Problem starting - LED, but no fans.

[judasburrito]

Hello all!

Here's the setup:
Gigabyte GA-7N400 Motherboard
A Power 480 Watt power supply
Athlon XP 3200+ (I think)

Alright, first things first--this thing is REAL dusty. I am a bad computer parent.
This afternoon, I came in and noticed a faint burny odor (could have been my imagination, but I imagine it didn't bode well), but I was in a rush to pay rent, and ran off--returning several hours later to see the power LED on, but to hear no fans on the computer.

I open up the box, and I can 'power on' and 'power off', with the LED acting like it's on -- it takes the normal 3 or 4 seconds to hard-shutdown. However, no fans are spinning. I imagine if the power supply went out, no LED would come on, but shouldn't the fan run? Also, on the board itself, the 'RAM LED' light comes on when I turn it on, but nothing else.

So, what do you guys think?

Is it:
Power Supply
Motherboard
Processor
A combination of the above?

How best to determine the faulty component? I don't have the option of switching things out with for-sure working versions.

Thanks!

 

[puffader]

Okay then...

Okay then, correct me if im wrong any one but the L.E.D's take Milla volts, were as the fans take volts as in 12volts, think of the power supply as a battery that has lost all but just enough power to make your tape in the boom box sound like a slowmotion player, it will have enough juice to light those very low voltage L.E.D.'s but not enough to draw the volts or amps for the 12V fans let alone the CPU. Im sure the dust caused enough resistant's to cause the Power supply to burn up. But hey what do I know

 

[judasburrito]

Thanks for the diagnosis. Do any others concur? I'd like to be reasonably sure before I go off and make any purchases.

Thanks!

 

[Tedster]

replace your PSU with a quality one and dust out the computer with compressed air. Cross fingers and repower.

 

[pdyckman@comcas]

The burning oder meant that somthing burned out. PSU is a good start. They smell of burning when they go. (sometimes they click also). Sometimes when the light go on but not the fans (etc), it can also ba a motherboard.