MB Troubleshooting and Replacement

[pstritt]

I have a four year old Micron with a Pentium 4 HT processor and an Intel D875PBZ motherboard. It died on me recently and will not boot, that is, when I turn it on the fans and hard drive will spin but nothing shows up on the monitor at all. Through swapping components with a similar system I have determined it is not the: processor, RAM, HD, video card, or monitor. This leaves me to believe it is the motherboard.

I may replace it with the ASUS P4C800 or with another Intel D875PBZ. Can I drop either in, hook everything back up, and expect it to boot up from the hard drive like it used to?


Is there anything else I should check before buying the new MB?




Thanks
Patrick

[Sylvander]

Do you no longer hear the [single short?] beep that you formerly heard when all was well?
Does it look like the POST is running?

To test that the POST IS running...
Connect only...
[B]PSU, Mobo, CPU+heatsink+fan, internal speaker with the board out of the case on a non-conducting surface.
[No RAM, & no video card connected]
If you have any doubts about the on-switch, short the start pins on the mobo to switch on.
If the POST is running and testing and warning it should generate beeps when the 1st RAM test fails, and if the speaker is working you should hear those.
If no beeps are generated/heard that would suggest the POST isn't running.
And since you know your CPU is OK there must be something wrong with the mobo "OR SOMETHING ON IT" [or the PSU].
This could be the BIOS's configuration settings, so remove the CMOS battery and the BIOS will use the default settings [the changes to the defaults will be lost, but changes can be made once a new/good battery is installed].
If this doesn't produce a fix, the only suspects remaining are the mobo hardware or the PSU.
Try a known good PSU replacement or test the old one.
If the old one is OK and/or the replacement doesn't fix it, then you're down to the mobo. :(

[johnny_quest]

there's no benefit at all from replacing it with an identical model, unless it's your best price/buy.

xp will tie itself to the mac id of the mobo anyhow, so if you replace it, you will likely have to reactivate windows. you may also have tons of conflicts and driver issues (if it even works at all)... or there's the slight chance it might work ok, i've seen it done before, but i would personally always do a fresh install.

[pstritt]

Sylvander:
I followed your procedure and have further found the following:
1. The power supply is good. Used volt meter to check every pin.
2. Under no conditions do I get a beep. Pulled the battery....nothing.

Looking like the motherboard is the culprit.

johnny_quest:
A guy on another forum directed me to this article:

http://www.informationweek.com/windows/showArticle.jhtml?articleID=189400897&pgno=1&queryText=

If this procedure works you would not have to redo the XP install no matter what mobo you dropped in.

Thanks

[Sylvander]

"If this procedure works you would not have to redo the XP install no matter what mobo you dropped in"
That "Nondestructive Total-Rebuild" [or repair] would make the Windows setup program re-detect the new hardware arrangement and set Windows up to use it by adding new branches to the hardware tree in the registry.
The Windows installation would then be capable of working with both sets of hardware [creates registry bloat though].
Then if Windows found itself working on either set it would use the appropriate branches of the hardware tree in the registry, use all the correct drivers to suit, and this or that set of hardware would work.
Except that for XP or later versions, Windows would need to be activated for use with this set or that if the differences were so great that they registered with Windows as DIFFERENT hardware [and they would if it involved different motherboards].

In the end it is generally more ideal to do a fresh install and so avoid the registry bloat.

[mjc]

xp will tie itself to the mac id of the mobo anyhow, so if you replace it, you will likely have to reactivate windows.

MAC--"In computer networking a Media Access Control address (MAC address) or Ethernet Hardware Address (EHA) or hardware address or adapter address is a quasi-unique identifier attached to most network adapters (NICs). It is a number that acts like a name for a particular network adapter, so, for example, the network cards (or built-in network adapters) in two different computers will have different names, or MAC addresses, as would an Ethernet adapter and a wireless adapter in the same computer, and as would multiple network cards in a router. However, it is possible to change the MAC address on most of today's hardware."

So if the motherboard in question doesn't have an onboard network adapter, it wouldn't have a MAC. But if there is no onboard adapter, XP will find some other unique identifying item for the motherboard.

You have to change five items to force reactivation...but remember, some items count for two...CPU and NICs each count as TWO!

[pstritt]

RESOLVED:
It was a bad floppy drive. When I was diagnosing the motherboard I detached all of the drives except that one. The cable was buried by a bunch of other cables. As soon as I disconnected the floppy cable it booted right up. Thanks for all the input.