System no longer posts - CPU?

[mbevier]

Athlon 2200XP+ Thoroughbred
512 Mushkin DDR PC2700
SOYO KT333 Dragon Ultra Platinum
Gainward GeForce 4 ti4200 128mb

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The problem of my system not posting seems to have been a somewhat gradual thing. There were times in the past when I would hit the power button to turn on the system and it would do nothing but run the fans. This was easily fixed by simply trying again. I got kind of dismissive about this as the system runs almost continuously throughout the year. This didn't affect much and never really came as a problem till now when I look back. The actual dehabilitating effect came with no real, apparent, cause. The first signs was a random failing of video. The system would seem to keep running(though any functionality was hard to verify) but the screen would go blank. On restart, the screen came back up easily and ran smoothly till it would have a display failure again in a similar fashion. This occured for a few days and was still able to be revived. In the later part of those days, it took more and more times of powering down/powering up the system to get it to post correctly. It eventually would, though. When it finally would post no longer, it actually began to give me a 3 or 4 quick beeps and no post.

My initial thought was that the video card was failing, and had finally failed. I tested it in another system and it posted easily and had no troubles. I also tried a different video card in my system to replace the card I had though was bad. This got the system to post, but it would randomly freeze the system. At first it managed to stay up for hours at a time or longer, but after a few days, the system began to freeze often. The system would freeze while loading Windows XP, or if it happened to make it into XP, it would freeze soon after.

This then lead to a point where the system freezing was a moot point, as it began to no longer post. This came in 2 variations. The most encouraging variation is the one that seemed to be(by sound) loading the system correctly and as I have known in the past. However, contrairy to the past, it would not post. The other variation was having the system fans turning on, including CPU fan, etc but no other system activity.

This is where I am at now. On power up, the system fans will turn on but there is no post. I am wondering what this seemingly gradual failure is pointing to. My thought is the CPU has failed or some similar problem, but, of course I am not sure.

Any help on this subject for me would be greatly appreciated.

Thanks!

 

[Merc14]

Check your PSU

 

[mbevier]

What is the easiest way to check the PSU? I have another ATX power supply in a tower, but I've never messed around with them. I'm wary of tinkering too much with them as even if they are unplugged, they can jolt you pretty good with the stored energy.

 

[Merc14]

If you're not real sure about what you are doing you can get a cheap PSU tester at Radio Shack or Comp-USA and attach it, according to the directions included, to the designated lead and see what it reports. Best way is to get a utility that will track your voltages and record them over a period of time and see if there are some big dips that coincide with your system problems. I use Asus Probe but there are many others. You can also use a multimeter if you are comfortable with that.

The PSU itself is safe as long as you don't open its (the PSU's) case. Then you had better know what you are doing. Once unplugged you shouldn't feel worried about handling it. There are other ways to test your system but they are a little more involved.m Try the above simple tests and see what you come up with.

 

[mbevier]

Thanks!

Thanks Merc14, that was exactly the problem!

After grunting and cursing, I finally pulled the main power cord out of the mobo. Snapping off a prong of it in the meantime, no less. Looking at the port, I could see right away that 3 of the pins had been burnt. Testing was moot, the problem was right there. The hardest part was cutting out the pieces that were spot welded into the port. However, after some careful work, I got the port cleaned up and the PSU plugged in. Posted right away, no problems.

Once again, huge thanks!

 

[Merc14]

No problem and glad I could help. Did you have the plug in backwards or something or did the PSU just burn out? What kind of PSU was it?

 

[legendz411]

Thanks Merc14, that was exactly the problem!

After grunting and cursing, I finally pulled the main power cord out of the mobo. Snapping off a prong of it in the meantime, no less. Looking at the port, I could see right away that 3 of the pins had been burnt. Testing was moot, the problem was right there. The hardest part was cutting out the pieces that were spot welded into the port. However, after some careful work, I got the port cleaned up and the PSU plugged in. Posted right away, no problems.

Once again, huge thanks!

jeezuz.


horror story indeed. PSU spotwelded that **** good. What PSU Was it?

 

[Tedster]

https://www.techspot.com/vb/topic53866.html

 

[Mugsy]

Wow, very familiar.

Athlon 2200XP+ Thoroughbred
512 Mushkin DDR PC2700
SOYO KT333 Dragon Ultra Platinum
Gainward GeForce 4 ti4200 128mb

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The problem of my system not posting seems to have been a somewhat gradual thing. There were times in the past when I would hit the power button to turn on the system and it would do nothing but run the fans. This was easily fixed by simply trying again. I got kind of dismissive about this as the system runs almost continuously throughout the year.
(...)
This is where I am at now. On power up, the system fans will turn on but there is no post. I am wondering what this seemingly gradual failure is pointing to. My thought is the CPU has failed or some similar problem, but, of course I am not sure.

Wow, I think I posted this same thing a few months ago (Soyo KT600 Dragon Ultra Platinum, computer fans span and lit up, but that was it).

The problem turned out to be the PSU, providing only enough power to run the fans, but that's it. (cheap 550w psu blew on its own, despite having a great UPS with surge-prot) After repeated trying, when I finally got it to run again, the psu blew an hour later. Replaced it, and the replacement blew too. Finally got a 550w ThermalTake Toughpower, but my MoBo and cpu have already been affected. The M/B "whistles" at startup and the cpu overheats too easily (I must now run my 3200+ at 1900+ to remain stable). And one 3pin fan connector is dead as well (odd).

If your psu isn't totally fried and you can eventually boot, *underclock* your cpu so it uses less power to buy yourself some time until you get to where I am now... running slower and searching for my new upgrade.