Motherboard screwed?

[truant]

Hi there, my first post here but i'd be grateful for any help with this problem :]

A few weeks ago I was formatting my pc, after it'd finished formatting it rebooted itself as usual. But then nothing came on screen, so I tried another monitor and... nothing, blank. Also, my monitor seems to go to Standby whenever I turn my PC on (but whenever I unplug the monitor, it turns on again and tells me to plug it in).

I figured it was the graphics card, it died or something. But someone told me to check the POST when I turn it on, I checked and it doesn't beep like it usually does, 0 beeps at all. So he says it's a motherboard issue maybe, is this right? Is there any way I can check this? The computer lights up and the fans and stuff work as usual, it's just missing the beep and nothing comes on screen. I'm unemployed at the minute, I can't afford to just go buy a new PSU/Graphics card/Mobo all at once so identifying the problem without spending money would be great.

I'm running:
XP Home Edition SP2
AMD Athlon 64 3400+
ASrock K8Upgrade-1689 Socket 754 (or something, I lost the manual)
Ati Radeon 9550 256mb
2x512 mb ram (new, definitely works, unsure of brand)
250gb hard drive (also new, definitely works, unsure of brand)

Note: Firstly, it's been having a lot of problems for a while now, with locking up when playing WoW and just shutting itself off randomly, and having to safemode=>system restore everyday just to get windows up.
& secondly, I HAVE done the post troubleshooting not 10 minutes ago ( https://www.techspot.com/vb/topic53866.html ), and I literally unplugged everything bar the psu and cpu and the POST still didn't uh.. beep. What do I do now?

Any help would be mucho appreciated, before I rip my own face off in frustration. Let me know if more info's needed!

._.
cheers!

 

[dmill89]

does your motherboard have integrated video?If so remove the video card and try it.If not can you barrow a card or do you have another laying arround? for testing perposes even an <4mb old rage or trident would do. can you test your current card in anouther computer to see if it works? even if you have to buy a card you can probably find a used,old,low power one at most computer shops fore less than $10 as I said the only requirement for testing is that you know the card works. If you use integrated video,replace the card,or test the card in anouther computer and find video is not the issue strip your system down to PSU,motherboard,CPU,Video and one stick of ram.If it still fails try the other stick of ram.If it still failes now the porblem is probably the motherboard. If it works add components untill it fails.the component that causes failure is the problem and will need to be replaced.

 

[truant]

does your motherboard have integrated video?If so remove the video card and try it.If not can you barrow a card or do you have another laying arround? for testing perposes even an <4mb old rage or trident would do. can you test your current card in anouther computer to see if it works? even if you have to buy a card you can probably find a used,old,low power one at most computer shops fore less than $10 as I said the only requirement for testing is that you know the card works. If you use integrated video,replace the card,or test the card in anouther computer and find video is not the issue strip your system down to PSU,motherboard,CPU,Video and one stick of ram.If it still fails try the other stick of ram.If it still failes now the porblem is probably the motherboard. If it works add components untill it fails.the component that causes failure is the problem and will need to be replaced.

thanks for the input. I unplugged all the wires in the back excluding the power supply, then the hard drive, floppy drive, dvd drive, one stick of ram, the other stick, then finally the video card, testing the POST between each one and nothing. Still no POST beeps with all the above unplugged :/

i quite honestly suck with computers, but i'm presuming it's definitely my motherboard?

(just tested it again after writing the above, unplugged the video card and turned it on. no POST)

 

[dmill89]

motherboard seems the most likely cause but before you replace it I recomend you remove it from the case sit it on a piece of cardboard and see if it works just to make sure it wasn't being shorted by the case or a loose screw.

 

[truant]

motherboard seems the most likely cause but before you replace it I recomend you remove it from the case sit it on a piece of cardboard and see if it works just to make sure it wasn't being shorted by the case or a loose screw.

ok will do thanks, but how do I test it?

 

[dmill89]

sit the motherboard on the cardboard hook up the psu(you will also need to remove the psu from the case). put in ram and video card or use integrated video if avalible hook up moniter,keyboard,mouse(some boards will not start if no keyboard or mouse is connected) and trun it on by shorting the pins for the power switch with a screwdriver or paperclip (only touch the pins untill the cpu fan starts then remove).if your case's switch wires are long enough to reach thr board outside fo the case you may use it instead of shorting the pins.

 

[truant]

sit the motherboard on the cardboard hook up the psu(you will also need to remove the psu from the case). put in ram and video card or use integrated video if avalible hook up moniter,keyboard,mouse(some boards will not start if no keyboard or mouse is connected) and trun it on by shorting the pins for the power switch with a screwdriver or paperclip (only touch the pins untill the cpu fan starts then remove).if your case's switch wires are long enough to reach thr board outside fo the case you may use it instead of shorting the pins.

Thanks I'll get on that in the morning (4am here) and come back here, cheers for the help