I'm on a losing streak

[Lil' Abner]

A guy brings in his computer. When you turned it on the fans would run
for a split second and then quit. The heat sink and processor fan had
fallen off the processor and was hanging down against the video card. I
figured it was the CPU. It was an AMD Athlon Socket A 1.6 gig CPU. I had
another CPU I knew was good and tried it. Nope, same thing. Also put
different memory in. And a different video card. And tried a different
power supply (ATX 300 watt). No help. Ordered a new PC-Chips motherboard.
Installed it and got the same symptoms. I thought I had eliminated
everything... known good memory, good processor, good video card. Finally
decided I must have gotten a bad new motherboard, so I ordered another new
one. Put that in and the same damn thing again! So I have (had) a computer
of my own with a similar motherboard and a 1.6 gig Athlon processor. So I
took out my motherboard and put in his. Left my processor and memory on it.
Only difference was my motherboard has on board video. Same thing again!
Also disconnected the connector to the reset switch... just in case it was
stuck. So I decided to put my own PC back together... put the motherboard
back in it... everything just the same, and now MINE wont' run either! It
appears that I have fried 3 motherboards. I now decided that his power
supply must be frying the motherboards. So using the chart at
http://www.mewnlite.com/testps.jpg I checked the voltages on a brand new
ATX power supply and then on his and they all came up right on the money.
There is plenty of clearance between the motherboard and the case and
nothing protruding anywhere that could short the motherboard(s).
I'm going gnuts... any ideas?

 

[code_wrong]

A guy brings in his computer. When you turned it on the fans would run
for a split second and then quit. The heat sink and processor fan had
fallen off the processor and was hanging down against the video card. I
figured it was the CPU. It was an AMD Athlon Socket A 1.6 gig CPU. I had
another CPU I knew was good and tried it. Nope, same thing. Also put
different memory in. And a different video card. And tried a different
power supply (ATX 300 watt). No help.

here ^ you try a different power supply on first motherboard

Ordered a new PC-Chips motherboard.
Installed it and got the same symptoms. I thought I had eliminated
everything... known good memory, good processor, good video card. Finally
decided I must have gotten a bad new motherboard, so I ordered another new
one. Put that in and the same damn thing again! So I have (had) a computer
of my own with a similar motherboard and a 1.6 gig Athlon processor. So I
took out my motherboard and put in his. Left my processor and memory on
it.
Only difference was my motherboard has on board video. Same thing again!
Also disconnected the connector to the reset switch... just in case it was
stuck. So I decided to put my own PC back together... put the motherboard
back in it... everything just the same, and now MINE wont' run either! It
appears that I have fried 3 motherboards. I now decided that his power
supply must be frying the motherboards.

Here ^ you refer to the original power supply still being used ..... Is it
possible you tried the new power supply . found it did not work then put the
original power supply back in and subsequently fried two more motherboards ?

cheers cw

 

[Lil' Abner]

here ^ you try a different power supply on first motherboard

Yes I did.

Here ^ you refer to the original power supply still being used .....
Is it possible you tried the new power supply . found it did not work
then put the original power supply back in and subsequently fried two
more motherboards ?

His original power supply was the first one used on each motherboard.
After it didn't work, then I hung a new one off to the side and tried it.
I only did this on the first one. Since it didn't make any difference I
assumed (yeah, I know) that his PS was OK. I definitely won't hook
another one up to that power supply.
I did do a voltage check on both his power supply and the new one and
all voltages came out within specs. Using the following as a reference:
http://www.mewnlite.com/testps.jpg
But that's a pretty crude test. It almost has to be the power supply
that's doing it.

 

[Chris Martin]

<SNIP>

You did put the heatsink and processor fan back on before you turned them
on, right? Old computers used to be able to run for a bit without heatsinks
pulling air form the processor.. modern ones will shut off after about 1
second.

~Chris

-ps- did not mean this to be insulting, sometimes it's the little things
that we forget to do that cause a big problem.

 

[Lil' Abner]

<SNIP>

You did put the heatsink and processor fan back on before you turned
them on, right? Old computers used to be able to run for a bit
without heatsinks pulling air form the processor.. modern ones will
shut off after about 1 second.

Yes. Towards the end I was just "setting" the heat sink and fan on top
to try them out. Since that time, I've acquired two more motherboards and
hooked them up in another case with a new power supply. Still having the
same problem.
So now I've got two questions:
1. Can a bad processor fry a motherboard?
2. Can a bad motherboard fry a processor?
If I just hook up the motherboard and one disk drive and have NO
processor in it, it'll run indefinitely without shutting down. Of course
nothing works but the fans, but at least it isn't overloading.

~Chris

-ps- did not mean this to be insulting, sometimes it's the little
things that we forget to do that cause a big problem.

I don't take it as insulting at all. I've pointed stupid little things
out to people that they missed and others have done the same with me. I
bought a new battery for my car once because every time I let it sit for
a few days, the battery was dead. I sent my grandson out to get something
out of the car for me one night, and he spotted a thin line of light
coming out of the edge of my not quite shut glove compartment...

 

[Jan Allan Andersen]

I'm really wondering if You have ever found out this problem?
I have (almost) exactly the same problem;

Bought myself a new M/B (ASRock K7VT6), CPU (Athlon XP Barton 3000+),
CPU coller and 512MB ram.
To avoid problems (I thought naivly) I made the place where I bought it
all assembly it.
But I can not make it work problerly (
Think I have tried everything, also to start up with just primary HD and
graphic card, but still it woun't work (

At first I got the exectly same reaction You're writing about, the fan
spinned for a split second, and then nothing else happened.
Could see that there has to be some kind of power through the M/B, as
the power LED on the chassis was on.

Now I got the CPU cooler fan and GPU cooler fan to spin and I can hear
how the HD spins up.
But nothing else is happening (
The monitor doesn't "wake up", I cannot hear the HD anymore and now is
not only the power LED lit, also the HD LED is constantly lit.

So if You have ever gotten the solution to Your problem, maybe I can use
it to resolve mine.


Regards,
Jan