What is the RED light on the front of the case????

[bigbrat41]

The other night while surfing I heard a small pop and my monitor went blank (black). I hooked my son's monitor up and still nothing. I assumed it was the video card (a 6 month old PNY_____) . Last night I purchased a new card, installed it and have changed nothing.
The one other thing I have not noticed before is that the red light on the fornt of the case is on. The CPU fan is running and the unit continues to allow my son to access the 'net( it has the router and modem hooked up to it ). The unit makes no sounds as if it is trying to boot.

Epox ep-8kta+ mobo
AMD 900 mhz T-bird

Any help please.
I'm liable to break a leg getting to my son's computer.
Thank you

 

[DonNagual]

My guess is the power supply has died. It could also be the motherboard, but the only way to confirm is through some testing. I don't know how tech-minded you are (but if you are installing your own graphics cards it sounds like you know what you're doing).

I'd remove everything from the motherboard except one stick of ram, your video card and your CPU/heatsink.

What happens at this stage when you hit the power button? Any fans?

Take your son's PSU and try again.

Good luck!

 

[bigbrat41]

It made no difference!

Thanks Don.
I unplugged everything but the mobo and no difference was noticed. The CPU fan, case fan and LEDs ( both front of case and LED 1 on the MOBO) light.
I tried another PSU with no luck at all (believed to be good but not 100% sure). I don't hear a thing on power up, like posting is starting.

 

[IronDuke]

The orange (as it is on my machines) led is the disk access indicator. This should go off when the disk stops working. Did it POST?

 

[bigbrat41]

No post!

I hear absolutely no HDD action on power up. Usually I can hear the beginnings of post and boot.

 

[IronDuke]

Try resetting the cmos.

 

[bigbrat41]

Newbie question

How do I reset the CMOS? this was one of the possibilities that occured to me earlier, replacing the battery at least.
Thank you for your time.

 

[IronDuke]

There is usually a jumper near the battery that needs to be moved to short it out and the returned to its original position, all while the machine is disconnected from the mains. Alternatively you could take the battery out for 10 minutes or so.

 

[bigbrat41]

No joy!

I removed the battery for 15+ minutes and have made no difference.
I should also have mentioned earlier that my reset button now does nothing. More and more I'm getting the impression that the mobo has gone south.

 

[IronDuke]

Blown capacitors

It is possible that one of the power capacitors have blown. This may be observable. See here.

 

[bigbrat41]

Thank you IronDuke and Don N.

The capacitors may be a problem as some exhibit some amount of push or bulge. As of last night I purchased a PSU and a MOBO w/ cpu and mem on e-bay. I will most impatiently wait for their arrival.
the mobo combo is a small step of upgrade in cpu and the additional ram will certainly help the performance. If the psu is not the problem then I have 1 for the sys I'm building.
Thank you all again and
Merry Christmas
Greg

 

[IronDuke]

Hope all goes well.