Multiple motherboards not powering up

  • Thread starter Thread starter Isaac Grover
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I

Isaac Grover

Hi everyone,

Over the last month or so, I have acquired four different ATX
motherboards, no two are the same model or brand, and three have come
with their own power supply, but they are all showing the same
symptoms.

To cut down on the sources of problems on the systems, I have only
connected the power supply to the motherboard and to a case fan to
verify power, no other drives or peripherals are connected to the
power supply. When power is applied to the system, the power supply
and the case fan will power up momentarily and shut down. When the
PWR jumper on the motherboard is shorted, the power supply and case
fan power up and stay powered on, but the motherboard shows no signs
of life - the fan on the CPU won't start up, no PC speaker beeping, no
video to the monitor. All the motherboards have an ISA slot, and I
have a ISA POST card I use to troubleshoot motherboards, but the
information I'm getting from the POST card is that there is power to
the ISA slot the POST card is in, but the motherboard doesn't even
boot to the BIOS stage.

Has anyone here ever seen this happen before, and what did you find to
be the cause?

Thanks,
Isaac
 
ISA hmmm older boards... I suspect cmos battery.. any checksum
errors? Were all these boards related in some manner? On a LAN
together or were suspect to be damaged by the same source?
 
Isaac Grover said:
Hi everyone,

Over the last month or so, I have acquired four different ATX
motherboards, no two are the same model or brand, and three have come
with their own power supply, but they are all showing the same
symptoms.

To cut down on the sources of problems on the systems, I have only
connected the power supply to the motherboard and to a case fan to
verify power, no other drives or peripherals are connected to the
power supply. When power is applied to the system, the power supply
and the case fan will power up momentarily and shut down. When the
PWR jumper on the motherboard is shorted, the power supply and case
fan power up and stay powered on, but the motherboard shows no signs
of life - the fan on the CPU won't start up, no PC speaker beeping, no
video to the monitor. All the motherboards have an ISA slot, and I
have a ISA POST card I use to troubleshoot motherboards, but the
information I'm getting from the POST card is that there is power to
the ISA slot the POST card is in, but the motherboard doesn't even
boot to the BIOS stage.

Has anyone here ever seen this happen before, and what did you find to
be the cause?

Thanks,
Isaac
Click to expand...

Are there any markings on the boards that might hold a clue as to the
manufacturer? Might be related to CPU and clock speed. Check to see if
there is a jumper on MB for changing clock speed.

The reason for my speculation is that I acquired a used board with no
documentation. I had the name AZZA and there was (what turned out to be) a
model number on the board. From this I was able to find and download a user
manual which gave me the information I needed.
 
Isaac said:
Hi everyone,

Over the last month or so, I have acquired four different ATX
motherboards, no two are the same model or brand, and three have come
with their own power supply, but they are all showing the same
symptoms.

To cut down on the sources of problems on the systems, I have only
connected the power supply to the motherboard and to a case fan to
verify power, no other drives or peripherals are connected to the
power supply. When power is applied to the system, the power supply
and the case fan will power up momentarily and shut down. When the
PWR jumper on the motherboard is shorted, the power supply and case
fan power up and stay powered on, but the motherboard shows no signs
of life - the fan on the CPU won't start up, no PC speaker beeping, no
video to the monitor. All the motherboards have an ISA slot, and I
have a ISA POST card I use to troubleshoot motherboards, but the
information I'm getting from the POST card is that there is power to
the ISA slot the POST card is in, but the motherboard doesn't even
boot to the BIOS stage.

Has anyone here ever seen this happen before, and what did you find to
be the cause?

Thanks,
Isaac
Click to expand...

Do you have good RAM in these boards????
 
Isaac Grover said:
Hi everyone,

Over the last month or so, I have acquired four different ATX
motherboards, no two are the same model or brand, and three have come
with their own power supply, but they are all showing the same
symptoms.

To cut down on the sources of problems on the systems, I have only
connected the power supply to the motherboard and to a case fan to
verify power, no other drives or peripherals are connected to the
power supply. When power is applied to the system, the power supply
and the case fan will power up momentarily and shut down. When the
PWR jumper on the motherboard is shorted, the power supply and case
fan power up and stay powered on, but the motherboard shows no signs
of life - the fan on the CPU won't start up, no PC speaker beeping, no
video to the monitor. All the motherboards have an ISA slot, and I
have a ISA POST card I use to troubleshoot motherboards, but the
information I'm getting from the POST card is that there is power to
the ISA slot the POST card is in, but the motherboard doesn't even
boot to the BIOS stage.

Has anyone here ever seen this happen before, and what did you find to
be the cause?

Thanks,
Isaac
Click to expand...

What are you using the same with each motherboard? CPU, heatsink/fan, ram,
video card?
I'm thinking there is one component that you are using for each motherboard
that is bad. Either that, or you bought 4 bad motherboards. EBay?


..
 
Isaac Grover said:
Hi everyone,

Over the last month or so, I have acquired four different ATX
motherboards, no two are the same model or brand, and three have come
with their own power supply, but they are all showing the same
symptoms.

To cut down on the sources of problems on the systems, I have only
connected the power supply to the motherboard and to a case fan to
verify power, no other drives or peripherals are connected to the
power supply. When power is applied to the system, the power supply
and the case fan will power up momentarily and shut down. When the
PWR jumper on the motherboard is shorted, the power supply and case
fan power up and stay powered on, but the motherboard shows no signs
of life - the fan on the CPU won't start up, no PC speaker beeping, no
video to the monitor. All the motherboards have an ISA slot, and I
have a ISA POST card I use to troubleshoot motherboards, but the
information I'm getting from the POST card is that there is power to
the ISA slot the POST card is in, but the motherboard doesn't even
boot to the BIOS stage.

Has anyone here ever seen this happen before, and what did you find to
be the cause?

Thanks,
Isaac
Click to expand...

Do you have any memory on the boards? They won't POST with no RAM!!
 
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