WTF?

[Ed Cregger]

I have been using an emachines AMD Athlon 64 3200+ computer for a little
over a month now. It is a refurb. It has been working perfectly.

I went to install another 512 MB of memory yesterday, something that I have
done dozens of times before in other computers, when the trouble started.

I made sure that all of the connectors were socketed well, in case I had
moved them during the memory install. All seemed okay.

Put the side panel back on, connected the power cord and pushed the power
button. The eMachines power light came on and the CPU fan began running, but
that is as far as things got. No video at all, no hard drive activity, no
floppy, etc. Tried to turn it off with the power button and no results. I
had to unplug the power cord to get it to power down.

Okay, maybe I missed something inside. I removed the side panel, checked the
memory stick to make sure both 512 mb sticks were seated and captured
properly, after making sure that the specs were right on the new memory
stick. Reapplied the side panel. Powered it up. Same thing.

I removed the new memory stick and powered it up. Same thing.

WTF?

Did the power supply fail? I've never heard of one failing with the power
light and the CPU fan still working. Is this possible?

I checked all of the connections again. No results. The monitor just tells
me that there is no signal. I checked the video card's seating, checked the
video cables. All seems okay.

Any ideas? I'm at a loss. TIA

TAS

 

[Ginchy]

Try clearing cmos?

 

[GTS]

Any ideas? I'm at a loss. TIA

TAS

I had this happen to a PC that I offered to upgrade the memory on as a
favour for a mate - using a spare stick of memory I had. Never did
understand what happened, but after much trial and error the only diagnosis
was that the moherboard was kapput! I had to replace the mobo, and the CPU
as the mobo I had was Intel instead of AMD. Then I put in the memory from
the old PC aswell as the new memory and it worked fine. Why putting in a
memory chip (with an AS wriststrap on) would cause such a failure is beyond
me - I've built hundreds of PC's, and would never have guessed something as
simple could cause such agro. I won't be doing any 'favours' like this
again!

 

[JustMe]

I have been using an emachines AMD Athlon 64 3200+ computer for a
little over a month now. It is a refurb. It has been working
perfectly.

I went to install another 512 MB of memory yesterday, something that I
have done dozens of times before in other computers, when the trouble
started.

I made sure that all of the connectors were socketed well, in case I
had moved them during the memory install. All seemed okay.

Put the side panel back on, connected the power cord and pushed the
power button. The eMachines power light came on and the CPU fan began
running, but that is as far as things got. No video at all, no hard
drive activity, no floppy, etc. Tried to turn it off with the power
button and no results. I had to unplug the power cord to get it to
power down.

Okay, maybe I missed something inside. I removed the side panel,
checked the memory stick to make sure both 512 mb sticks were seated
and captured properly, after making sure that the specs were right on
the new memory stick. Reapplied the side panel. Powered it up. Same
thing.

I removed the new memory stick and powered it up. Same thing.

WTF?

Did the power supply fail? I've never heard of one failing with the
power light and the CPU fan still working. Is this possible?

I checked all of the connections again. No results. The monitor just
tells me that there is no signal. I checked the video card's seating,
checked the video cables. All seems okay.

Any ideas? I'm at a loss. TIA

TAS

When I built my first PC, I had a similar incident happen. Turns out I
fried to mobo with some static. Bought a new mobo and everything fired
up as it should have. Lessons learned.

James

 

[The Amazing Seismo]

When I built my first PC, I had a similar incident happen. Turns out I
fried to mobo with some static. Bought a new mobo and everything fired
up as it should have. Lessons learned.

James

Thanks, everyone.

I've built quite a few of my own computers. I've never had anything like
this happen before. I was well grounded, so I doubt it was a static
discharge that fried it.

It is under warranty, so I guess I'll pack it up and send it off. I just got
the hard drive set up with tons of music recording programs, etc. I wonder
if I'll get the same one back? Probably not.

I'm tempted to pull the drive and replace it with a better or equal drive.
But, that would be dishonest and I'd likely get caught, even though they
would actually benefit from the swap, it wouldn't be at spec.

Thanks again.

TAS

 

[Xiccarph]

When adding memory (or other stuff for that matter) be sure to
disconnect the pwr cord from the PSU. Many MB's have some power running
to the mb even when they are "shut down". The memory channels are one
of the things that may have some degree of power. Fiddling while
inserting a new RAM stick may easily touch the wrong thing at the wrong
time and cause a MB-frying short. Many MB's may have a LED indicator
that is on even when the PC is "off"...if urs has this, wait till that
LED goes off afer total pwr disconnection before inserting/removing any
MB components.