Motherboard problems - can anyone diagnose?

judosteffer

Advent 3214 PC

CPU
AMD Athlon XP 2600+ (2.13GHz)

BIOS
Phoenix-Award BIOS.

Motherboard
L7VTM VIA KT400

Memory
1 Gig DDR RAM - PC2100


Symptoms:

Gets power when you press the power button
Nothing on the screen, not even the bios comes up (but definitely not the graphics card at fault as I tested it in another pc)
Red light on the motherboard (should this be green?)- doesn't beep though- I thought it might if there was a problem
CPU fan still spins
Hard drive doesnt appear to "start up" or spin
Seems to have blown up the USB modem with it as this now no longer switches on (tested to make sure on another pc and the modem is now definitely knackered)

It there an easy way of telling if its the motherboard at fault?

Its too good a pc to chuck away - 1 gig ram, 128 meg graphics, 80 gig hard drive, Athlon 2600+ so fine for XP or Ubuntu

Motherboard was a L7VTM VIA KT400

Any idea what it could be?

They seem to sell socket A Motherboards on ebay around £10 - £20

Thanks!

Seagull

I'd be tempted to try another power supply before giving up the ghost, perhaps one with a higher output than the one you currently have. Check that all the leads/connectors are firmly in place. Good luck.

johnmc

As it's not even attempting to get into the BIOS it sounds like you've blitzed the BIOS chip, in which case it's a new MB, I'm afraid.

slipthru

Get another power supply to test the computer with before spending money, it does sound as though your power supply may have blown.

At least this way you can know for sure which of the 2 parts it is that has gone.

If another power supply doesn't work, i would test the RAM and hard drive as well, just incase they have blown too.

sco0ter

Some motherboards have a built in protector that can be reset (Asus has anyway). I had to do this for a mate about 2 years ago. It actually says how in the manual.. All you do is disconnect all power (but leave the PSU pwer switch on just pull the plug out of the back of the PSU) and hold in the power button for 15 seconds. Then put the lead back in and power up..

Have a look at your manuall as the proceedure might differ slightly.

Blacksheep1979

johnmc wrote: »

As it's not even attempting to get into the BIOS it sounds like you've blitzed the BIOS chip, in which case it's a new MB, I'm afraid.

There are companies that do new bios chips ready programmed to your mobo for less than the price of a mobo.

irnbru_2

judosteffer wrote: »

Red light on the motherboard (should this be green?)- doesn't beep though- I thought it might if there was a problem

The manual says it's a red LED.

I'd be surprised if the PSU is only partially working.

judosteffer wrote: »

It there an easy way of telling if its the motherboard at fault?

Only by a process of elimination .....

judosteffer wrote: »

They seem to sell socket A Motherboards on ebay around £10 - £20

Are you able to test the other components: processor and memory ?

Asus_Mobo

irnbru wrote: »

I'd be surprised if the PSU is only partially working.

You woud be surprised, PSU's can and will fail in strange ways and power wont get to all components, I had one that wouldnt give enough juice to the graphics card, I unplugged the floppy CD drives and the cpu/case fan and the thing came on ok, plugged the power back into the cd/floppy/case/cpu fan and it died again, got a new PSU and all was ok.

judosteffer

Thanks for all the advice

I think I could test the memory in my other pc - actually working backwards my dad did recently put a new stick of 512 meg into it- it was working fine for about 1.5 months but maybe that has caused the problem?

Wouldnt be able to test the cpu though

judosteffer

oh one other thing- can anyone recommend a replacement motherboard if I do go down that route? one that will definitely work with all the RAM I have and the graphics card?

BritBrat

Flat battery on the motherboard.

Has it been not used for a bit?

Leave it pluged into the mains and with supply over night or longer if you can and if it boots further the next day it's the battery.