Somethings broken- help please

[PeteZahut]

Hi, my daughter has a home built pc, its only a basic thing, asrock k7s41
motherboard, duron 2600 processor (i think), 256meg ram. No extra video card
or sound card.
My daughter often forgets to power it down the correct way and never checks
if its on before pressing the power button, (she's only 6) so consequently
its had its life shortened.
Basically what happens is when you power it up it doesnt give any POST beeps
at all and no display, however if I take the memory out then it gives the
three beep code.
Ive tried resetting the bios and occasionally I can get to the bios but it
hangs after a few seconds.
Unfortunately I dont have a spare processor or board to test it on.
Any ideas as to what has broken?
Cheers
Pete

 

[ToolPackinMama]

It's a six-year-old's computer?

Have you checked for things like american cheese in the FFD and things
like that?

 

[ToolPackinMama]

I had a PC start acting like that, and it was a bad capacitor on the
motherboard.

 

[Bob Day]

Hi, my daughter has a home built pc, its only a basic thing, asrock k7s41
motherboard, duron 2600 processor (i think), 256meg ram. No extra video card
or sound card.
My daughter often forgets to power it down the correct way and never checks
if its on before pressing the power button, (she's only 6) so consequently
its had its life shortened.
Basically what happens is when you power it up it doesnt give any POST beeps
at all and no display, however if I take the memory out then it gives the
three beep code.
Ive tried resetting the bios and occasionally I can get to the bios but it
hangs after a few seconds.
Unfortunately I dont have a spare processor or board to test it on.
Any ideas as to what has broken?
Cheers
Pete

Do a basic hardware check:

1. Check the CPU fan, case fans, and any other fans in
your computer and make sure they are working.

2. Shut down your computer and turn off power *at the
surge protector* (which cuts off standby power while
leaving your computer grounded) or unplug it. Take
the standard precautions against static electricity
(wear a wrist strap or keep one hand grounded at all
times).

3. Open up your computer and dust it out. *Do not use a
vacuum cleaner* - it might cause static discharge.
Get some dust remover spray (BestBuy, RadioShack) and
a dust mask, and take your computer outside and spray
out the dust. Keep the end of the spray straw at least
six inches from any components and keep it moving so as
to avoid excessive thermal shock to the components.

4. Reseat all the modules, including the memory modules,
and cables inside your computer.

5. Remove the CMOS battery, measure its voltage, and if
the measured voltage is significantly less than the voltage
marked on top of the battery (usually 3 volts), replace it.
Note: you'll have to set up your BIOS again after doing
this step.

7. Turn on your computer, and if it boots, download
"Memtest86+" from http://www.memtest.org and run
it for a few cycles to thoroughly check out your memory.
You should get zero errors.

--Bob Day
http://bobday.vze.com

 

[PeteZahut]

Do a basic hardware check:

1. Check the CPU fan, case fans, and any other fans in
your computer and make sure they are working.

All working.

2. Shut down your computer and turn off power *at the
surge protector* (which cuts off standby power while
leaving your computer grounded) or unplug it. Take
the standard precautions against static electricity
(wear a wrist strap or keep one hand grounded at all
times).

It has to be unplugged to reset the bios. I also flick the switch at the
back of the psu too. Can never be too careful.

3. Open up your computer and dust it out. *Do not use a
vacuum cleaner* - it might cause static discharge.
Get some dust remover spray (BestBuy, RadioShack) and
a dust mask, and take your computer outside and spray
out the dust. Keep the end of the spray straw at least
six inches from any components and keep it moving so as
to avoid excessive thermal shock to the components.

Done that just before, was very clean anyway as it's only a few months old.

4. Reseat all the modules, including the memory modules,
and cables inside your computer.
Checked.

5. Remove the CMOS battery, measure its voltage, and if the measured
voltage is significantly less than the voltage marked on top of the
battery (usually 3 volts), replace it. Note: you'll have to set up your
BIOS again after doing this step.

Battery was reading 3.01volts so replaced it with another reading 3.3.
I'm thinking its either the motherboard or the cpu which has died as the odd
times it does start to boot or go to the bios section it will invariably
hang.
Cheers for the help so far.
Pete

 

[Hackworth]

All working.


It has to be unplugged to reset the bios. I also flick the switch at the
back of the psu too. Can never be too careful.


Done that just before, was very clean anyway as it's only a few months
old.


Battery was reading 3.01volts so replaced it with another reading 3.3.
I'm thinking its either the motherboard or the cpu which has died as the
odd times it does start to boot or go to the bios section it will
invariably hang.
Cheers for the help so far.
Pete

Hook up a spare power supply in place of the existing one and then try to
boot. I've been putting systems together for 18 years now, and whenever I
get weird start-up problems such as those you describe, nine times out of
ten it's a funky power supply. Fortunately, it's an easy fix if that's what
turns out to be the problem; just don't buy a crappy power supply.