computer woes

[Da_elf]

ok. not a good day i guess. one of my computer seems to be dead. need to check it out tomorow and my main work station which is a dual xeon 2.8ghz with HT on isnt rendering at 100% processor power. strange. (rendering in DR mode with a boxx system as the other system)

[Da_elf]

here is what happened to my dead system. (dual AMD 2600+ tyan tiger mobo)

i got a new mobo, new ram, a new hard drive to get that system back up and runing. but realised my video card was busted. no problem, i put the one from this computer into it. all day it was working nicely. finally i had all 3 computers rendering and i was happy. later in the day i needed to go pick up my GF so i shut down all the computer so i could let the rest. they had to be doing alot of rendering tonight (right now). however, when i got home the amd wouldnt boot. basically the monitor said "no signal" and the hard drive light was on for quite a while. then it went off.
A: the video card is back in this computer so i know it works.
B: i put the HD in this computer to test and it works
C: i canhear the drive spinning so i know it gets power.
D: when i swaped CD-Rom with the one from this computer the orange HD light only came on very briefly then goes off. but still no boot
E: the mobo pc speaker slot is bridged so no pc speaker so i dont know if its beaping or anything. ill have to unbridge it tomorow when i have time.
F: took out the ram and i didnt see any noticable effect.

so my worst nghtmare might be the mobo is dead or the processors.

[DaForce]

Start of by reseating the cpu, ram and video card.
DOUBLE check all necessary cables are plugged in where they should be and not loose.
When you hit the powerbutton is it only the HDD light that comes? or does the HDD spin up and all the fans spin up as well?

[Da_elf]

i can hear the drive spin up and feel its vibrations, the fans are going too. the cd tray opens and closes so power is going to them. but i dont hear the normal noise of it reading the drive. ive checked all cables and even replaced some. havent tried messing with the chips yet. it was stange that it went from working one moment then 30 minutes later is wasnt working

[DaForce]

Yeah it could be a dead PSU.

Do you have a spare one or another machine you can "borrow" one from.

[Da_elf]

why would it be a dead PSU when all parts seem to be getting power?

[DaForce]

One of the biggest strains on a powersupply is when the computer first turns on and everything kicks into life.
If you powersupply has become fault or weak then it maybe have not have the grunt to getting everything going.
Plus it takes like 5 mins to swap one out so what have you got to loose

I had an Antec 550w PSU that after many hours of good service (almost 2 hours 24/7) it decided to not be able to supply the necessary power to my HDD's to start them up from a colt boot. Once i was in windows and everything had settled down they were fine, but that was a rare occasion. Normally I would power up all drives would spin up then CLICK all drives turn off. Rinse and repeat for 15mins until it makes it to windows and then its fine.

You never know with PSU's and the good thing is they are one of the easiest things to switch and test.
I imagine you would want to try that before tackling the motherboard

[Da_elf]

i dont have any spare ones hanging around without having to take one from another system. but right now i have my project rendering so ill have to wait

[DaForce]

Ok, try this (until you get a chance to switcheroo the psu)
Unplug everything not needed.
unplug all HDD's (both the power and data cable)
same with cdroms and floppy drives
Take out all PCI cards, only leaving in video card.
And put in only 1 stick of memory.

BOot... and see what happens.

try different monitor.

[SteveC]

Hi all,

I think daforce is right, this sounds very much like what happened to my computer when the psu died in that.

Happened for no apparant reason, would turn the computer on, the lights came on and it looked like it was going to start ok, then it would just hang and do nothing. I tested everything and could'nt work out what it was until after repeated tries to boot up, the psu died completely.

Like your machine, mine was working fine one minute, i did a reboot and caput.

stevec

[RErender]

When you say the pc speaker is bridged, do you mean you have a jumper on the pins? I have never heard of that, wouldn't that cause a short?

[DaForce]

Nah that just disables it

[Da_elf]

i thought it either disabled it or it looped all pc beeps, squeeks and stuff to the audio card installed. beats me. i unbridged it but im waiting to get this project emailed off so i can rip my video card out of this internet computer again

[DaForce]

well depending on the mobo i guess it could do either... generally it just disables it.