I have a PC that will not boot. The CPU fan was filthy and would not spin. I cleaned it. The power-on light on the MB goes on when I plug in the PSU. But nothing else will run. No HD or DVD Rom. I removed PSU and tested it out of the case. The cpu fan still would not spin out of the case. I tried that same thing on a known good PSU and the CPU HSF spun great with the new PSU connected directly to the CPU fan.. So I found the problem. It was the PSU, correct?
Next I swapped in the known good psu, put everything back together and lo and behold, the CPU fan would not turn with the new PSU, nor would anything else work. Not even with the brandy new PSU. It turns out that testing both PSUs, even though I do not 100% trust PSU testers, they both tested good.
The question Is: CAN ANYONE OF THE EXPERTS TELL ME WHAT COMPONENT IS THE BAD ONE? (The MB power light stays on) This is a P4 Gateway 310X PC.
Thank you in advance
Donnie616
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rule out as much as possible by removing it, you dont need hard drives, any PCI cards (esp modems) cd roms, usb header cables, graphics cards and ram can go too - you should get beeps.
if still dead post back, else re-introduce parts one by one
Also look at the top of every capacitor, they shoud be round, silver and FLAT bulged or split is the usual fault
I have found that many times when your Power Supply goes up it fries the Motherboard with it. Liket he previous posted connect only the PSU, MotherBoard, CPU & Fan, and Ram, and tehn a monitor and keyboard... try to boot. If you still get nothing then most likely it is the Motherboard. Even if you dont have a hard drive or RAM you should still get something on the screen. If it is a known good Power Supply and still nothing I would bet it being a bad MoBo
From what you are saying the motherboard powers once it was removed from the case with new PSU?
And once it was put back in the case it did not want to power up.
If this is the case, there is a very good chance that your case may be shorting the mobo..
Remove the mobo from the case and test with just a PSU CPU and one RAM stick and see what happens
No guys. (The last 2 posters) i removed and replaced PSU, not MB. What powered was the CPU fan only. Then trying the new PSU and CPU in The case w MB, IT DID NOT SPIN. Fan spins not connected to MB. But will not spin while connected to MB. CPU fan will not spin attached to a 4-pin molex while that PSU is attached to the MB, but if I attach the ATX connector to a PSU tester, (instead of MB) fan spins. Common denominator seems to be MB being bad. I know; It is very confusing. it is hard for me to explain this one clearly.
Caps appear to be good. I will combine all your comments, out them together and report back in the Am. Wife wants me to watch a movie with her.
All testing shows the MB as having gone Bad. All researching shows that many of Gateway/Emachines
MB's commonly go bad before they are supposed to. What has the great Gateway done to itself with this alliance with this "budget" (to be kind) company? No exaggeration----I have a graveyard of perfectly good late model Gateway and E-Mach PCs in my basement, with perfectly good, working cases, that contained either a bad MB or PSU at one time. There are 15 to be exact. I will eventually use each of these cases.
I must arrange the points now.
Thanks to all.
Business Accounts
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by: PriceDPosted on 2009-09-04 at 14:07:26ID: 25263344
It does sound like the Motherboard...it is normal for the light on the motherboard to still "light" up if there is a problem. If you tried the power supply in another PC and it works, and then tried it again in the PC you are having trouble with with nothing coming on and not post. I would say that it is the motherboard. With the CPU fan being so dirty, it could have heated up to the point of no return and fried the CPU and or motherboard.