PC dead, options?

[Pob255]

Today I went to turn on my pc and . . . nothing

I've not yet stripped the whole thing apart but I've done a couple of basic things.

I tried a spare working psu, just plugging in the motherboard. just got a very brief flash of lights. (less than a second)
I've tried jump starting the current psu to check it (the old paper clip trick) and it's working
cleared the cmos and popped the battery. again brief light flash was all I got.
Tried pulling the ram.

I'm not getting any fan movement or bleeps or anything.

Off hand it's looking like the motherboard.

The issue is going to be what to do now, I still need to check to see if it's the cpu but I don't have anything off hand I can use to check it.
The only replacement p55 motherboard I can find is this one http://www.ebuyer.com/254973-biostar...ard-tpower-i55 £120

But is it worth it? or would it be better just to upgrade now? and if so what too?
Budget? ummm basically nothing so as little as possible.

[peterb]

Could be something as simple as a failed capacitor (failed to short) causing the PSU to shut down on overload. difficult to test for though, without a cct diagram and component schematic. Might be wirth pulling the plug on the hard drive (s), but then you might as well go down the "strip it down to the bare minimum and build it up bit by bit" route.

[Pob255]

ok, I've taken it all apart.

There's no physical signs of any damage, nothing burnt out or snapped off.

just motherboard and cpu, no joy. no power or warning bleeps

so annoying that there's just no sign of what's wrong.

[=assassin=]

It definately sounds like a dead motherboard to me - if it were anything else it would at least start up and you'd get fans moving etc. As you've already tried another PSU, and pulled everything else out, you've eliminated the only other showstopper. There's an outside chance that something is shorting on the board, perhaps even underneath it, or inside the case, but that's a long shot.

[Behemoth]

Got any warranty on that motherboard mate ? Might be worth sendingback for am RMA if so ?

[Pob255]

Should of said, I tested outside the case, on a old removable motherboard tray, which I use just for testing.

I'm considering getting a Gigabyte GA-870A-USB3L am3+ motherboard and a cheap athlonII x2 just to get me back up and running untill BD comes out.

Or a 2nd hand p55 motherboard.

Got any warranty on that motherboard mate ? Might be worth sendingback for am RMA if so ?

no, I got it on the day they where released when there was the special offer price. if there was I'd be RMA'ing it.
But it took me a while to get the cpu and ram so I've only been using it for about 18months

[Behemoth]

Cobblers, that rules out that then.

[CAT-THE-FIFTH]

Should of said, I tested outside the case, on a old removable motherboard tray, which I use just for testing.

I'm considering getting a Gigabyte GA-870A-USB3L am3+ motherboard and a cheap athlonII x2 just to get me back up and running untill BD comes out.

Or a 2nd hand p55 motherboard.

no, I got it on the day they where released when there was the special offer price. if there was I'd be RMA'ing it.

Bulldozer is being released next week.

You can loads of new socket 1156 motherboards on Ebay.

This one is £60 delivered:

http://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/Brand-New-...item2eb7f2bf37

Here are a few others:

http://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/ASRock-Mot...item5ae2cfaebf

http://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/ASRock-P55...item3cb87a0389

You can also get this P67 based one too:

http://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/ASRock-P67...item43a83648b6

Edit!!

The P67 based motherboard is cheaper at this retailer:

http://www.kikatek.com/product_info....source=froogle

[scaryjim]

You can loads of new socket 1156 motherboards on Ebay.

FTFY


And before anyone jumps, all the links in CAT's post are to 1156 boards - just a slip of the fingers one assumes

[CAT-THE-FIFTH]

Thanks for spotting that!!

BTW,the £60 motherboard does look decent for the price:

http://uk.asus.com/Motherboards/Inte...1156/P7P55_LX/

[Pob255]

I'm on 1156 not 1155, although those are 1156 boards

I'm always a bit wary of ebay & warranties as quite a few manufactures will not accept things bought from ebay even if new, as ebay sellers are often not officaly recognised resellers.

so annoying, I got it on 10th sept 09 so it's just one month past warranty , I need to double check with scan on the warranty length but I'm sure it was 2years.

All the LX series motherboards are utter rubbish for overclocking, I'm in the process of rma'ing two of the asus P5G41T-M LX boards both less than 6months old, one with leaking caps the other with dead sound and the southbridge hot (in the 50's when it should be in the 30's)

The high end Asus boards are good but the low end are rather bad.

[CAT-THE-FIFTH]

The £60 motherboard is sold by Mesh Computeres,ie,PC Peripherals Ltd. It is over £100 from Novatech:

http://www.cclonline.com/product/414...board/MBD1165/

CCL Computers and Dabs do seem to have quite a number of socket 1156 P55 based motherboards still in stock.

Quite a few companies like Ebuyer and Novatech have Ebay stores.

[CAT-THE-FIFTH]

This one is under £100:

http://www.cclonline.com/product/278...board/MBD1067/

There are a few others on the same website but the Asus P7P55D-E looks decent:

http://www.asus.com/Motherboards/Int..._1156/P7P55DE/

[melon]

Today I went to turn on my pc and . . . nothing

I've not yet stripped the whole thing apart but I've done a couple of basic things.

I tried a spare working psu, just plugging in the motherboard. just got a very brief flash of lights. (less than a second)
I've tried jump starting the current psu to check it (the old paper clip trick) and it's working
cleared the cmos and popped the battery. again brief light flash was all I got.
Tried pulling the ram.

I'm not getting any fan movement or bleeps or anything.

Off hand it's looking like the motherboard.

The issue is going to be what to do now, I still need to check to see if it's the cpu but I don't have anything off hand I can use to check it.
The only replacement p55 motherboard I can find is this one http://www.ebuyer.com/254973-biostar...ard-tpower-i55 £120

But is it worth it? or would it be better just to upgrade now? and if so what too?
Budget? ummm basically nothing so as little as possible.

My pc is dead too ( i think ) or at least undead

I thought it was something to do with the gaphics card driver or bluescreen , as it kept randomly freezing with these odd green lines all the time ( just in the far right area ) so I couldnt do anything,

Since reinstalling windows again it seemed ok until ( unless coincidence ) I upgraded the drivers and now its doing it again - BIG SIGH

Thankfully i have my wee netbook - but still - its pretty restricting.

m

[Noxvayl]

I had your exact dilemma... I know your pain.

Fortunately for me I had a few things on my side, namely a spare computer with all the same generation components I could use for testing; this meant I also had flexibility with my decision for what to do about the problem.

It turned out I had a faulty Sound Card (X-Fi Fatality) that was preventing my machine from booting so I was lucky to get away with stripping it, cleaning everything with Ambersil anti-static foaming cleaner and running it for a few days outside the case on top of an atlas.

I am currently waiting for the Bulldozer release and the new Sandy Bridge-E processors to decide what upgrade I choose, been 3 years on my current system. So I'm doing a CPU/Motherboard/RAM upgrade soon but I'd go for a cheap motherboard replacement and save for a new system next year if I had your limitations.

[Pob255]

Well mrt9888 has got a p55-gd65 with a broken pin on the for sale section for £25 (which originally belonged to Yosh)
Only 2 memory slots work, but that's ok I just need something I can use to test and get me back up and running.
I don't want to spend £60+ only to find out it's the cpu or simular.