ASUS motherboard light on, but not powering up

JesseJames_2

Yesterday, PC failed to power up out of the blue, previously has been working fine, nothing unusual at all - so surprised it just went belly up.

ASUS M2N32SLI Deluxe
AMD Phenom X4 9650 / 8GB RAM / NVIDIA GT240
stock - not overclocked.

The green LED on the motherboard lights up - nothing else.
Shorted the motherboard's power switch - nope
Pulled the M/B out of the case, so now just CPU and just 1 (of 4) sticks of memory - nope.

PSU powers up an old board (one without the extra 4 pins, and no 4 pin PSU1 either - so not exactly confirming the PSU is fine)


I believe I have a spare CPU that I can try, and I can use the PSU from my main PC to try to power the motherboard, or vice versa.

Just wondering, if this is a lost cause, or is there any way of 100% confirming the Motherboard is goosed?

fwor

You probably have but I'll ask anyway: have you tried clearing CMOS memory and checking backup battery voltage?

Some boards won't boot if the battery level is too low and it's also possible for the BIOS config to corrupt and render it inoperative. It should go back to failsafe defaults if that's what has happened.

Strider590

Has it been doing anything odd lately? Like crashing or showing graphic "artifacts" on the screen?

JesseJames_2

Had cleared CMOS, but not new battery, and no artifacts on video, or crashing whatsoever.

prost

If it's the motherboard then you'll have to try ebay. Some of the Gigabyte AM2+ motherboards also take AM3 processors. You'll have to check in the cpu-compatibilty lists:
http://ee.gigabyte.com/products/select/mb/socket_am2p

I have a Gigabyte AM2 motherboard that also takes AM2+ & most AM3 processors.

Or you could just upgrade to an AM3 or AM3+ motherboard. Here's a £61 6-core 95-watt AM3 1055T Phenom II X6:
http://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/AMD-Phenom-II-x6-1055T-2-8GHz-6MB-Hex-Core-Scoket-AM3-95W-TDP-E0-HDT55TWFK6DGR-/351242101413?pt=LH_DefaultDomain_3&hash=item51c7a922a5

Or a £36 65-watt 4-core am3 905e
http://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/Working-AMD-Phenom-II-X4-905e-2-5-GHz-HD905EOCK4DGM-CPU-Processor-Socket-AM3/261884939238?_trksid=p2047675.c100005.m1851&_trkparms=aid%3D222007%26algo%3DSIC.MBE%26ao%3D1%26asc%3D20140122125356%26meid%3D6fcb909cdad94accbb6839d583d0860e%26pid%3D100005%26rk%3D4%26rkt%3D6%26sd%3D271759667524&rt=nc

8Gb ddr3 £30
http://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/New-1x-8GB-PC3-12800-DDR3-1600Mhz-240pin-DIMM-Memory-Ram-For-AMD-CPU-Upgrade/141540245247?_trksid=p2047675.c100005.m1851&_trkparms=aid%3D222007%26algo%3DSIC.MBE%26ao%3D1%26asc%3D20140122125356%26meid%3Da728a21692374c40b98b95507880cb0d%26pid%3D100005%26rk%3D3%26rkt%3D6%26sd%3D281417376743&rt=nc

Testing a motherboard
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=J8SyV2YWFik

Phenom 6-core 1045T demo:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=I1Xe7JI4hUA

***If the other motherboard has no power connector for the processor that doesn't matter.***

If you get an AM2 motherboard that uses slots with a 4Gb maximum here's 2x4Gb ddr2 for £15
http://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/SAMSUNG-8GB-2x4GB-PC2-6400-DDR2-800MHZ-240pin-DIMM-Memory-For-AMD-Motherboard/281608789184?_trksid=p2047675.c100005.m1851&_trkparms=aid%3D222007%26algo%3DSIC.MBE%26ao%3D1%26asc%3D20140122125356%26meid%3D90eb3ce83eb748a6a5ab04264ee8dde0%26pid%3D100005%26rk%3D1%26rkt%3D6%26sd%3D281608771912&rt=nc

If you get a 65W AM3 Phenom II X4 905e you can undervolt it so it uses 30 watts with only an 8% reduction in performance:

http://www.legitreviews.com/undervolting-the-amd-a64-x2-4200-am2-processor_375

You'll save 50 watts/year over your current processor, up to £30/year in electric costs. The undervolted 905e will be slightly faster too.

Check the voltages at
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_AMD_Phenom_microprocessors

Your current processor doesn't undervolt well. The 6-core 1055T undervolts well though.

There is an am3+ Asrock motherboard that can unlock hidden cores. Two of its memory slots take ddr2:
http://www.kikatek.com/P564663/N68C-GS4-FX-ASRock-N68C-GS4-FX-Motherboard-AMD?source=froogle&gclid=COvN_6bL7MUCFQeRaQodQVQAvw
(That's if you're thinking of using an 6- or 8-core in future.

http://www.asrock.com/mb/NVIDIA/N68C-GS4%20FX/?cat=Specifications
As you see it it will only accept up to the 95-watt 8-core AM3+ FX's.)

Pikeyp

I wonder if your graphics card has failed?

Have you got a spare you could plug in and try?

Big_Graeme

I'd say the culprit is the PSU, modern boards need all the juice they can get for CPU and GFX.

JesseJames_2

Definately not the PSU, as I tried my one in it - green LED on, but bridging power switch terminals no affect - same as before.

Cannot yet find my old AM2 chip to test.

If the CPU fan does not work, or is unplugged, will it still try to boot in a normal system?
Or is there any other way of testing the CPU?

prost

(If the processor fan isn't connected it may or may not boot. It depends on whether your BIOS is set to alarm if a fan doesn't work.

You also need to test your graphics card too.

The only way to test the processor is to use another or to use it on another motherboard.)

If the processor isn't working then instead of getting another am2+ phenom as I wrote earlier you'll save a lot of money by just getting a motherboard that can take am3 processors. It's not relevant whether it's the motherboard or the processor that's at fault. Even if everything still worked you'd save by getting a motherboard that takes am3.

prost

It so happens that your motherboard takes the phenom II X4 905e so why not get it & save money? You can expect it to take a week to arrive.

http://www.cpu-upgrade.com/mb-ASUS/M2N32-SLI_Deluxe.html

AM3 processors work on am3+ motherboards too.

JesseJames_2

That's the PC back up and running to how it was.

Managed to try another CPU and tested the PSU with one of these PSU testers - OK

Bought the exact same board, swapped, and all worked.

Cheers.