RickStrobel
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Intel D865PERL motherboard won't boot, no POST
I'm trying to bring back to life a nice custom built rig that has an Intel D865PERL motherboard with a 3.0 Ghz P4 and 1 Gb of RAM. The owner said he was blasting the dust out of the machine. When he plugged it back in it wouldn't boot.
I've tried:
- removing extra PCI cards (TV tuner)
- swapped in another AGP video card
- reseated RAM
- swapped RAM banks
- replaced RAM with different RAM
- remove everything except for CPU and RAM
- test power supply with testing device
- swapped in a different power supply
With all of the above, the result is always the same. No POST beeps, no video, fans run, motherboard LEDs lit.
If I remove all the RAM I can get three long beeps in POST.
A few things I might still try:
- blast machine with high power air stream from an air compressor, maybe some dust got lodged in one of the slots and is shorting it out?
- double-check for any loose screws or something shorting out the board
- swap in a PCI video card and remove AGP (this has worked on another system in the past)
- install RAM in another machine
- install CPU in another machine (this might be a lot of work)
- reflash BIOS by setting the jumper to reflash and booting a disk per motherboard manual instructions, maybe BIOS got zapped
I suspect the motherboard has gone bad. But, I need to prove that (or fix it). Whatever's wrong I need to be able to tell the owner what it is, rather than "maybe CPU, maybe motherboard, why not just replace both".
What would you do next?
I've tried:
- removing extra PCI cards (TV tuner)
- swapped in another AGP video card
- reseated RAM
- swapped RAM banks
- replaced RAM with different RAM
- remove everything except for CPU and RAM
- test power supply with testing device
- swapped in a different power supply
With all of the above, the result is always the same. No POST beeps, no video, fans run, motherboard LEDs lit.
If I remove all the RAM I can get three long beeps in POST.
A few things I might still try:
- blast machine with high power air stream from an air compressor, maybe some dust got lodged in one of the slots and is shorting it out?
- double-check for any loose screws or something shorting out the board
- swap in a PCI video card and remove AGP (this has worked on another system in the past)
- install RAM in another machine
- install CPU in another machine (this might be a lot of work)
- reflash BIOS by setting the jumper to reflash and booting a disk per motherboard manual instructions, maybe BIOS got zapped
I suspect the motherboard has gone bad. But, I need to prove that (or fix it). Whatever's wrong I need to be able to tell the owner what it is, rather than "maybe CPU, maybe motherboard, why not just replace both".
What would you do next?
RickStrobel:
"If I remove all the RAM I can get three long beeps in POST." -> this means that the mainboard and the CPU work and miss the RAM. When you put the RAM in - start with only one slot of RAM - , and the video card, but nothing else (besides of course the CPU), is there anything to see on the screen?
Regards,
has.
"If I remove all the RAM I can get three long beeps in POST." -> this means that the mainboard and the CPU work and miss the RAM. When you put the RAM in - start with only one slot of RAM - , and the video card, but nothing else (besides of course the CPU), is there anything to see on the screen?
Regards,
has.
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Its possible that some of the dust landed in the RAM slots and is now not letting proper contact between the slot and the RAM stick. I suggest that u take out the mboard from the cabinet and give it a few taps on the reverse side, blow some air into the RAM slots and also the other slots like PCI slots etc and then try to attach the power cable and see if that helps.
You need to ensure that the RAM is getting seated properly. Press it in firmly and give it a little lateral movement just to be sure.
There is a chance that the board might have gone bad. The blowing of air into the board cud have been with enuf force so as to damage some capacitor or a minor component on the board. These are high tech circuits which can breakdown due to this reason.
You can try another things and thats to reset the CMOS and then see if that helps. SOmetimes ESCD wont get updated and clearing the BIOS forces it to happen.
Dan
You need to ensure that the RAM is getting seated properly. Press it in firmly and give it a little lateral movement just to be sure.
There is a chance that the board might have gone bad. The blowing of air into the board cud have been with enuf force so as to damage some capacitor or a minor component on the board. These are high tech circuits which can breakdown due to this reason.
You can try another things and thats to reset the CMOS and then see if that helps. SOmetimes ESCD wont get updated and clearing the BIOS forces it to happen.
Dan
ASKER
Put the CPU and RAM in another system and it worked fine. There's a quick BIOS reflash process where you boot the computer with a bios file on it and it automatically flashes it. All you can see is the floppy running. I tried this and it seemed to do as it was supposed to do. However, the mb still wouldn't come to life.
I think I tried just about everything listed here and then some. In the end the client ordered a new board and I put it in today. Everything is working fine.
I think I tried just about everything listed here and then some. In the end the client ordered a new board and I put it in today. Everything is working fine.
Looks like you've been pretty methodical. Guess swopping out the CPU then MB is your best way to look for survivors.