need help, pc won't boot

[jethro bodine]

Hi,
I built this pc in February of 2003. Been running fine since.
Epox 8rda mobo, athlon xp 1800, 3 sticks of 2100 ddr ram, new maxtor 40
gig HD, Asus AGX(?) video card.
Two weeks ago my son took it to college, then about a week later it
seems to have crashed. Will not boot. Fans run, hard drive spins and
chatters momentarily upon boot but there is no display. A status led on
the monitor indicates no signal from the pc.
I suspected the mobo was bad so I bought an Asus A7N8X-X. He brought
the pc case home last night. We swapped mobos this morning and the
problem still exists. Here is what else I've done:
Swapped hard drive with another known to be good (twice).
Swapped video cards
Removed ram and tried 1 stick at a time.
Checked IDE cables

I don't know what else to do. Could it be the cpu? My son's
recollection of what initially happened is that he left his dorm in the
morning and the pc was running. Upon return, only the fans running.
He said he remembers it beeping but doesn't remember the circumstances.
I don't know if it was beeping when he found it or if it beeped the first
time he tried to reboot.

The original epox mobo has a 2 digit led display on-board and it read
ff which translates to a number of things including faulty bios, etc but
the mobo swap should have eliminated that.

So, I'm thinking cpu and my plan is to buy one from newegg asap.
College is 3+ hours away so in addition to taking him back tomorrow, it
looks like I'll be going again later in the week - if I get this thing
repaired. He'll use the lab pc's until then.

Any ideas?

 

[jethro bodine]

So you arent using the same monitor then? Its not the monitor or the
video card because you are using different ones?

Have you checked to see if your video cards, processor and other stuff
is seated properly? Sounds dumb but I could have sworn my stuff was OK
, but later found my video card and memory werent seated exactly right
and caused werid problems. My motherboard was also set to a weird CPU
setting that caused it not to boot up properly. Im assuming of course
your son didnt try to OC, spill beer on it or something without your
knowledge. A power surge he doesnt know about?

Everything has been reseated and we are using a different monitor at
home. The processor and power supply are the only things that haven't
been changed or substituted for. I did check the voltages on the ATX
power connector. The +12V was a bit low at 11.79V but everything else
looked good. Don't know how critical the +12V supply is.
Power surge - maybe. No beer or any other foreign substance, though.
I've never had a processor crap out and I don't know what the
possibilities are but I don't know what else to try.

 

[Isaac]

So, I'm thinking cpu and my plan is to buy one from newegg asap.

College is 3+ hours away so in addition to taking him back tomorrow, it
looks like I'll be going again later in the week - if I get this thing
repaired. He'll use the lab pc's until then.

Any ideas?

So you arent using the same monitor then? Its not the monitor or the
video card because you are using different ones?

Have you checked to see if your video cards, processor and other stuff
is seated properly? Sounds dumb but I could have sworn my stuff was OK
, but later found my video card and memory werent seated exactly right
and caused werid problems. My motherboard was also set to a weird CPU
setting that caused it not to boot up properly. Im assuming of course
your son didnt try to OC, spill beer on it or something without your
knowledge. A power surge he doesnt know about?

 

[jethro bodine]

Isaac,

I borrowed an Athlon system today and swapped the cpu into my pc and it
booted OK. My cpu must be bad.
Thanks