A friend of mine had a computer die. She brought it over and i checked it out. When turned on, there is no Beep, no HDDs spin up, but the fans come on and whatnot. The computer had never been cleaned and was FULL of dust. I pulled handfuls of dust bunnies out of this thing. Never seen anything quite like it lol. The CPU heatsink was completely clogged with dust. So anyway, i'm suspecting the CPU fried due to not getting any air through the heatsink. Figured I'd make a post on here and see what you guys think? Bad CPU or Mobo?
welcome to HWF! ya problem sounds like ya power pack, take it to the shop or get a replacement. the devices will still power up even if the cpu or mobo is bust. there is a little suspecious thoughts with this as it doesnt post, we've proven the psu is broke as the hdd isnt spinning up, swap the cables around and try it on the other devices to confirm there's no power going through the cables. if theres no sign of power through the devices' cables then there might be a problem with the cables to the motherboard also, if its a pentium the 4-pin cable could be nack'd too. its best to get the psu swapped
I suspect it either a PSU or mobo concern. First of all, try to measure the PSU in order to make sure it's providing accurate voltages as currents (check that label on it's back), After a good clean out (even a wash if possible ), unplug all devices, leave only one RAM, CPU and the fan. After power's on, If you get it work and get those gothamit POST beeps then you're lucky, count them according to the BIOS specifications, if not try to change RAM between DIMM's and try again.
Doesn't appear to be a PSU issue. power checks out, and the PSU is giving a "PWR_OK" signal. I'm just gonna go ahead and repeat what exactly the computer is doing. When you turn the power on, the CPU fan comes on, and so does the PSU fan (there are no other fans). Everything has power. However, there is no POST beep. No HDD clatter. No VGA Output. It's got onboard video. Never heard of something like this being caused by a bad VGA card though. So i'm back to the original question. "CPU or Mobo?" Will a motherboard still give off a POST beep if the CPU is bad? I had a CPU arrive DOA once, but forget exactly what the mobo did.
No the motherboard will not post if the cpu is bad. you've ruled out your psu, now its time to check your ram, so try one module of ram in one dimm at a time, if no luck try a new module of ram. if it still doesn't post re-seat the processor, if it still doesn't post my best bet it's most likely motherboard, because when the cpu hits a certain temp the system will shut down to avoid frying the cpu. The dust build up could of caused excessive heat build up on the chipsets causing controllers to fail such as memory controller, gpu controller etc.
right so theres no point blaiming the psu yet if all the devices are powering up. modern motherboards beep an error code when it detects a faulty cpu, older ones don't bother, so it depends on your mobo. first thing I would do is reset the bios cmos because usually when a pc has been unused for a long time the cmos can get corrupted and a cmos reset is needed - let us know if your unsure how to do this. if after clearing the cmos the pc doesnt post try using just one stick of ram at a time, this will illiminate a damaged ram stick, its better to try new sticks if it fails with the ones your using failing that its time to test the cpu on a different machine, or try a new cpu on yours if you have one
