I'd like your opinions on this...
Okay, here's the back story:
I got a great deal on a socket A motherboard a few months ago. It's an Abit NF7-S2. I got it on Ebay for 99 cents and paid 8 Dollars for shipping! It came with the original box, an Athlon XP 2500 processor, 1 gig of ram (two 500s), and a Thermaltake heatsink - not bad for $8.99!
Of course when it finally did arrive I hooked up a power supply and a video card to test it out; it didn't start up. Upon further inspection I saw that it had some blown caps right by the processor (my eyes are old - I had to get the magnifying glass out!). I ordered the caps from here and when they came in I re-capped it. After the recap job I installed my Athlon XP 3200 (with the Barton core), the Thermaltake, two 1 gig stcks of ram and 1 of the original 500 sticks (for some strange reason it won't recognize more than 2.5 gigs of PC 3200 ram, even if I manually set the frequency from 400 Mhz to 333 Mhz), and VIOLA! It started right up! I loaded Windows XP and this has been my main rig for the past few months, replacing my Epox 8RDA+6 board that went dead a few months back. The NF7-S2 has been working flawlessly for the past three months, not a burp, not a hiccup. It shuts down and starts up without a problem, except for yesterday.
Flash foward to yesterday - There was a fan going bad on the northbrige heatsink so I ordered a new fan. It came in yesterday. I shut down the rig last night, pulled the side cover off, did some minor dust cleanup with my vacuum cleaner, then I swapped out the bad fan for the good one. I put the cover back on, then attached all of the cables in the back and started the rig up again.
It booted up all the way to the Windows logo, then the screen went blank. I pressed the 'reset' button, there was nothing. No blinking LED on the front to show activity (but both LEDs were lit), no beeps. WTF???
Okay, I took out the ram one at a time, starting at slot 3 (furthest from the processor), still nothing, no boot. I replaced the last stick of ram with a known good 500 stick, still nothing. I left the known good ram stick in there and replaced the XP 3200 processor with a known good XP 1700 processor - it started up! Now that I knew the processor died I started reinstalling the ram that I originally took out, one at a time:
First one (the 500 that was in slot 3) - nothing, no beeps, no activity, both front LEDs on solid.
Second one (the 1 gig that was in slot 2) - nothing, no beeps, no activity, both front LEDs on solid.
Third one (the 1 gig that was in slot 1) - three quick beeps but still no boot or no activity. SHIT!!!
What could cause the processor and three sticks of ram to fry at the same time?
More bad caps? I replaced all of the caps that line up by the side of the processor and all of the caps that go kind of parallel to the ones by the processor.
Bad power supply? The power supply IS an 800W Cooler Master, but I bought it new from New Egg about three years ago. Is it possible that the power supply took out both the Epox AND the Abit?
Hardware problem other than caps on the motherboard? I don't have much experience with that kind of problem.
Your thought are greatly appreciated. I have some electronics skills but you guys are the GODS of electronics compared to what I know!
I'm always willing to learn though, and I learn ALLOT on this forum... Thanks in advance for all of your thoughts.
BTW, the computer has been running since midnight last night. I re-booted it once this morning, just to see. It re-booted fine.
I got a great deal on a socket A motherboard a few months ago. It's an Abit NF7-S2. I got it on Ebay for 99 cents and paid 8 Dollars for shipping! It came with the original box, an Athlon XP 2500 processor, 1 gig of ram (two 500s), and a Thermaltake heatsink - not bad for $8.99!
Of course when it finally did arrive I hooked up a power supply and a video card to test it out; it didn't start up. Upon further inspection I saw that it had some blown caps right by the processor (my eyes are old - I had to get the magnifying glass out!). I ordered the caps from here and when they came in I re-capped it. After the recap job I installed my Athlon XP 3200 (with the Barton core), the Thermaltake, two 1 gig stcks of ram and 1 of the original 500 sticks (for some strange reason it won't recognize more than 2.5 gigs of PC 3200 ram, even if I manually set the frequency from 400 Mhz to 333 Mhz), and VIOLA! It started right up! I loaded Windows XP and this has been my main rig for the past few months, replacing my Epox 8RDA+6 board that went dead a few months back. The NF7-S2 has been working flawlessly for the past three months, not a burp, not a hiccup. It shuts down and starts up without a problem, except for yesterday.
Flash foward to yesterday - There was a fan going bad on the northbrige heatsink so I ordered a new fan. It came in yesterday. I shut down the rig last night, pulled the side cover off, did some minor dust cleanup with my vacuum cleaner, then I swapped out the bad fan for the good one. I put the cover back on, then attached all of the cables in the back and started the rig up again.
It booted up all the way to the Windows logo, then the screen went blank. I pressed the 'reset' button, there was nothing. No blinking LED on the front to show activity (but both LEDs were lit), no beeps. WTF???
Okay, I took out the ram one at a time, starting at slot 3 (furthest from the processor), still nothing, no boot. I replaced the last stick of ram with a known good 500 stick, still nothing. I left the known good ram stick in there and replaced the XP 3200 processor with a known good XP 1700 processor - it started up! Now that I knew the processor died I started reinstalling the ram that I originally took out, one at a time:
First one (the 500 that was in slot 3) - nothing, no beeps, no activity, both front LEDs on solid.
Second one (the 1 gig that was in slot 2) - nothing, no beeps, no activity, both front LEDs on solid.
Third one (the 1 gig that was in slot 1) - three quick beeps but still no boot or no activity. SHIT!!!
What could cause the processor and three sticks of ram to fry at the same time?
More bad caps? I replaced all of the caps that line up by the side of the processor and all of the caps that go kind of parallel to the ones by the processor.
Bad power supply? The power supply IS an 800W Cooler Master, but I bought it new from New Egg about three years ago. Is it possible that the power supply took out both the Epox AND the Abit?
Hardware problem other than caps on the motherboard? I don't have much experience with that kind of problem.
Your thought are greatly appreciated. I have some electronics skills but you guys are the GODS of electronics compared to what I know!
I'm always willing to learn though, and I learn ALLOT on this forum... Thanks in advance for all of your thoughts. BTW, the computer has been running since midnight last night. I re-booted it once this morning, just to see. It re-booted fine.
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