I just remembered my friend said he left it on during a storm a few weeks ago, but he has been running it since with only the recent fail. He was having trouble during the intervening time, but he couldn't directly connect the timing to the storm. He did have it hooked to a surge protector and he had no evidence of lightning strike or anything like that.

Oh well, any other ideas on how to proceed or suggestions to perform last rites??:confused: :D All suggestions will be appreciated.

Thanks,
Budfred

before you send it off to the great big transistor in the sky, try swapping out the power supply for one that you know works. someone once told me that the majority of computer failures are because of shot psu's. the reason i beleive it is cuz i experienced it firsthand. plus, since you seemingly eliminated a lot of the other components' culpability, it could only really be mobo, cpu, psu, or ram. i'd start with psu cuz its the more likely culprit, then maybe ram. only thing is, i don't have enough experience to tell you whether a shot mobo can hurt a good psu. about the multimeter, if you're in ny, i can lend you mine ;) they're easy enough to use, just stick the thingy in the hole, you should at least know how to do that :p

I may try hooking up another power supply to try that, but the one that is in there is a tiny little thing and I don't have a sub for it anyway. Since the fans still work and the Equalizer lights came on, it seems likely that the power supply is ok, if tiny. That leaves the cpu, mobo and RAM. Most of the RAM is only a few months old, but I could try a swap and see if it has gone bad. That would then leave the CPU and mobo. I am not sure how to test them further and whether it is even worth it. If either need to be replaced, it would make more sense for my friend to upgrade to something considerably more usable.

Thanks for the offer of the loan of the multimeter, but I live in Minnesota and the cost of borrowing it would probably more than cover the cost of buying a new computer.:D :D

Thanks,
Budfred

This would not give you a reading of any kind but can at least tell you if it has or has no voltage.

Fashion or solder a couple wire leads onto a 12 volt automotive bulb. Single element reverse lights work well. Use the leads as you would a multitester. If you are checking the 12 volt leg it should be normal brightness. If you are checking the 5v leg it will be approx. half as bright (somewhat less than half). The 3.3 will barely illuminate the element to a small glow.

But if you can guess the right processor in that other thread 'round these parts and get that $20 bill Pete's got taped under the display case, you really should get yourself a multitester. :) They DO come with instructions you know... :D

Could be that the onboard video is bad. If you have another video card to slip in, it might be worth a shot. There may be a jumper to disable the onboard video.

The PSU is pretty small (112W) and could have worn out. Take Greeting's suggestion and substitute another. No problem if it has the same MB power connector.

I doubt that the memory is bad but you could try to shift it around so another piece is in the first position.

gwallen,

If it were the onboard video, wouldn't I still get POST and some kind of beeps?? Right now it is totally silent when turned on, no signal to the video, but no beep either.

I will try another power supply since I have one handy, but I suspect that isn't the issue since at least some power is getting through.

Thanks again,
Budfred

BTW Ted, What other thread are you referring to?

Budfred

You didn't say whether the HD was spinning up and clicking when you started this thread. If it was, then the computer could actually be posting, but you might not see it with no video output. And yes, the onboard video could be shot without any beep codes.

If the HD wasn't spinning up, you would suspect a bad PSU. I think the HD motors use 12 volts, but then, so do the fans.

I am pretty sure the HD isn't spinning up, but I will reconnect it and confirm. I believe it is silent all the way around, but I can see and feel the fans.

Thanks,
Budfred

budfred,

ted was talking about this thread:

http://www.pcguide.com/vb/showthread.php?s=&threadid=17603

hey so far my entire post rhymed. screw computers, im gonna become a rapper.

oh ya, you can get a decent analog multimeter from radioshack for around 10 bucks. they're fun to have around, in case you wanna, lets say, test the resistance through a hotdog, or, the potential of a beer (potential to get me hammered, thats for sure).

:) hello
put in a foppy boot disk deppending on your operateing system tyr 98se
you can d/l a bootdisk at www.bootdisk.com
put in drive and reboot.chose with out cd-rom suport click enter
at the a:dir c: /p
and click enter. do you get a directory of c:
allso try a:sys c: click enter and reboot.
if you get a directory of c: and it did not restart try a:c: click enter at the c:scanrege /restore
a good restore point will have started after it.you have 5 of these
set by default. each new day you boot windows you lose one olderd restore point
have a nice day

Thanks for the suggestion, but I don't get anything like a boot, so a boot disk wouldn't do anything. From what I can tell, it is not even checking the A: or C: drive. This sucker is basically dead...

Budfred

An update:

I hooked up the hard drive again and could barely hear some scratching sounds when it started up. I had my ear right next to it and it didn't make anything like the normal startup sounds. I also tried hooking up a 350watt power supply and got the same results, fans spinning, but nothing else. I think either the cpu or mobo is fried and either would make the whole thing a lost cause. Any other ideas????

Budfred:confused:

bummer dude. i'm at a loss for words... *sniff* :(

look on the bright side, at least you have something cool to take to the firing range.:p

i don't have any suggestions for how to get that solved except for swapping out parts to see what is salvageable, and what to bury.

actually, what about cmos battery, can a dead battery keep the puter from posting properly?

or how about the case shorting out the motherboard, any connections on the back of the mobo touching the case?

did you try the voodoo trick: toggling the psu off for a minute, then toggling it on and off several times before trying to start the puter? that works for me if i get a power outtage and the thing won't start. no joke. it sometimes takes a few tries, but it always works for me. at this stage, you may as well give it a go.

When my CPU fan started to get old and noisy [squeek, squack. bzzzz], the POST started to fail intermittently [no beep, no display] and it would sometimes take about 15 tries before it finally succeeded.

The problems all stopped when I replaced the fan.

Yep. It sure looks like a motherboard problem. I know it took a lot of time to troubleshoot this problem, but now you are fairly confident that it is the MB. Also, next time it won't take you nearly as long. I can usually get the whole troubleshooting job done in about 1/2 hour, and I'm sure you'll be able to do that too after this little ordeal.

I would replace the MB with another micro-ATX. Ebay has the best prices. Take a look at this one - $77 for MB, including 1200 MHz Duron,on board video, sound, LAN:

http://cgi.ebay.com/ws/eBayISAPI.dll?ViewItem&item=2060050780

You'll also need better memory - $30 for 256M, Sdram 133, and a new PSU - $30 for 300 watt.

Total $137 plus shipping for a pretty good upgrade to the old computer.

Thanks for all the suggestions. I chatted with some people last night too and determined that it might be a virus fried bios. This computer was infected with Klez a few monts ago and I cleaned it up for my friend with a fresh format and install, but mjc and PaleoPete were saying that Klez still might have been able to hide and come out to play later. If that is the case, a new $20 bios chip may resurrect this thing. However, I will leave that up to my friend to decide. If he doesn't want that I have already agreed to sell him a new build I did with 600mhz AMD Slot A, 10G hd and so on for the cost of the parts. I will pull whatever I can from his doorstop to augment the new one. I am going to call him in a bit to see what he wants to do...

Oh, one other thing, I took the battery out last night and let it sit....no change today.

Thanks again,
Budfred