Here's one to scratch your heads over.

[Behemoth]

Goodness know, I've been scratching mine over this now for the last few days.

Compaq Presairio PC, Model Number is SR 1219 UK belongs to a family friend.

Specs:-
Intel Celeron something or other 2.5 GHz I think
1.5 gig DDR 1 ram
Appears to be an Asus mobo

Originally it came to me to fix as Windows wasn't booting. A quick go with Hiren told me the original factory supplied and fitted 60 gig SATA HDD was failing. Not having any suitable smaller drives I replaced this with a known not overly old working 80 gig IDE.

Installed XP Home and all the friends software as requested. I had one last thing to do before I handed it over which was to just run through all the windows updates. Turned it off Sunday night, went to bed.

Booted up Monday morning and it did it's party trick. The trick is it just sits there and spins its fans at you for all it's worth. It did this not long after he got it, and it had the retailer he got it from stumped as when it went in for repair, it came back no fault found. Eventually the problem will cure itself, usually by disconnecting a fan and firing it up or taking out some ram and it's gfx card.

Unforgivably these known methods of getting the little blighter to boot back up again have failed. It's been stuck like this now since yesterday morning.

I've taken all the ram out - nothing
I've taken out the ram and gfx card - nothing it doesn't even bleep at me.
I've ran it with just 1 stick of ram and used the onboard gfx, nothing.
I've tried two different PSU's, a baby little 300 watt MATX one I have and my own 600 OCZ in my HAF, still nothing other than it spinning it's fans

I've looked for a c-mos clear jumper, and as it's a Compaq designed for the home user, it's stupidly not got got a c-mos clear setting. I've taken the battery out which I believe does the same job and left it go for an hour.

Put the battery back in and fired it up again and still the little blighter refuses to respond.

Am really starting to think that the mobo has failed but thought I'd run it by the Hexus massive first before I give up all hope.

[Donny John]

Is there any kind of display? I mean can you get into the BIOS, or it fails at POST? I'm guessing it's the latter and it just powers up then halts with no display, which would indicate a component/hardware fault ofc.

Have you tried a new battery in the C-MOS/BIOS?

If you can get into the BIOS, there should be an option to force hardware update, might be worded differently. Otherwise, you're left with re-seating components or maybe giving the case a little tap ^^

It does sound rather like the BIOS is upset about something and is halting. There are so many things it could be.

edit: I just remembered also that to reset the BIOS by removing the battery, you should also remove the power supply/unplug it for at least 5-10 minutes! (since the power supply will probably be keeping the BIOS 'live' while switched on!)

[Behemoth]

Have put the battery on a tester, its fine.

I get no display at all from either the X1550 GFX card or the onboard. Suspect the mother has finally croaked although there is a slim chance that there is something shorting it out causing this issue.

[Donny John]

there is a slim chance that there is something shorting it out causing this issue.

I was thinking that, something maybe under the MB, or maybe MB not seated right.

[Behemoth]

I was going to start it tonight, however I've just noticed the time, there's sod all light and my cat wants me to goto bed (she likes to be curled up and sleepy before 11pm!)

So taking it all out the case and running it ghetto style will have to wait till tomorrow.

[Max Tractor]

G

I've looked for a c-mos clear jumper, and as it's a Compaq designed for the home user, it's stupidly not got got a c-mos clear setting

Had an old asus with no cmos clear pins, what you had to do was look for some solder points that was the cmos clear and bridge them

[smargh]

Check for bulging/leaking capacitors.

[Behemoth]

All capacitors are fine, no bulges or leaks.

[Homeking]

Any idea which Asus motherboard it is?

According to the list online here:

http://h10025.www1.hp.com/ewfrf/wc/d...product=442959

the model SR1219UK uses the Compaq motherboard "Grouper" which apparently is the Asus PTGD1-LA here:

http://h20000.www2.hp.com/bizsupport...ctID=c00196251

but according to this page it has a clear CMOS jumper so I'm guessing this isn't the one you're looking at.

Are there any loose or missing jumper caps that could be causing boot failure?

[Sprite]

I had a strange problem once when I had an IDE DVD drive and and IDE HDD both set to master (I think).

If you have 2 IDE devices make sure you set it to auto or set 1 to slave and the other to master.

[Behemoth]

It's looking like it's shorting against the case, it runs fine with the mobo out of the case, ghetto style.

[Behemoth]

Well the cause is a warped case, basically the mobo tray is ever so slightly raised which means that it's pressing against the mobo stopping it from powering on, with a bit of metal bashing and a piece of card wedged in against it, the problem has gone away.

[blueball]

Well the cause is a warped case, basically the mobo tray is ever so slightly raised which means that it's pressing against the mobo stopping it from powering on, with a bit of metal bashing and a piece of card wedged in against it, the problem has gone away.

Well fixed that man.

[Behemoth]

I wait now to find out how long the fix lasts for, I know he's on about buying all the bits for a new system and have me build it.

[Joeroe_92]

so going ghetto gets things done..
i never.