What's up, Doc?

[dwynnehugh]

Background – my old W7 PC was ‘kindly upgraded’ to W10 by MS sometime ago – I got caught out on their scam that having said ‘No’ hitting the red X button apparently gave an implied ‘Yes’ – anyway I was in the process of a new build so the old was placed to one side. It sat there for about 12+ months doing nowt!

System:  AMD Phenom II X4 965 Blk Edition, Asus M4A87TD/USB 3 mobo, 4 off sticks RAM (8GB in total), Powercolour HD 5750 1GB GDDR5 VGA card, OCZ Stealth Xstream 500w PSU, DVDs, Seagate HDD, W7 Pro OS.

Powered up the system and was faced with a BIOS message re time and date etc. etc. – entered BIOS and set same – THEN ?????  Was I interrupted? called away? etc. etc as I have no recollection of saving the data but when I returned to the PC several hours later – DEAD!!!

Tests to date: Power up – nothing at all – no bleeps in loudspeaker, fans spin. Ditto even if powered up with HDD attached, (seem to remember a few years ago a new system failed to boot – mobo, RAM and graphics – returned items – discovered that to get anything on screen with UEFI bios a ‘bootable drive’ was necessary and had to be attached – did and all was OK).

tested RAM DDR3 (Corsair XMS3) in my PC – one stick is faulty, the other 3 OK. Still won’t boot with 2 working sticks – won’t boot with 1 – 4 sticks even. Have tried booting with 1 stick working RAM sequentially in DIMM slots.

Removed mobo battery and discharged BIOS with jumper – 24+ hours – replace – no difference.

Tested discrete VGA card on another system – works OK, even tried replacing with another working VGA card – nothing.

Cleaned CPU socket etc. – reassembled – no change. Checked monitor – it is working!!!! – just in case!!

With the lack of any audible response from the PC loudspeaker at boot up, seems it’s either the mobo or CPU or have I knackered the BIOS?

Any ideas please?

PS – I should have added that the Green LED indicates power to the board and when the MEM OK switch is pushed – it flashes until it eventually either goes off or is continually lit.  No difference at all.

 

The more you meet people the more you understand why Noah took animals instead of humans

[Jukebox]

Have you tried disconnecting all drives except the HDD (ie CD/DVD, card reader etc)? Otherwise I’d suspect the PSU.

[dwynnehugh]

TBH the only thing that I’ve not tested is the PSU as all mobo lights/fans spin – that said I accept that a power line could be down. Currently its mobo, VGA, RAM, CPU on the bench with attached PSU/HDD (as necessary) – don’t even get the ‘no operating system found’ when just mobo, RAM, VGA and CPU.

The more you meet people the more you understand why Noah took animals instead of humans

[Richard]

Yes Jukebox first guess is PSU but an almost joint favourite is the motherboard, capacitors have been known to fail so that the board or large parts lay down and die.

[Bob Williams]

I see you did this Dwynne:

” Removed mobo battery and discharged BIOS with jumper – 24+ hours – replace – no difference. ”

Does that mean you replaced the mobo battery with a new CR 2032? They are available everywhere: I needed two for another gadget and bought a card of 4 Panasonic’s from Wilko’s. That came good when a mate’s old desktop (I mean old: beige box) had been stored for years, would not resus, stuck a CR2032 in, left it plugged in 24 hours and it lived again.

When they dead, they dead!

When the Thought Police arrive at your door, think -
I'm out.

[dwynnehugh]

New PSU fitted – well from an old system – working when removed.

Perhaps it might be best to buy a new set of CR2032s just in case – though I have tried another battery from another mobo.

Watch this space!   :negative:

The more you meet people the more you understand why Noah took animals instead of humans

[Dave Rice]

You don’t need a HDD attached to get a UEFI to boot. All you need is a CPU and ram. Plus it helps if you have some sort of graphics to be able to see it ? But if it has o/b graphics I’d just go for that but D2 will need a card.

I was repairing a PC today and we knew the HDD had gone as it booted straight into the UEFI. However there are a plethora of start up options and some early boards did some strange things. Things are easier now with GPT, UEFI and W10 all the way. It’s when you start mixing legacy stuff it it gets sticky.

It could be te PSU has blown and taken mobo and ram with it. But at 6 years old the mobo is in that age range when micro cracks can start making an appearance.

Problems with replacing the motherboard: It’s a 140 watt job so the cheaper “78” (760G) end is out. They can only cope with 95 watts. Personally I have found my 2 forays into the 970 world a disaster and wouldn’t touch them with a bargepole.

It may be time to say goodbye. These days even a lowly £55 Pentium of 3 generations (Haswell) ago is 50% faster in single threads (which is still what matters) and only 15  -20% slower in multi threads on a £45 motherboard that would take your DDR3.

The latest £85 Kabylake Pentiums are 2 cores with HTT (like an i3) and 3.6Ghz. Sh1t off a shovel and the with the HD630 onboard graphics I would ditch the HD5750 as well. You’ll be saving 180 watts at full pelt too.

[dwynnehugh]

Point taken, Dave. In all honesty it’s really not worth spending on it to be honest – it’s just a backup PC now that my i7 job has been up and running for 12 months or so.  The hardest it ever will, or ever has worked is in an office type environment. I was just hoping to resurrect it for a reasonable price as a ‘just in case’ scenario.

Many thanks though.

The more you meet people the more you understand why Noah took animals instead of humans

[dwynnehugh]

Been  mulling this over for some time now – I well understand DaveR’s point of view – a new system CPU and board would be faster etc. but cost at least £100 for a PC that will only ever be  a backup if my i7 needs attention. A new AM3+ mobo will cost me £50 or less.  I’m not being miserly here just considering my ‘needs -v- costs‘ – even the power consumption aspect is negligible as it won’t be used that much.

If the CPU is dead, it’s bin time for the board and mobo, however it might be a viable option to have the CPU tested.

Would anyone here be able to assist in that respect please – I can supply CPU, fan if necessary, 2 x 2Gb Corsair 1.65v DDR3 RAM – brand new.

CPU – AMD Phenom II X4 965 Blk Edition

Would be willing to meet any reasonable costs incurred.

Sorry if being cheeky.

 

The more you meet people the more you understand why Noah took animals instead of humans

[Dave Rice]

Dwynne, I don’t know why I keep forgetting I do have an AMD system. Just tested a pci-e card for JB and it was a Doh! moment.

Anyway the checking the mobo FAQs it can take the 965 so send it down with the ram too so I can check if that works (I had real issues with mine). It’s the Asus M5A97 LE R2.0 and EB and Amazon have them for £68

If you don’t have my address email me.

[dwynnehugh]

Thanks Dave, I did have your address but where is it now?  I’ll email you.

Many thanks  Dave

The more you meet people the more you understand why Noah took animals instead of humans

[Dave Rice]

Well the good news is it all works and it all works together. Booted with 8GB ram no problems.

You’ll need a 970 motherboard, might as well get one the same as me.

[keith with the teef]

deleted.

[dwynnehugh]

Hi Dave,

Very many thanks for your help, if you name the mobo in the returns, I’ll get one.

The more you meet people the more you understand why Noah took animals instead of humans

[Dave Rice]

Got to the post box before seeing your post. Last post here (well the only post) is 9 AM, so hopefully it will be with you on Friday.

It’s the Asus M5A97 LE R2.0 and EB and Amazon have them for £68 link

[Author]

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