Computer died....looking for some ideas....help?

[Whiplash73]

Well, I have an Asus A7N8Xe-deluxe, with an Athlon XP 3000+ (Barton core), Corsair 512mb stick, Mad Dog nVidia FX-5600 plus video card, 350watt PS, WD 130gb Sata.....and nothing OC'ed.

Here's what happened:

I've had this thing for over a year, built it myself, and never really turned it off, as it answers the phone, and takes faxes. Never had any problems other than the usual spyware, etc.

I came home one day, and the screen was locked on one pic (screensaver). I rebooted, and nothing. Nada. the motherboard wouldn't even post. Did the isolation method to see what part may have went bad. It started to post when I removed the memory, so I had the memory replaced. Then still no POST. Isolated it down to the video card, and it would post without it. Purchased a secondary video card, (while I wait for a replacement for the 5600) just to see if it would run. It booted, but now I can't get the onboard sound to work, even though the voice that sounds like a school teacher gives the OK during POST, and reports no problems.

Put back the SB-16 PCI board, and it recognized it once. Now XP doesn't see the card. Everything else seems to be working. Not sure if I have conflicting sound stuff or what the problem is. And it seems like it takes forever to boot, and doesn't seem to want to boot sometimes.

Does this sound like my MB went bad? I'm running it now, and don't seem to have any other problems other than the sound.

I'm going to update all the drivers to the latest and greatest, but if anyone has had a similar problem, lemme know what the cause was?

Thanks in advance for any help.....

 

[Austin44]

u really shouldnt just leave it on although im sure u have learned about that but its terrible for ur comp. but ur sound hmm it may have been burnt out run bios and see if u can do anything if that doesnt work u may need a new sound card

 

[zephead]

u really shouldnt just leave it on although im sure u have learned about that but its terrible for ur comp.

not worry, leaving a computer on for long periods of time is fine and in fact usually results in less wear and tear on the components.

okay, you cannot post a computer without working ram, mobo, video, cpu, psu installed. POST is an acronym for Power On Self Test and involves a readable video output. if you take out a part such as the video card, you cannot see an indication of this test then the computer has not POSTed. and a computer will never start without the ram, so starting the board with no ram installed is just wasting time.

that said, it does sound likely that your motherboard has failed on you.

 

[Whiplash73]

I installed a new video card, and the computer is booting, and posting, etc. Just having difficulty getting the sound to work. As I said before, the original video card that was in there won't let the computer boot.

I haven't had a lot of experience building tons of computers, so I'm wondering if just a portion of the board, (i.e. PCI slots), can be effected. I personally have never seen or heard of just part of the mother board going bad, just the whole thing.

I'm in the process of updating all the drivers. as far as the onboard sound, the soundstorm program keeps quitting with an error.

With the price of this board, I may end up just getting the stripped down version. I don't used some of the stuff on it, so why go to that extent.

Has anyone else used any Mad Dog products? I purchased it for the features the card had, and the fact that they have a lifetime warranty.

 

[Whiplash73]

Downloaded newest files for SB-16 card, and now it's working. But for the life of me, I have never been able to get the onboard sound working.

 

[FireDawg]

You might want to look at all the caps on the board to see if any are expanded. This can cause a mobo to act flakey and will cause failure in due time.

 

[zephead]

you're either dealing with driver corruption or bad hardware, the latter being more likely. and yes, a bad cap would indicate that the board should be replaced.

 

[Whiplash73]

I'll check the capacitors when I have a little time.

I think my main problem is the video card. So far, this new one has been working fine. I did have to replace the cooling fan on the existing one once already, and the new one didn't sound too great when I was troubleshooting.

 

[Whiplash73]

It was the video card. Mad Dog replaced it at no charge, under the lifetime warranty. Running smooth again. Thanks for the help.