Dead PC?
I am trying to help my friend out in trying to find solutions to why his PC refuses to boot now. I cannot see him for a while because he lives quite far from here.... so I've tried to help him fix it over the phone since he has some basic computer hardware knowledge. I know he has assembled a computer before so I can assure I know what he's doing 
This is the specs of his PC:
* Intel Pentium 4 2.6GHz CPU
* Asus P4P800-S motherboard
* 1GB RAM
* 2x IDE hard drives (IIRC, 1x 40GB, 1x 160GB)
* LG DL DVDRW drive
* LG DVD-ROM drive
* 1.44MB Floppy drive
* "400W" DEER PSU
* ATi Radeon 512MB X1650 AGP graphics card
I got a call from him last week about his computer not booting after he tried
to take the CPU HSF off the motherboard for a cleanup and oiling because it was noisy. The HSF didn't come out because he didn't know how to unclip it from the HSF holder.... so he decided to lock the locking clips back into place.
I came over and had a look at that and it turned out that the socket 478 CPU was stuck to the HSF (I was very surprised he didn't bend any pins even though the CPU was being forced into the socket by the HSF locking clip) , so I reseated the CPU, added some Arctic silver and it booted up fine with no issues.... it was fine for the whole week until yesterday night before I went off to bed.... I got another call from him.
He said that he had gone off to dinner and turned off the PC and now it won't boot (and he needs to get some homework done).
It doesn't beep (similar to when the CPU fell out of the socket), so he suspected the CPU fell out of the socket so he decides to take the HSF off and the CPU came off with it again. I then told him that CPUs can't fall out of sockets and that the thermal paste is dry so the CPU went with it as he pulled it out.
So I told him to do what I did the other day.... he heated up the heatsink with a hairdryer and pryed it off. He checked the pins and none were bent or broken and reseated it in the socket and reclipped the HSF. Still he got no boot from his PC and it didn't beep either.
I told him to reseat the RAM, expansion cards, etc. and it still would'nt boot. I then told him to measure the PSU voltages coming out of the P.O.S DEER rebranded 400W PSU by using a DMM. He jump started it with the wire techinique using two optical drives as the load on the PSU.
These were the readings he got:
5V SB (Purple wire) : 5.05V
12V : 12.30V
5V : 5.05V (IIRC)
3.3V : 3.25V (IIRC)
That's strange.... all the readings are in spec? but then again I think these are averages readings? and I guess that another thing called ripple current may have killed the board?
I told him to touch the Intel ICH5 southbridge and he reported it as warm, but I don't know if that means dead southbridge yet?
He also reported that recently he had been getting BSODs frequently which is a worry. I see PCs with crap PSUs get BSODs all the time, could that be the case here as well?.
He also reported that now one of his Western digital hard drives are now making knocking noises. Doesn't sound too good there, but apparently he left it for a minute and rebooted it and the noise went away.
Still there are no beeps from the PC and the screen is blank/ off. The motherboar LED is green on bootup, but green LED doesn't always mean good, my Asus K8N has a green LED and is actually dead from a crap PSU frying it.
Usually there would be a bepp at bootup for system OK. I suspect that if RAM was loose or not in there, it would beep continuously or if the graphics card is loose, it would do the usual long beep three short beep message. I have the same motherboard powering my PC so I kinda have some idea of how the beeps go. When my P4P800S-X died, because of a crappy DEER PSU frying it, it didn't beep at all.... similar to what he is experiencing.
Right now I don't know what could be wrong, but I want to help him get the computer running again because he's a really nice guy that i've known for so long.... and I don't want him to wonder down to the computer store and get ripped off like so many of my other clients.
Thanks.
This is the specs of his PC:
* Intel Pentium 4 2.6GHz CPU
* Asus P4P800-S motherboard
* 1GB RAM
* 2x IDE hard drives (IIRC, 1x 40GB, 1x 160GB)
* LG DL DVDRW drive
* LG DVD-ROM drive
* 1.44MB Floppy drive
* "400W" DEER PSU
* ATi Radeon 512MB X1650 AGP graphics card
I got a call from him last week about his computer not booting after he tried
to take the CPU HSF off the motherboard for a cleanup and oiling because it was noisy. The HSF didn't come out because he didn't know how to unclip it from the HSF holder.... so he decided to lock the locking clips back into place.
I came over and had a look at that and it turned out that the socket 478 CPU was stuck to the HSF (I was very surprised he didn't bend any pins even though the CPU was being forced into the socket by the HSF locking clip) , so I reseated the CPU, added some Arctic silver and it booted up fine with no issues.... it was fine for the whole week until yesterday night before I went off to bed.... I got another call from him.
He said that he had gone off to dinner and turned off the PC and now it won't boot (and he needs to get some homework done).
It doesn't beep (similar to when the CPU fell out of the socket), so he suspected the CPU fell out of the socket so he decides to take the HSF off and the CPU came off with it again. I then told him that CPUs can't fall out of sockets and that the thermal paste is dry so the CPU went with it as he pulled it out.
So I told him to do what I did the other day.... he heated up the heatsink with a hairdryer and pryed it off. He checked the pins and none were bent or broken and reseated it in the socket and reclipped the HSF. Still he got no boot from his PC and it didn't beep either.
I told him to reseat the RAM, expansion cards, etc. and it still would'nt boot. I then told him to measure the PSU voltages coming out of the P.O.S DEER rebranded 400W PSU by using a DMM. He jump started it with the wire techinique using two optical drives as the load on the PSU.
These were the readings he got:
5V SB (Purple wire) : 5.05V
12V : 12.30V
5V : 5.05V (IIRC)
3.3V : 3.25V (IIRC)
That's strange.... all the readings are in spec? but then again I think these are averages readings? and I guess that another thing called ripple current may have killed the board?
I told him to touch the Intel ICH5 southbridge and he reported it as warm, but I don't know if that means dead southbridge yet?
He also reported that recently he had been getting BSODs frequently which is a worry. I see PCs with crap PSUs get BSODs all the time, could that be the case here as well?.
He also reported that now one of his Western digital hard drives are now making knocking noises. Doesn't sound too good there, but apparently he left it for a minute and rebooted it and the noise went away.
Still there are no beeps from the PC and the screen is blank/ off. The motherboar LED is green on bootup, but green LED doesn't always mean good, my Asus K8N has a green LED and is actually dead from a crap PSU frying it.
Usually there would be a bepp at bootup for system OK. I suspect that if RAM was loose or not in there, it would beep continuously or if the graphics card is loose, it would do the usual long beep three short beep message. I have the same motherboard powering my PC so I kinda have some idea of how the beeps go. When my P4P800S-X died, because of a crappy DEER PSU frying it, it didn't beep at all.... similar to what he is experiencing.
Right now I don't know what could be wrong, but I want to help him get the computer running again because he's a really nice guy that i've known for so long.... and I don't want him to wonder down to the computer store and get ripped off like so many of my other clients.
Thanks.
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