Motherboard, Power Supply, or something else?

[Manwe]

I have an MSI 6533 mainboard that suddenly isn't doing much.

Symptoms:
Switching on power causes all fans and hard drive to spin, LEDs on
front of case to come on, etc. but nothing else.

No beeps, no post, nothing at all being sent to the display.


I've removed the motherboard from the case and removed all
peripherals. I even removed the RAM. Still nothing different. CPU fan
will spin, but no beeps or anything else. I've got it down to the
bare mother board, plus just the CPU fan and power supply (of
course). I can't even get a beep out of it.

My question is can I rule out the power supply and assume the
motherboard or CPU is the problem at this point?

==============
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[Skeleton Man]

I have an MSI 6533 mainboard that suddenly isn't doing much.

Symptoms:
Switching on power causes all fans and hard drive to spin, LEDs on
front of case to come on, etc. but nothing else.

No beeps, no post, nothing at all being sent to the display.

My question is can I rule out the power supply and assume the
motherboard or CPU is the problem at this point?

In short, yes.. I would suspect the CPU.. most other failures you'll get
some kind of beep.. try removing and re-seating it..
Also try clearing the cmos.. both with removing the battery, and the clear
cmos jumper..

If you have another board you can try the chip in, then do so..

Regards,
Chris

 

[kony]

On 30 Jul 2004 01:05:53 -0400,

I have an MSI 6533 mainboard that suddenly isn't doing much.

Symptoms:
Switching on power causes all fans and hard drive to spin, LEDs on
front of case to come on, etc. but nothing else.

No beeps, no post, nothing at all being sent to the display.


I've removed the motherboard from the case and removed all
peripherals. I even removed the RAM. Still nothing different. CPU fan
will spin, but no beeps or anything else. I've got it down to the
bare mother board, plus just the CPU fan and power supply (of
course). I can't even get a beep out of it.

My question is can I rule out the power supply and assume the
motherboard or CPU is the problem at this point?

No, you cannot rule out the power supply. Merely having some 12V
to spin a few things does not equate to proof of proper
operation. On the contrary, typical signs of even a perfectly
functional power supply of insufficient capacity would be to fail
to post system but fans may run.

Why the mystery? You ask about power supply but don't mentino
what it is, make/model/wattage.

Odds are that it isn't the CPU that's the problem unless there's
a rare situation like heatsink fell off last time while powered
on or fan stopped spinning for a long time. Since those things
seem obvious and important yet you made no mention, we will
conclude that these things didn't happen and so odds are more
than 10 to 1 that it's the power or motherboard.

Try clearing cmos on motherboard while AC power is disconnected.
If you have a multimeter take voltage readings at ATX connector
while system is in the "on" but no POST state.

Examine motherboard for failed capacitors, swollen/domed, leaky,
reside or popcorn-like smell.

You might disconnect power supply from AC for a few minutes and
open it, visually inspect for any signs of damage, particularly
failed caps or other parts looking particuarly burnt.

 

[Zotin Khuma]

I have an MSI 6533 mainboard that suddenly isn't doing much.

Symptoms:
Switching on power causes all fans and hard drive to spin, LEDs on
front of case to come on, etc. but nothing else.

No beeps, no post, nothing at all being sent to the display.


I've removed the motherboard from the case and removed all
peripherals. I even removed the RAM. Still nothing different. CPU fan
will spin, but no beeps or anything else. I've got it down to the
bare mother board, plus just the CPU fan and power supply (of
course). I can't even get a beep out of it.

My question is can I rule out the power supply and assume the
motherboard or CPU is the problem at this point?

No, you can't. I've seen some PSUs that were perfectly adequate for
the job for months or years, but suddenly don't have enough juice to
do anything other than run the fans and LEDs, though voltages at the
connector tips read OK.

This is usually caused by either faulty capacitors or rectifiers -
most often the Schottky diodes supplying the main 5V bus. Substituting
the PSU with a known healthy one will quickly determine if this is the
case.

 

[yak]

I have an MSI 6533 mainboard that suddenly isn't doing much.

Symptoms:
Switching on power causes all fans and hard drive to spin, LEDs on
front of case to come on, etc. but nothing else.

No beeps, no post, nothing at all being sent to the display.


I've removed the motherboard from the case and removed all
peripherals. I even removed the RAM. Still nothing different. CPU fan
will spin, but no beeps or anything else. I've got it down to the
bare mother board, plus just the CPU fan and power supply (of
course). I can't even get a beep out of it.

My question is can I rule out the power supply and assume the
motherboard or CPU is the problem at this point?

==============
Posted through www.HowToFixComputers.com/bb - free access to hardware troubleshooting newsgroups.

MSI motherboards have a LED diagnostic d-bracket. Install it and check
the error code. I'm 99% sure it's a bad cpu. I had the exact same
symptoms with a MSI board last year.

 

[Manwe]

I did try clearing the CMOS by removing the battery (waited liked 5-10
minutes) then replacing it. I didn't clear it via the jumper, so I
can try that. The results were the same after trying it via the
battery.

I looked over the motherboard and it shows no obvious (to me, I'm no
expert on capacitors etc.) signs of failure. I removed the CPU fan
and heat sink and nothing looked wrong with the CPU. I didn't try
reseating it though. I'll give that a shot this evening when I get
home.

I don't know the make/model/wattage of the power supply, but I'll see
if I can figure it out tonight. The system was put together by a
local shop so it could be anything.

There was no problem with the CPU fan not spinning or heat sink
falling off.

I don't have a Multimeter or second mainboard to try out at the
moment.

==============
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[Manwe]

I've never used a diagnostic d bracket before. Can you point me to a
thread or website with good instructions for "installing" it and
reading the output?

I'll try a new power supply if I can't narrow it down to the CPU.

==============
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[kony]

On 30 Jul 2004 17:03:47 -0400,

I've never used a diagnostic d bracket before. Can you point me to a
thread or website with good instructions for "installing" it and
reading the output?

I'll try a new power supply if I can't narrow it down to the CPU.

It is not very likely to be the CPU. Even if the diagnostic
reads that it's a "CPU" problem, that could occur with a
perfectly fine CPU, simply that the POST stopped at that point.

The MSI D-LED bracket installation and use is detailed in the
motherboard user's manual.

 

[Manwe]

I found an MSI diagnostic D-bracket and tried it out. I got nothing
from it. No leds lit up, nothing. I've replaced the power supply so
that doesn't seem to be the problem. At this point I'm just about
ready give up and replace the CPU and motherboard. Good excuse to
upgrade I guess.

==============
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[Manwe]

Ok, I'm back. I decided to just replace the CPU and motherboard since
it would only cost me about $150.

I got an ASUS P4SGX-MX motherboard and a 2.53 GHz Celeron. I happily
took them both home and connected the power supply and monitor to see
if things were working. No dice. I get no display, no beep codes,
nothing. So now I have a brand new power supply, CPU and motherboard
and I still can't get anything. This is getting very frustrating.

I tried every concievable combination of old and new CPU, old and new
motherboard, and old and new power supply. The only combination that
gave me anything different was when I used the old CPU with the new
motherboard and PSU. I got repeating long beeps, which seemed to
indicate that the old CPU was bad. No big shock there. The
frustrating thing is that replacing the old CPU in that configuration
with the brand new one got me nowhere.

I don't know what else to try at this point. I should clarify that
when I say I get nothing, I mean the power supply and CPU fans spin,
and the green LED on the ASUS board comes on, but there are no beeps
from the motherboard (yes, I connected the case speaker) and no
display on the monitor. There is nothing else on the board. I tried
it with and without the 512 RAM and couldn't even get a beep from the
thing when there was no RAM on the board.

Any suggestions?

==============
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[Noozer]

Ok, I'm back. I decided to just replace the CPU and motherboard since
it would only cost me about $150.

I got an ASUS P4SGX-MX motherboard and a 2.53 GHz Celeron. I happily
took them both home and connected the power supply and monitor to see
if things were working. No dice. I get no display, no beep codes,
nothing. So now I have a brand new power supply, CPU and motherboard
and I still can't get anything. This is getting very frustrating.

Just a couple things.. (jumping in so I may have missed something)...

- Any IDE drives connected? A backwards cable can do this.
- Have you put it together OUTSIDE of the case?

Since you have a new CPU, mainboard and PSU the problem should be elsewhere,
but where? RAM is the only other thing I can think of and the PC should
still beep with no memory installed.

 

[Andy]

Maybe the reset switch is stuck "on."

On 14 Aug 2004 21:05:42 -0400,

 

[ProfGene]

The continuous long beeps sound like one of your sticks of ram is bad. That
is the signal for bad ram or no ram on most boards. You might try pulling
ram if you have more than one stick and find which one is bad. If you still
get the beeps you may need to buy new ram.

Ok, I'm back. I decided to just replace the CPU and motherboard since
it would only cost me about $150.

I got an ASUS P4SGX-MX motherboard and a 2.53 GHz Celeron. I happily
took them both home and connected the power supply and monitor to see
if things were working. No dice. I get no display, no beep codes,
nothing. So now I have a brand new power supply, CPU and motherboard
and I still can't get anything. This is getting very frustrating.

I tried every concievable combination of old and new CPU, old and new
motherboard, and old and new power supply. The only combination that
gave me anything different was when I used the old CPU with the new
motherboard and PSU. I got repeating long beeps, which seemed to
indicate that the old CPU was bad. No big shock there. The
frustrating thing is that replacing the old CPU in that configuration
with the brand new one got me nowhere.

I don't know what else to try at this point. I should clarify that
when I say I get nothing, I mean the power supply and CPU fans spin,
and the green LED on the ASUS board comes on, but there are no beeps
from the motherboard (yes, I connected the case speaker) and no
display on the monitor. There is nothing else on the board. I tried
it with and without the 512 RAM and couldn't even get a beep from the
thing when there was no RAM on the board.

Any suggestions?

==============
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troubleshooting newsgroups.

 

[Manwe]

Well, I finally figured this one out. It was the RAM chip. That would
have been obvious had any of the usual diagnostic stuff on the
motherboard worked, but the diagnostic-d bracket didn't do anything,
and there was absolutely no beep codes from the board (the only beeps
I got were from the new motherboard). So I decided to brute force it
and just got new RAM, CPU, Motherboard, and PSU and methodically
tried each until I found the problem. There was absolutely no beep
codes or anything from the board even with NOTHING but the board, CPU
and PSU (no RAM at all).

So all total, it took about 6 round trips to the local PC shop, $300
out of pocket (only $80.00 after I returned all the stuff I didn't
need), and a lot of swearing until 2 AM, but the machine is working
again.

Frustrating that I wasted so much time because the motherboard didn't
provide any feedback, but at least it was a cheap solution in the
end.

Thanks for all the help.

==============
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