No boot, No power, No idea

[DarthFurby]

Sorry didn't mean to post this twice I'm having trouble with the forums. Hopefully someone will delete one of these topics...

I have a 500Mhz PIII which recently stopped working. Running pretty well for 2-3 years except for 2 problems:
1) sometimes it would reboot spontaneously, and
2) the clock/date settings were either behind by a day or two, or would completely restore to the default.
But everything else worked fine.
Now the computer won't power at all. No lights, nothing. I removed the motherboard, with only the power, RAM(3 S-DRAM 128MB PC100 sticks),and Graphics Card(Diamond TNT2) connected. Reset the CMOS. Jumped the power connection with a screwdriver and it worked a couple times but only sporadically. Now it won't power up at all.

Any ideas? I have the option of cannibalizing the computer I'm currently using(400mhz celeron with no documentation) but wanted some feedback before trying anything else.



[This message has been edited by DarthFurby (edited 01-16-2002).]

[wiltrot]

Don't know what you mean by "jumped the power connection with a screwdriver" but I would start with replacing the PSU.

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http://trotter.infopages.net/

[DarthFurby]

Thanks for the feedback. I am also thinking it's the PSU which I will test pretty soon(tho it means farming my sister's celeron for parts, which she might not appreciate...)

Also what I mean by "jumped the power connection with a screwdriver" is that I removed the power button connection from the motherboard and used a screwdriver to activate the power by lightly touching the 2 prongs on the mobo where the powerbutton plugs in. I also tried switching the power button with the reset button to see if that would work but no luck.

[DarthFurby]

Alrightyyy.

I tried using the power unit from the 400mhz celeron and connected it to the 500mhz PIII mobo(with Intel 82443BX PCI chipset) and it didn't work. Hit power and same as before. Then I took the 64mb SDRAM from the celeron and used it to replace the ram in my p3. Still nothing.

I'm fresh out of ideas.

[This message has been edited by DarthFurby (edited 01-16-2002).]

[diurnal]

Put the motherboard on a piece of cardboard, so it want be grounded out on some metal and make sure the ram is in tighter. Try a different video card if you can.

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Murph's Law: 1.Everything takes longer than you think
2.If anything can go wrong it will
3.Nothing is as easy as it looks

[DarthFurby]

Hi diurnal I tried switching the graphics card and for some reason that seemed to get the power running again!

But there seems to be another problem now.

I am able to boot but it freezes right after the memory check and says "CMOS error defaults loaded" and my keyboard and mouse aren't working at all. I double checked all the connections and everything is fit as a fiddle.

Any more ideas?

[Reid]

Have you tried putting in a new battery? Since your computer was losing time and it sounds like your BIOS is not retaining the settings, it may be dead.

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Friends don't let friends install Windows ME

[DarthFurby]

No that's something I haven't tried. I'll pick one up tomorrow and see if that does anything.

[diurnal]

Does it freeze on the windows splash screen?
If it freeezes before then you might have a bad motherboard. Also try putting some different Ram in there, could be that also.

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Murph's Law: 1.Everything takes longer than you think
2.If anything can go wrong it will
3.Nothing is as easy as it looks

[DarthFurby]

I'm pretty sure the CMOS battery was dead, but by process of elimination it appears the motherboard was the real troublemaker. All the other parts tested fine.

I took some satisfaction in getting it to boot partially(freezed before the windows splash screen), but after a few more tries the thing just died. No power again. I sat in front of my screen and laughed.

At least I know what the problem is so thanks to all for helping!