Sudden PC Death

[ismisunderstood]

Hello everyone!

Just looking for some guesses here really;

I work for a small software design company, and our only "tech" is also the person in-charge of leading and managing the development team. As I'm network + certified, as well as build PC's on the side, guess who the "my mouse isn't working" problems fall on?

Yesterday, we had a very short power outage here in the office. Today, one of our tech-support leads tried to turn on her PC (she uses a laptop primarily); fans spin for 5 or so seconds, then everything turns off. It doesn't sound like her HD is spinning at all. Have to physically flip the switch on the power supply off and back on to get anything out of the power button, and the process repeats.

Here's something extra for you; when I opened the case, one of the clips which holds the heatsink onto her processor fell out. The plastic that it clips to has broken completely off. I have no idea how long it's been like this.

She says she knows she left it running over the weekend, and didn't try to use it at all Monday. So it either died from overheating (no heatsink), or has a short from the power surge yesterday.

Long story short, I have no parts to test with. I'm thinking faulty mobo, or processor, but would not completely rule out power supply. I have a guy who is supposed to bring me "alex", his test PC from home, so I should have an answer tomorrow.

Just looking for a few opinions about what part I should test first..trying to spend as little time on this as possible. (I'm leaning towards power supply, then processor, then mobo as testing order).

Thanks everyone! Have a feeling I'm going to be here a bunch!

[Puter Padowan]

Hello =)

Well I could be wrong BUT if the system is actually just shutting off after a few seconds I would test the PSU first. Could be that it's just not pulling enough juice due to a bad cable or the unit itself is bad. I have dealt with bad mobo and cpu in the past and the pc will still power on and STAY on but just not boot up.

Seems like you're on the right track to me though. Good luck =)

[ismisunderstood]

Just a quick update...

I found a PC around here that was (almost magically) the same socket type! I pulled the power supply first, same result. Next I swapped the CPU's, same result.

As I have never heard of a shot hard drive causing a system to totally shut down, I'm going to have to vote motherboard on this one...anyone disagree?

I'm not forgetting anything, am I?

[Sylvander]

"fans spin for 5 or so seconds, then everything turns off"
Sounds like the BIOS switching off the PSU [after 5 seconds] because it detects high CPU temperature [it's taking 5 sec to reach an unacceptibly high temp?]

"one of the clips which holds the heatsink onto her processor fell out. The plastic that it clips to has broken completely off"
And perhaps this is the cause of the high CPU temperature.
Make sure the heatsink is cooling the CPU effectively.

[Puter Padowan]

If you're saying you swapped the psu and cpu out for known working ones on the system in question and had the same results...again I agree that you are correct.

I don't think bad RAM or HD could cause a system to just shut off completely... reboot perhaps. Good luck.

[Mini-Me]

My vote is for a dead motherboard, based on what you have done.
:(

[mjc]

[QUOTE=ismisunderstood;315618] The plastic that it clips to has broken completely off [/qoute]

I've read that line a couple of times...I take it you are referring to the plastic stubs on the CPU socket, right?

If that is the case, then the board is dead, no matter what, because without those, there is not a convenient way to attach the cooler...so you'd kill the processor PDQ...

That is, without looking for any other reasons...which it looks like you've got, too.

At the point of discovering the socket problem, you should have called it dead and saved the time/hassle of going any farther...

[ismisunderstood]

At the point of discovering the socket problem, you should have called it dead and saved the time/hassle of going any farther...

Now...why didn't I think of that? Too obvious for someone who enjoys tearing appart PC's.

I did order a new board all told. Nothing to get excited about, just something standard. I'll let you guys know for sure if that was the problem or not...for the records you know (I hate it when someone asks a question on a message board, gets a possible solution, then never says if it worked or not!)

[ismisunderstood]

So, the new motherboard came in, got it all installed this morning, and now I have a different problem. I can't for the life of me get this thing to post. I've even tried pulling the RAM out entirely, and it won't even give me a "no ram" beep. I'm not sure her PC speaker ever worked, as it wasn't connected in the old system. I'm going to try some RAM from a different box, but assuming that's not the problem, anyone have any other ideas?

[ismisunderstood]

:rolleyes: Nevermind...

I pulled the other RAM, no change. Swapped processors, fired right up. Re-tested the old CPU, and now it's working too. Guess I didn't have it fully seated...which is odd because the lever/lock that holds it in gave me no resistance, and the sink/fan clicked into place fine too...but whatever...it's working now. Dunno why I didn't check that before...

I hate mondays...

[mjc]

It could have been that the first CPU didn't auto-detect for some reason, but the second one did. You could try resetting the BIOS after pulling the RAM...if it is something simple like not detecting properly, that usually clears it up. Also, it is a good idea to replace the CMOS battery on a new install...especially on older boards, but new ones aren't immune to arriving with dead batteries.