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Dead PC

Trish's Escape from Hardware Hell Help Board » Hardware » Dead, Dying or Booting Problems » Dead PC « Previous Next »

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VSampietro
Posted on Monday, June 17, 2002 - 2:20 pm:   

I built a system 4 months ago with a Alton (PC Chips) P4 Socket 478 ATX Motherboard with a Savage 2000 AGP Video Card, 256 memory, dvd, and cdrw drive, 3.5 floppy drive, 20gbyte maxtor HD

Recently it will not function. After turning on the power, only the 1.6 chip cooling fan and HD light function. There is no drive activity, cannot open the dvd or cd drives, no video activity, no beeps. Basically it is dead except for the Power cooling fan, IC cooling fan, and drive lights. What is the best method to trouble shoot this problem?
E.S.
Posted on Monday, June 17, 2002 - 8:23 pm:   

It does sound a bit suspect that perhaps the bios may need to be reset or you have lost a 5 volt supply somewhere. since all the fan's work and drive LED's work it may be a regulator on the motherboard. You can systematically remove power and data cables from drives and power up to see if a drive is causing the problem. Also (if your board has built in video) remove the vidcard and check for a change in function. Aside from that there really isn't much you can check.
VSampietro
Posted on Tuesday, June 18, 2002 - 8:42 am:   

I disconnected all the drives (power & data) and also all of the cards (video, lan) with no change. I also removed the Ram memory with still no change. How can I reset the bios?

PS. One thing I did notice was that the CD drive light lit up when I disconneted the data cable. When the data cable is re-attached there is no activity on the CD drive.
E.S.
Posted on Tuesday, June 18, 2002 - 7:21 pm:   

Resetting the bios requires 1 of 2 things, Remove power unplug the computer etc.. open the case and remove the cmos battery for a few minutes than replace it or find the manual for your motherboard and look for a set of jumpers or contact points and follow the directions by A)move the jumper to clear than back to normal. B)short the 2 contact points momentarily. Make sure you have the correct manual and that power is removed from the unit.

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