What Epox board, what cpu? 300w may not be enough.
Main Topics
Browse All Topics
Loading Advertisement...
Question
Power but no POST
When I turn on the power to my computer, the power supply fans spin up, the CD drives and hard disks get power, the MB LED comes on, as well as the power LED. Also, the HDD light stays light constantly--something I think is unusual (like when the cable is on backwards). Other than that, there is nothing. No beeps. No signal to the monitor. But if I hold down the power button for 5 seconds, the computer does turn off. I had this very same problem, and after unconnecting everything and testing all of the parts, I eventually concluded that the problem was the power supply. I replaced the power supply with a 300W Enlight (listed on the AMD page of recommended power supplies). Everything worked fine. Or so I thought. After five days of use, the exact same problem has occured. I don't think two power supplies going bad in one week can be considered coinsidence. Can a bad MB cause a power supply to become faulty?
(I have an EPOX motherboard.)
Thanks
This Question has been solved and asker verified All Experts Exchange premium technology solutions are available to subscription members.
Subscribe now for full access to Experts Exchange and get
Instant Access to this Solution
- Plus...
- 30 Day FREE access, no risk, no obligation
- Collaborate with the world's top tech experts
- Unlimited access to our exclusive solution database
- Never be left without tech help again
Trusted by hundreds of thousands everyday for fast, accurate and reliable tech support.
- "The time we save is the biggest benefit of Experts Exchange to Warner Bros. What could take multiple guys 2 hours or more each to find is accessed in around 15 minutes on Experts Exchange." Mike Kapnisakis, Warner Bros.
- "Our team likes having a resource that is more secure than just using Google and most experts using this service really know their stuff. It's nice to look here first versus using Google." Dayna Sellner, Lockheed Martin
- "Anytime that I've been stumped with a problem, 9 out of 10 times Experts Exchange has either the accepted solution or an open discussion of the potential solution to the problem." Kenny Red, eBay Inc.
See what Experts Exchange can do for you.
Got a question?
We've got the answer.
Experts Exchange has been collecting answers to technology questions since 1996…3 million and counting! If you have a question, chances are we already have your answer.
Need individual assistance?
Our experts are ready to help.
If you can't find the exact answer you're looking for, ask our exclusive community of 50,000 experts. You’ll get a personalized answer from a trusted professional.
Want to learn from the best?
Read articles from industry experts.
Thousands of free tech tips, tricks, how-to’s and tutorials are available in our peer reviewed articles section. See for yourself how smart our experts are, no login required.
Working on a long term project?
Store your work and research.
Save solutions to your questions, answers you’ve discovered through searching plus helpful articles in your personal knowledgebase for easy future access.
Access the answers to your technology questions today.
30-day free trial. Register in 60 seconds.
What Makes Experts Exchange Unique?
Members of the expert community talk about why the experience at Experts Exchange is different than what you will find anywhere else.
Trusted by the world's most respected brands.
Faithfully serving IT professionals since 1996.
Try it out and discover for yourself.
30-day free trial. Register in 60 seconds.
Free Tech Articles
-
WARNING: 5 Reasons why you should NEVER fix a computer for free.
It is in our nature to love the puzzle. We are obsessed. The lot of us. We love puzzles. We love the challenge. We thrive on finding the answer. We hate disarray. It bothers us deep in our soul. W...
-
SCCM OSD Basic troubleshooting
SCCM 2007 OSD is a fantastic way to deploy operating systems, however, like most things SCCM issues can sometimes be difficult to resolve due to the sheer volume of logs to sift through and the dispe...
-
Migrate Small Business Server 2003 to Exchange 2010 and Windows 2008 R2
This guide is intended to provide step by step instructions on how to migrate from Small Business Server 2003 to Windows 2008 R2 with Exchange 2010. For this migration to work you will need the fo...
-
Create a Win7 Gadget
This article shows you how to create a simple "Gadget" -- a sort of mini-application supported by Windows 7 and Vista. Gadgets can be dropped anywhere on the desktop to provide instant information, ...
-
Outlook continually prompting for username and password
There have been a lot of questions recently regarding Outlook prompting for a username and password whilst using Exchange 2007. There are a few reasons why this would happen and I will try to cover t...
-
Backup Exchange 2010 Information Store using Windows Backup
There seems to be quite a lot of confusion around the ability to backup Exchange 2010 using the built in Windows Backup feature. This stems from the omission of this feature prior to Exchange 2007 s...
Cloud Class Webinars
- Avoiding Bugs in Microsoft Access
Alison Balter takes and in-depth look at avoiding bugs in Access. In this webinar you will learn about using the immediate window to debug your applications, invoking the debugger, using breakpoints to troubleshoot, stepping through code, setting the next statement to execute, ...
- Top 10 Best New Features in Visio 2010
Scott Helmers gives live demonstrations of the top 10 new features in Visio 2010. This webinar will teach you how to create compelling diagrams by adding shapes to the page with a single click, linking the shapes in a diagram to data in Excel (or SQL Server, or SharePoint), ...
- IT Consultant Business Secrets Revealed
Michael Munger, Experts Exchange tech pro and IT consultant, pulls back the curtain on his very successful businesses and answers question on every IT consultant and business owner should know about. He shares secrets on what he did to solve the 5 most common problems in IT, ...
- Disaster Recovery and Business Continuity
Quest CTO, Mike Billon, gives an overview of the steps involved in building a dunamic disaster recovery plan. Through case studies and an examination of software/hardware tooles for monitoring and testing, you'll gain a better understandin of where you are, where you want ...
- Organize Your Visio Diagrams with Containers and Lists
Scott Helmers uses cross functional flowcharts, wireframe diagrams, data graphic legends and seating charts to teach you: how to ustilize all three new structured diagram components in Visio 2010, the best practices for organizeing shapes in previous version of Visio, how to organize ...
- How to Us Objects, Properties, Events and Methods in Microsoft Access
Alison Dalter gives an in-depbth look at objects, properties, events and methods in Microsoft Access. In this webinar you will learn about using the object browser, referring to objects, working with properties and methods, working with object variables, understanding the ...
Join the Community
Give a Little. Get a Lot.
Join the community of experts here and help other tech pros by answering question in your area of expertise. You can earn FREE access to all Experts Exchange's premium features and resources.
Answers
Although you have recently replaced your power supply, don't rule it out as suspect yet. Electronics are very unpredictable and can fail with no warning and no reason.
Have you considered the possibility that your CPU is damaged? I had a case not too long ago where an AMD XP 1600 was actually damaged when the power supply failed. This CPU exhibited the same symptoms you mention, and it wasn't until I started swapping components from a known-good identical machine that I discovered the CPU as the cause. Question: when the machine was up and running, did it seem to be hotter than usual? Did it freeze up? If you answer "yes" to either of these, the CPU would be where I look next. Why does it run for a few days and quit? I have no idea.
The old power supply doesn't work any more on any motherboard. The Epox board is a EP-7KXA with a 700MHz Slot A CPU.
I suppose the CPU could be damaged, but I don't really have any way of testing. I don't have any other slot A CPU's to swap it out with... The cpu hasn't been running very hot and I haven't had any problems with system freezes...
Hmmm, how do the capacitors on the board look? Leaks or bulges? You are going to have to get different parts to test this one, unfortunately. All it can be is mainboard(remove to test so you know it isn't grounding out), cpu (possible but not terribly likely), ram or another bad supply. The mainboard is getting older and I've been reading of problems being caused with some boards due to a bad batch of capacitors.
Worf, it's hard to diagnose a damaged mobo or chip unless you have a microscope.
In your case, I wouldn't rule out an ESD damage or a short circuit. A static discharge can blow a mobo trace open like a bomb crater on an airport runway. It would disrupt the logic gates of your mobo's controller chips and in turn send disruptive or mixed signals to your cpu or vice versa. Resulting in system lock-ups. The problem can be very predictable but most of the time it's not.
So it's best to get a brand new motherboard and cpu. Make sure your new motherboard is an Intel or any other high quality mobo. High quality motherboards have tantalum capacitors while cheap ones have ceramic or big plastic cylinder-type capacitors that could easily expand like balloons when overused.
Never ever attempt to mix-n-match bad and new mobos with bad and new cpus unless you can afford them. And don't forget to ground yourself with an anti-static wrist strap. It's a $10 tool worth a 100 dollars or more. ;-)
Yeah, I've got a anti-static wrist strap--I've been a professional computer tech for eight or so years. When I first had problems I tried pulling out the video card, and no beeps. So, I pulled the RAM, still no beeps. So I tried pulling the CPU, still no beeps. I can easily see how the mb or cpu can be bad, but I don't see how a bad mb can make a power supply become defective so quickly. Especially where it still turns on and powers the mb, just not enough to POST. I may try taking a volt meter and oscilloscope to the different wires and see if I notice anything. If I do decide to replace the mb, I'm definitely going to replace the CPU too.
I would agree, except that I've replaced the power supply again, and everything's up and running. I haven't noticed any freezes and I can still run my math and graphics intensive programs. The system doesn't act like the mb or cpu is bad. How likely is it that two power supplies go bad in one week? But that brings me back to my very first, orginial question:
Can a bad MB cause a power supply to become faulty?
The answer is yes and no. A bad motherboard can or can't cause a power supply to become faulty. It depends on the quality of your power supply unit. A common motherboard fault is DC shorted outputs. Such is caused by failed logic gates or circuits, or some of the system devices and components are shorting DC output to ground.
A good quality power supply have built-in sensors, circuit-breakers, and voltage regulators that senses anomalies in the current (e.g. low voltage output, shorted DC output, DC spikes and surges -- very rare) and shuts off DC voltage output till the anomalies are removed.
Bad quality power supplies don't have such special circuits built into them. Most of them are generic power supplies manufactured from Far Eastern countries where quantity is the main goal not quality.
PC Power and Cooling is one company, based in California, that I know of that makes good quality power supplies. Check it out.
I hope this answers your original question. :-)
No comment has been added lately, so it's time to clean up this TA.
I will leave the following recommendation for this question in the Cleanup topic area:
Accept: galloglass {http:#7686101}
Please leave any comments here within the next seven days.
PLEASE DO NOT ACCEPT THIS COMMENT AS AN ANSWER!
AlbertaBeef
EE Cleanup Volunteer
EE Page Editor, Desktops/Microchips TA's
3 Ways to Join
Business Accounts
- Perfect for organizations
- Multiple users
- Save over 36%
- Create a Business Account
Answer for Membership
- Earn free access
- Showcase your knowledge
- No credit card required
- Sign Up to Answer
Loading Advertisement...
by: galloglassPosted on 2003-01-03 at 19:02:55ID: 7666396
Before we get to the nitty gritty of things, Worf, try using the old power supply again. See if your cpu will run for five days or so.