Re: motherboard replaced - but no boot!

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Michael 23 wrote:

In follow-up to an earlier thread titled "Replacing a motherboard...?"

Not going so well.

I ordered the replacement board from arsenal pc, changed everything
over from the old mobo to the new, all jumpers the same, same cpu &
ram... and now I have nothing.

The power works - it comes on instantly with a press of the switch (an
improvement already), but that is all I get. No video, just a flash of
power to the monitor when the psu flips on, and then all is dark, The
cpu fan is spinning, the 'hd activity' led comes on for a bit, as if
something is happening, but then I have nothing at all, just a dark,
idling pc.

No bios screen, no errors - just nothing.

ANy suggestions what to do from here?
I called tech support at arsenal - the only realy suggestion was that I
pay an additional $7.50 to ship the mobo back to them for
replacement... which I hate to do before trying everything on this end.

I already tried removing the RAM one stick at a time, and I have
flashed the CMOS as per the troubleshooting guide.

Is there anything (besides a defective mobo) that would cause this
situation?

You didn't mention if you were ablle to test the display and video cable on another computer.

Power supplys provide multiple voltages. Just because some of the voltages work, it doesn't mean the others work. If the components attached to the power supply draw too much or too little electricity even a properly working power supply will QUICKLY shut down. Of course a bad power supply could keep anything from working.

Motherboards normally conduct a brief POST (Power On Self Test) when the computer is turned on. If the case speaker is connected to the motherboard you should hear a brief single beep IMEDIATELY after turning the computer on. If the computer is unable to locate or operate a video card (or on the motherboard video adaptor) or detects another problem that prevents displaying a message on the screen the POST will generate a subsequent series of beeps in a effort to indicate what is causing the problem. The motherboard manufacturer should have a list of these POST beep codes available (ussually on their web site). Drive lights will ussually operate briefly during POST.

Case speakers are often small and buried deep in the computer case. You may only be able to hear the case speaker in a fairly quiet room. The case speaker is often NOT the speaker that produces sound during the normal operation of the operating system or multimediea playback applications.

With ALL drives disconnected, a working motherboard with at least a few hundred bytes of RAM and built in video circuitry should at least be able to display a text error message on the screen.
.

Relevant Pages

  • Re: possible video issue. nothing comes up on screen
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    (microsoft.public.windowsxp.hardware)
  • Re: Wont Boot
    ... motherboard that lights up inside the case is a green light when the PC is switched on which is normal by all accounts. ... First beep test, is to remove both the RAM and video card. ...
    (microsoft.public.windowsxp.general)
  • Re: Wrong Memory Size reported by XP
    ... How old is the motherboard, or PC, if purchased as a complete unit? ... handle 2-4 Gig of RAM. ... Next, instead of asking XP how much memory it thinks there is, ask the BIOS. ... Do you have a separate video card, ...
    (microsoft.public.windowsxp.perform_maintain)
  • Re: Trying to get 3-way SLI to work
    ... Not getting video is not the end of the story. ... could be sending a beep pattern, ... With no RAM, you get the RAM ... the motherboard no longer has to beep, ...
    (alt.comp.hardware.pc-homebuilt)
  • Re: Computer wont power up sometimes, runs fine
    ... 30 seconds and then switch it back on, ... Terminally stupid terminology with PC power supplys. ... what is very likely a PSU fault, ... fess up that the RMA of the motherboard made no difference. ...
    (alt.comp.hardware.pc-homebuilt)