Dead mobo?

[Ryan]

Anyone know the symptoms of a dead mobo. I am having serious video problems.
Nothing will display.

My onboard video will not work nor will a seperate AGP card.

Previously, my onboard was giving me fits, so I decided to throw in an AGP
card. At first boot, it did not work, then the 2nd boot it went on.

After restarting once, it came on. The 2nd restart, the display did not come
back on acting the same way as the onboard video did.

After several bootings, nothing came on.

My led and fans come on, but the display doesn't. I do not know how a dead
mobo responds, but I am tempted to purchase a TechAid.

Anyone have any suggestions?

 

[Jerry]

Did you go to the web site of the mobo manufacturer and ask them?

 

[Ryan]

I haven't asked, because it's Intel. I'm not to confident in getting an
immediate response from them.

The mobo is D865GBF

 

[D.Currie]

Anyone know the symptoms of a dead mobo. I am having serious video
problems.
Nothing will display.

My onboard video will not work nor will a seperate AGP card.

Previously, my onboard was giving me fits, so I decided to throw in an AGP
card. At first boot, it did not work, then the 2nd boot it went on.

After restarting once, it came on. The 2nd restart, the display did not
come
back on acting the same way as the onboard video did.

After several bootings, nothing came on.

My led and fans come on, but the display doesn't. I do not know how a
dead
mobo responds, but I am tempted to purchase a TechAid.

Anyone have any suggestions?

Take out/unplug everything you don't need to start up. That includes taking
out all the extra cards, and unplugging the drive cables. Just leave the
processor and ram. If you've got multiple sticks of ram, just try one. See
if it boots and if you can get a display, and get into the bios. If that
doesn't work, it's either mobo, ram or processor. Or maybe power supply. If
you had multiple sticks of ram, swap for a different one. You can try
another power supply if you have a spare. Then you can test the processor in
another motherboard if you have one that it will work with.

It's always possible that more than one thing has gone bad. I've seen
several instances where motherboard and processor die at the same time.

If it works with the motherboard and processor and ram, you can start adding
in other parts until one of them keeps the machine from booting.

 

[Ryan]

Is it possible for the mobo, ram & cpu to crap out after 2 works working?

Prior to all this, everything worked.

 

[Sunny]

Anyone know the symptoms of a dead mobo. I am having serious video problems.
Nothing will display.

My onboard video will not work nor will a seperate AGP card.

Previously, my onboard was giving me fits, so I decided to throw in an AGP
card. At first boot, it did not work, then the 2nd boot it went on.

After restarting once, it came on. The 2nd restart, the display did not come
back on acting the same way as the onboard video did.

After several bootings, nothing came on.

My led and fans come on, but the display doesn't. I do not know how a dead
mobo responds, but I am tempted to purchase a TechAid.

Anyone have any suggestions?

Since the 'mobo' problems started when you added the AGP card, remove
it. Presumably the onboard video at least came on prior to adding the
AGP card - unless "giving me fits" means dead - so returning your
system to it's previous state will determine if a separate hardware
failure has occurred.

If the onboard works, check your motherboard manual to ensure you're
aware of any jumper or BIOS settings that may need changing to disable
the onboard video. If the AGP card still fails, it's likely defective or
incompatible with your motherboard.

If the onboard fails, the systematic (and recommended) approach to
diagnosing PC hardware problems involves stripping the system down to
bare essentials. If it still fails, known good components are swapped in
until the faulty component is isolated - guided by diagnostics such as
those provided by BIOS 'beep' codes, motherboard LEDs etc., and
preferably a POST card and DMM. Peripherals are then added one at a time
until the system is complete.

Sunny

 

[Kerry Brown]

Anyone know the symptoms of a dead mobo. I am having serious video

problems.
Nothing will display.
My onboard video will not work nor will a seperate AGP card.
Previously, my onboard was giving me fits, so I decided to throw in an AGP
card. At first boot, it did not work, then the 2nd boot it went on.
After restarting once, it came on. The 2nd restart, the display did not
come
back on acting the same way as the onboard video did.
After several bootings, nothing came on.
My led and fans come on, but the display doesn't. I do not know how a
dead
mobo responds, but I am tempted to purchase a TechAid.

Anyone have any suggestions?

Why don't you buy it and tell us if it works

Seriously, I have never found a low cost product that can detect a dead
motherboard with absolute certainty. I doubt very much a $34.95 product
will. There are too many variables in motherboard design for it to do much
more than give you POST codes (if they are even available) and power supply
voltages. The equipment and training to use the equipment needed to diagnose
motherboard faults is far more than the cost of just stocking spare parts.
Why do you think shops charge for their service? They have to carry enough
spare parts to substitute and use a methodology to diagnose PC problems.
There are no short cuts.

I realize you're just trying to save a dime. I'm not trying to give you
grief but there is no easy fix that I know of. It sounds like a power supply
problem which may a bad power supply or some component drawing too much
current causing the symptoms of a bad power supply. Disconnect all the hard
drives, CDROMS, floppy drive, USB devices, remove any network cards, 2nd
video card, etc. Only have a keyboard, mouse and monitor hooked up. Start
the computer. If you get nothing on your screen, try a known good power
supply. If the display starts up then you have to power down, add one item
back at a time and try again. If the display doesn't start up with a good
power supply then you have a bad "mobo" or CPU.

Kerry Brown
KDB Systems

 

[Ryan]

I have tried a well know power supply and swapped it out. I tried a 430W
Antec True Power and still got the same result. So the power supply did not
work.

Can you actually get a display even with the CD drive, hard drive connectors
removed?

 

[Ryan]

Kerry,

So if you are saying that I would probably be wasting my time in getting a
TechAid, what is a good way of determining the mobo or CPU is bad?

 

[Kerry Brown]

I have tried a well know power supply and swapped it out. I tried a 430W

Antec True Power and still got the same result. So the power supply did
not
work.

Can you actually get a display even with the CD drive, hard drive
connectors
removed?

Yes you will get a display. No you will not boot to XP. You will probably
get an error message about no boot device but you will see something on the
screen. If you don't see anything on the screen you probably have a bad
motherboard and/or CPU and/or ram. If you get a display, with a known good
power supply installed, add items back in one at a time, making sure to
power down and pull the plug in between, until it doesn't work. That item is
probably what is causing the problem. From everything you have described,
eliminating the power supply, the motherboard is the next most likely
suspect. You won't really know until you try a new one.

Kerry Brown
KDB Systems

 

[Kerry Brown]

So if you are saying that I would probably be wasting my time in getting a

TechAid, what is a good way of determining the mobo or CPU is bad?

I haven't seen a TechAid but I have tried many similar products and haven't
found them useful. See my previous post about troubleshooting your
motherboard. The cheapest way to be sure is to buy another motherboard and
try it. I don't know where you live but around here you can get a decent
brand i865 chipset motherboard for under $100 CDN. Where did you buy the
motherboard? Do they not have any technical support? Maybe there is a reason
some places are cheaper than others?

Kerry Brown
KDB Systems

 

[D.Currie]

Anything is possible. All three dying at the same time would mean there was
some common cause, like a significant power spike, something shorting out,
etc. that killed several components at once.

If a part is defective, usually it dies a quiet death and doesn't take
anything with it. But if it's an external cause, (or where something decides
to obliterate itself in a more dramatic way) several components can go at
once.

 

[Abhilash Tibrewal\(MCSA\)]

Though I do not recommend you purchase the PCI debug card just for this
individual case, you should get one if you regularly work with non-booting
systems(by non-booting I don't mean Windows, i mean hardware). As Kerry
suggested, first isolate the cause of the issue.

You just need the following components working to boot a system; a power
supply, motherboard, CPU, RAM and graphics card(onboard or add-in). You
require 'at-least' one of the following components to know whether the
system is booting successfully; a keyboard, monitor or debug PCI card.

Remove all unnecessary components. Remove the CMOS battery for a few minutes
and replace it back(to get CMOS settings to default). Check that all
jumpers(you may not have many on a 865) are at default.

Now try booting and get back to us with the results.