Broken PC

[AlanB]

Hi - Hope someone can help. About 6 weeks ago my pc stopped booting.
Believing that my motherboard was blown (was a socket A AMD and hard to

find replacements) I bought a new MB and chip - Foxconn 760GXK8MC-S
Motherboard + Sempron 2600 chip. Fitted everything - same problem.
Checked the power supply with a meter - all voltages seem correct. So
replaced the RAM with a 128 MB DDR PC2100 (not because I want that
little memory, but am running out of money). Still no boot.


The hard disks do not seem to be spinning up, the CPU fan is running,
and lights come on on the USB mouse when plugged in, and also on the cd

drive. The monitor does work - I have tested that on my laptop
(courtesy of my employer).


So - any suggestions?

 

[Mxsmanic]

The hard disks do not seem to be spinning up, the CPU fan is running,
and lights come on on the USB mouse when plugged in, and also on the cd

drive. The monitor does work - I have tested that on my laptop
(courtesy of my employer).


So - any suggestions?

Well, sounds like you've already sunk a lot of time and money into it.
But if the disks are not spinning up, then the disks are the first
place to look.

Normally disks should start as soon as power is turned on (when the
CPU and other components start). Make sure the power connectors are
in place and secure. Make sure the signal connectors are properly and
securely connected as well. You indicate that there are several
disks; are you saying that _none_ of them starts when you power up?

Some drives can be configured to start up after a variable delay or on
a signal from the MB, as I recall. The purpose of the feature is to
put less strain on the power supply by starting disks at different
times instead of all at once. I don't know how common this is; the
last drives I remember seeing it on were expensive SCSI drives, and I
was very frustrated by it until I discovered what was going on.

What type of disk interface are you using?

 

[spodosaurus]

Hi - Hope someone can help. About 6 weeks ago my pc stopped booting.
Believing that my motherboard was blown (was a socket A AMD and hard to

find replacements) I bought a new MB and chip - Foxconn 760GXK8MC-S
Motherboard + Sempron 2600 chip. Fitted everything - same problem.
Checked the power supply with a meter - all voltages seem correct. So
replaced the RAM with a 128 MB DDR PC2100 (not because I want that
little memory, but am running out of money). Still no boot.


The hard disks do not seem to be spinning up, the CPU fan is running,
and lights come on on the USB mouse when plugged in, and also on the cd

drive. The monitor does work - I have tested that on my laptop
(courtesy of my employer).


So - any suggestions?

Remove everything except one stick of memory, CPU, and video card. See
if it will POST.

Ari

 

[Chris Hill]

Hi - Hope someone can help. About 6 weeks ago my pc stopped booting.
Believing that my motherboard was blown (was a socket A AMD and hard to

find replacements) I bought a new MB and chip - Foxconn 760GXK8MC-S
Motherboard + Sempron 2600 chip. Fitted everything - same problem.
Checked the power supply with a meter - all voltages seem correct. So
replaced the RAM with a 128 MB DDR PC2100 (not because I want that
little memory, but am running out of money). Still no boot.


The hard disks do not seem to be spinning up, the CPU fan is running,
and lights come on on the USB mouse when plugged in, and also on the cd

drive. The monitor does work - I have tested that on my laptop
(courtesy of my employer).

Just because it looks okay doesn't guarantee one little thing about
the power supply. Unplug the drives from the mainboard, they should
still spin on power up. If things don't work better with all drives
disconnected, get rid of the video card, you should at least get some
beeps. If you don't get that, either the new board is crap too or
your power supply was the whole problem.

 

[Andy]

Hi - Hope someone can help. About 6 weeks ago my pc stopped booting.
Believing that my motherboard was blown (was a socket A AMD and hard to

find replacements) I bought a new MB and chip - Foxconn 760GXK8MC-S
Motherboard + Sempron 2600 chip. Fitted everything - same problem.
Checked the power supply with a meter - all voltages seem correct. So
replaced the RAM with a 128 MB DDR PC2100 (not because I want that
little memory, but am running out of money). Still no boot.


The hard disks do not seem to be spinning up, the CPU fan is running,
and lights come on on the USB mouse when plugged in, and also on the cd

drive. The monitor does work - I have tested that on my laptop
(courtesy of my employer).


So - any suggestions?

Check the Power_OK signal at the ATX power connector. It should be
high.

 

[l e o]

Hi - Hope someone can help. About 6 weeks ago my pc stopped booting.
Believing that my motherboard was blown (was a socket A AMD and hard to

find replacements) I bought a new MB and chip - Foxconn 760GXK8MC-S
Motherboard + Sempron 2600 chip. Fitted everything - same problem.
Checked the power supply with a meter - all voltages seem correct. So
replaced the RAM with a 128 MB DDR PC2100 (not because I want that
little memory, but am running out of money). Still no boot.


The hard disks do not seem to be spinning up, the CPU fan is running,
and lights come on on the USB mouse when plugged in, and also on the cd

drive. The monitor does work - I have tested that on my laptop
(courtesy of my employer).


So - any suggestions?

I wonder why you bought BOTH Socket A motherboard AND CPU. If you have
to replace both, I'd choose Socket 754 + Sempron 64.

Speaking of that, I did replace two Socket A motherboards because they
were from the early K6 era with the crappy PCI bus link between north-
and south-bridge, aka crackling sound. Another one had a buggy VIA
chipsets, aka data corruption with certain hard drives.

I replaced them with the same Foxconn SiS motherboard as yours and work
wonderfully. I am sorry that I cannot solve your problem.

 

[AlanB]

The disk drives (2 Western digital 80 gb IDE) do not spin up.
Everything appears to be attached correctly - have had a mate look over
the connections and he concurrs that all is connected as it should be.
I have borrowed an ATX power supply and tried that. No change. It was
suggested that I remove everything from the Mother Board, except
memory, cpu and screen card. No change. Even tried replacing the ribbon
cable on the hard drives - no change. In desperation tried connecting
the hard drives to the secondary IDE connector - nothing. I get no
beeps, no messages - just nothing, apart from power up light, light on
USB mouse, and CPU fan spinning

I am beginning to think that the Motherboard and chip that I have
bought are dud.

 

[Chris Hill]

The disk drives (2 Western digital 80 gb IDE) do not spin up.
Everything appears to be attached correctly - have had a mate look over
the connections and he concurrs that all is connected as it should be.
I have borrowed an ATX power supply and tried that. No change. It was
suggested that I remove everything from the Mother Board, except
memory, cpu and screen card. No change. Even tried replacing the ribbon
cable on the hard drives - no change. In desperation tried connecting
the hard drives to the secondary IDE connector - nothing. I get no
beeps, no messages - just nothing, apart from power up light, light on
USB mouse, and CPU fan spinning

I am beginning to think that the Motherboard and chip that I have
bought are dud.

Unplug the data cable from the drives and power on with just the power
connected to them; do they spin now?