Motherboard fried?

[Auspice]

My woman just tried turning on her PC after we had a bit of a storm and our power went out for a moment. The hard drive whirrs like it's starting up and the power comes on but the system speaker does nothing; all other functions like the LAN adapter etc seem to be turning on correctly. Is the BIOS jacked, the mobo fried? I don't have any idea.

It's an MSI P4N SLI; not sure if there's anything in particular with this mobo that may have failed or if I'm just completely fucked.

EDIT: I tried removing the RAM and video card and booting each time and it's still not making any sounds. -_-

[Kryssan]

Is it driving the video at all?

It could be the PSU is damaged, as most of them are designed to take the brunt of an assault to save the rest of the computer on a surge. Or the MB took the hit. PSU is typically cheaper option to test. And usually less work to replace.


No surge protector though? Seriously? Most people use 'em like extension cords nowadays, they're so common.

[Auspice]

There's a surge protector on the system. I don't have an extra PSU that has PCIE plugs on it so I can't test if that's what is broken. I just don't get how the PSU could be bad if it's still powering on. O_o;;

[Kryssan]

PSU contain various voltages responsible for doing different tasks. The on signal is just a +5Vdc digital. If the MB is not posting, something is not driving. Either you don't have the power to drive your MB, your processor/ram aren't detected, or your video is not working, and a lot of newer computers will not load if they don't have detected video installed. Hence why I asked if your video is driving. I'm assuming you're talking about internal speakers since you're referring to the beeps a computer makes during POST. Normally all the above errors would indeed be noted by some form of beeps, but if the MB is only getting certain power signals, or degraded power signals, it will not boot. Also, a lot of PSU have PWR_FAIL signals, and if your PSU is driving your MB with one of these the MB will not boot in order to protect your hardware. This isn't something you can really test however without some jumpers and a voltmeter, or a huntron guesser. With what you have given I can't honestly give you a more specific answer though. You say all other functions are working, but what does that entail? Is the computer loading? If so, where is it getting in POST? At what point is the problem occuring?

[Auspice]

New PSU does nothing. Fans, HDD, etc all power on but no motherboard beep and no image to the monitor. :/

[Olo401]

Ok hmm.. well it sounds like the board is getting power if the fans are spinning. The next step is to try different memory, then a different CPU. If changing one of those gets your machine to work, then that was the problem. If not, then the motherboard's shot.

[Auspice]

Awesome; I don't have a spare set of RAM or CPU to test it out with. . . -_-

Wouldn't I get a motherboard beep from not having the RAM and CPU connected to the motherboard at least though?

[Shuemue]

probably time to build her a new PC if she's using a P4 anyway?

but yeah, sounds like the board to me

[Auspice]

I *just* built it for her a month ago Frankensteining the extra parts I had around the house.

Son of a bitch, I don't want to buy a new motherboard. lol

She doesn't need a massive gaming rig; she doesn't really play anything. Is this motherboard alright?

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Produc...82E16813128357

I don't want to spend a ton of money but I don't want to get her a piece of shit motherboard either.

[Olo401]

That should work just fine. The only concern I could see is that it's a microATX board - a smaller design spec with limited expandability (two memory sockets & minimum # of PCI slots) so if you have stuff in the computer now like a modem, wifi card, sound card etc. you run the risk of not having enough space on the board. It has built-in video so that should be just fine for even light gaming, if she ever gets into that kinda thing.

[Auspice]

Good point. She's got a 6600GT PCIe to drop in so the only integrated shit I'd really "need" is sound and ethernet. Maybe I'll keep shopping unless anyone has a good suggestion. Trying to keep it around $50 if possible; my woman wants to be cheap. lol

[Olo401]

Ya know.. I do have a spare socket 775 mobo lying around now that I think about it..

Link to specs: XFX nForce 680i LT SLI Motherboard - OEM, NVIDIA nForce 680i LT SLI, Socket 775, ATX, Audio, PCI Express, SLI Ready, Gigabit LAN, SPDIF, USB 2.0 & Firewire, Serial ATA, RAID 103202 at TigerDirect.com

Used it for about eight months before I got my P45 board, so it's still pretty new and i have all the cables/driver CDs etc.. Want it for 60 bucks?

[Shuemue]

Good deal if that 60 bucks includes shipping imo

[Auspice]

Well; got everything hooked up and I'm having the same problem. I don't have a spare video card but I hooked up multiple monitors and still no picture.

Process of elimination; the video card is fried, ne?

Too bad I've spent over $100 to figure it out haha

[Minions]

You can always ship the parts back for a refund in my experience.

[Olo401]

Yea seems like it's the video card.. well at least her machine will last a while longer tho.

Say does that video card have a secondary power connector for the cooling fan? If so, is the fan spinning when you power up? That's the last thing I can think of to test..

[machiko]

Try restting your cmos, similar thing happened to me from I assume a static buildup or something, I had similar problems to what your describing. Wouldnt start up but fans and lights were all on. Reset my MB cmos, working fine now.

[Furtwangler]

or the processor could be bad unless you got another one of those

[Auspice]

I've tried two motherboards so it can't be the CMOS; I did do a CMOS reset on the old motherboard though JIC.

I've got a dedicated PCIE power cable connected to the video card. The entire machine is the exact setup I used to have and I didn't have any issues with it until we had a brownout a few weeks back.

The only Socket 775 CPU I have is the one I'm currently using in my machine. I suppose it wouldn't hurt to pop it out and try it in her machine, right? I just don't want to fuck up my CPU in the process, haha.

Thanks for all the help guys.

[Olo401]

Yeah you could do that. Now that I think about it you could probably use the video card from your machine as well to see if it works.