Also have a dead box [ WAS: Re: OT: dead box ]

Tim Judd tajudd at gmail.com
Tue Mar 23 12:57:21 UTC 2010


On 3/23/10, Corey John Bukolt <ruinermailchucker at gmail.com> wrote:
> On Sun, 21 Mar 2010 11:23:34 +0000 (06:23 CDT) Chris Whitehouse wrote:
>> When you press the power button does the cpu fan or the power supply fan
>> spin for a moment then stop? That's a sign that something on or plugged
>> in to the motherboard has blown. Unplug things and test again.
>>
>> Chris
>
> Just a few days ago, I was helping a friend build a system (with all
> brand new components, I might add) and we had this very problem.  After
> sticking in the CPU and RAM and hooking up and turning on the PSU, the
> green LED on the motherboard turns on.  However, the second the power
> button is pressed, everything flashes for a second, then turns back off.
> The green LED on the motherboard also remains on.  The only way to get
> it to flash again is to turn off the PSU, wait, then turn it back on.
> We tried re-seating everything, to no avail.
>
> Reading this thread, someone else mentioned beep codes and that if there
> were none, it's most likely a fried motherboard.
>
> Can anyone else confirm this?
>
> ~Corey


Best way to confirm a dead board in any case is those POST diagnosis
cards.  They have a dual-digit LED output that changes depending on
the signal on the wire.  If at any time those dual-digit LEDs stay
permanently on anything OTHER THAN 00 is a failed POST.  If it fails
before it gets a shot at testing RAM or anything, there may be no beep
codes.


Always good to have one in a toolkit.


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