Page 1 of Problem Starting Up A PC (One for the tecchies out there!!)

Got a PC I`m trying to repair here-In PC terms it`s `Out Of The Ark`-guess it`s 1998 vintage going off the spec 8 meg graphics card, 433 processor, 4.3GB hard drive and it`s running W98

The PC was given to me `Dead` - the guy said it was working, he switched off, next day switched on....nothing...I first Checked the really obvious things, tried a different power cable, and there was no sign of life-initial diagnosis (i.e Guess) -either psu fault of motherboard fault.

Opened the case and immediately got quite a smell of burn coming from the case generally, but especially the psu. Not heavy, accrid total burn out bt a definate `whiff`...took the psu out, tried to start it on one of my spares and it powered up immediately. Great. Put all the plugs onto the drives, connected mouse/keyboard/monitor and tried to boot. Power comes through perfectly, but no boot-no POST screens, in fact , the screen didn`t even `wake up`.

Checked everything was seated ok-one of the two RAM sticks wasn`t quite located properly, sorted that out, tried again-still he same- getting power through to the motherboard (light on the motherboard illuminated), the drives are powered (I hear the hard drive wake up), but the screen remains black.

Hmmm...ok, lets try the graphics card...it`s an AGP card, so I take it out of the socket and try a spare I have that I know works fine. boot again-still the same. Try his graphic card in a machine I run as a spare-boots up just fine.

I try it with one stick of RAM, no joy, try it with the other RAM stick, no joy...I cleared CMOS with a jumper..still no joy

So now, i`m scratching my head..The only thing I can think is that when the PSU went down, it`s taken down something else-and that something seems like it may well be the AGP slot or something related to the motherboard.

Before I go back and tell him the bad news that his motherboard seems to be knacked as well as his psu, has anyone got any other things I might look for?

Have you tried it with RAM that wasn`t originally in the computer ? Sounds to me like it might be the the RAM - but it would be unlikely that the two would fry at once. Otherwise, its as you say probably a connection on the motherboard.

Spartacus

I haven`t changed the RAM as I don`t have any compatible RAM to hand (It`s PC100)

I presume there`s no beeps?

Might sound stupid but ...

No screen output, but is it booting up to Windows? Work blind on it and see if you can get it to shutdown using the keyboard that will show that it`s just the AGP slot.

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pc blew up at a place i used to work at leaving that burning smell in the office when we arrived.
Inspection of the motherboard revealed that one of the chips adjacent to the RAM had gone into meltdown and had a small hole in it.
Odds are that your motherboard is deceased as the light on the board is not sufficient to indicate that its functioning

It may be that. Or as youve surmised a blown AGP adaptor.

Tbh, hes probably paying you more in fees than the bloody computers worth. Tell him to buy a new one and stick his old hdd in it. Failing that, a new mobo off ebay will set you back pence.

Yep, I laid it out for him-it was worth fixing if just psu, but anything beyond that, anything motherboard related, and it wouldn`t be-for startrs, I don`t thing you can buy boards to take PC100 memory any longer.

In reply to the earlier messages in the thread-no beeps, don`t get anything other than the PC powering up, the CD Rom drive lights up, and you hear the `clunking` from the hard drive as it powers up-it`s certainly not operating past that point.

Oh well, i`ll report the bad news back to him..thanks everyone