I'm stumped...

bluntblunt
edited April 2009 in Hardware
Hi all... I consider myself pretty tech savvy, and pretty good at trouble shooting. But with this issue im totally stumped.

My friends computer crashed and stopped working out of nowhere. I have plenty of parts to troubleshoot with.

I have 4 processors (1 being the one in the pc) to work with..

3 phenom quad cores and my athlon 64 dual core.

He has had this pc for about 1 year without any problems.

So i put those 3 phenoms in his computer, no beeps, no display.. nothing..

i put my athlon 64 in it and it boots right up.. 1 phenom (current cpu) 1 year old does not work... another phenom 2 months old doesnt work in it, (from my other roommates pc) the brand new phenom does not work in the pc.

The one year old phenom, we put in my roommates pc, boots up fine..

So what i dont understand is why the computer is not working. works fine with my chip but none of the others.

Any ideas? I appreciate all the help.


Also, vid card and ram work perfectly fine, we tried several kinds of ram and vid cards.

Comments

  • ThraxThrax 🐌 Austin, TX Icrontian
    edited April 2009
    The motherboard does not have BIOS support for the newer Phenom CPUs.
  • QCHQCH Ancient Guru Chicago Area - USA Icrontian
    edited April 2009
    Well... if it worked then suddenly didn't I would say that something changed hardware wise or a component changed. OK, so you've swapped CPU's and the original one works in another system and a spare works in the original Motherboard....

    So... what is the difference between the two scenarios. I'm guessing Power supply. Why? Maybe the voltage required for one is different enough to make it not boot while the other is either more lenient or just asks for less.

    I would put the AMD 64 in, run memtest for several hours. If that works, boot into the operating system and run Prime Test to see if the system really IS stable.
  • bluntblunt
    edited April 2009
    its been running a phenom for a year....
  • QCHQCH Ancient Guru Chicago Area - USA Icrontian
    edited April 2009
    Think about it... on a car the starter draws a ton of current. As the starter begins to fail it requires more and more power to get cranking. Now... the battery, when it was new, had more than enough to crank that starter. As it gets older, it gets harder and harder to put out the juice. So... one day the car will not start. Is it the battery or the starter?

    Take the starter out and test it with a new Power supply and it works. Put a new starter in and the battery still has enough to turn it over...

    I'm thinking the Power Supply is starting to go and the Phenom is just too much but the AMD 64 is within its ability.
  • bluntblunt
    edited April 2009
    you make an excellent point. ill try a diff psu.
  • bluntblunt
    edited April 2009
    a month before it went out, he put in a geforce 295.. so thats alot more power being sucked out.. it makes sense if the psu is going out...
  • QCHQCH Ancient Guru Chicago Area - USA Icrontian
    edited April 2009
    ;) I bet that's the issue. I'm guessing a 450 Watt PSU.
  • bluntblunt
    edited April 2009
    its actually a 750.. but has miles on it for sure.
  • Cliff_ForsterCliff_Forster Icrontian
    edited April 2009
    Yeah, you need some hefty 12 volt rails, that GTX295 is a hog, My money is on the power supply failing to "turn it over" as our friend QCH2002 says.

    You could perhaps pull the card, and if it has integrated graphics, try the phenom and that in combo, see what happens before pulling the supply.
  • QCHQCH Ancient Guru Chicago Area - USA Icrontian
    edited April 2009
    If no onboard video, put in a cheap video card just to see if the system will boot with the Phenom.
  • SoundySoundy Pitt Meadows, BC
    edited April 2009
    QCH2002 wrote:
    I would put the AMD 64 in, run memtest for several hours. If that works, boot into the operating system and run Prime Test to see if the system really IS stable.

    Wass iss diss??
  • bluntblunt
    edited April 2009
    QCH2002 wrote:
    If no onboard video, put in a cheap video card just to see if the system will boot with the Phenom.

    no onboard, but we put in an ati 3870..
  • ThraxThrax 🐌 Austin, TX Icrontian
    edited April 2009
    Soundy wrote:
    Wass iss diss??

    Prime 95.
  • QCHQCH Ancient Guru Chicago Area - USA Icrontian
    edited April 2009
    Yep... forgot the "95" part. Sorry. :)
  • Cliff_ForsterCliff_Forster Icrontian
    edited April 2009
    blunt wrote:
    no onboard, but we put in an ati 3870..

    Did that work? The 3870 is a fairly hefty draw too, so it might not.

    If your looking for a new PSU, this is a really silly good deal at $79.99

    http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16817371015
  • bluntblunt
    edited April 2009
    well, we just put in 1000w, and it doesnt do anything.. could there be something wrong with the motherboard?
  • ThraxThrax 🐌 Austin, TX Icrontian
    edited April 2009
    I still maintain that the system's CPU is dead and the motherboard hasn't been updated to support newer Phenoms.
  • BuddyJBuddyJ Dept. of Propaganda OKC Icrontian
    edited April 2009
    blunt, what motherboard are you using?
  • Cliff_ForsterCliff_Forster Icrontian
    edited April 2009
    Hopefully its what Thrax says, perhaps you need to update the bios, and try another Phenom, see if it works,

    Or perhaps your mobo only supports lower wattage CPU's, Some AM2+ boards only support the 95W CPU's, if its a 125W model, it may not work.
  • bluntblunt
    edited April 2009
    asus m3a32 MVP deluxe
  • bluntblunt
    edited April 2009
    Cliff_Forster wrote:
    Or perhaps your mobo only supports lower wattage CPU's, Some AM2+ boards only support the 95W CPU's, if its a 125W model, it may not work.

    keep in mind that this pc was running for a year before it crashed, so im sure the board supports the cpu.
  • bluntblunt
    edited April 2009
    Thrax wrote:
    I still maintain that the system's CPU is dead and the motherboard hasn't been updated to support newer Phenoms.

    And i put this processor in my roommates pc, works fine..
  • Cliff_ForsterCliff_Forster Icrontian
    edited April 2009
    Hmmmmm, Well, at this point, why not flash the motherboards bios using the one chip that does work,

    Its a high end board, but a little older, Here is a link to its downloads page, I would follow the instructions to flash to the latest bios, http://support.asus.com/download/download.aspx?modelname=M3A32-MVP%20DELUXE&SLanguage=en-us
  • QCHQCH Ancient Guru Chicago Area - USA Icrontian
    edited April 2009
    BTW... have you reset the BIOS? Maybe it's just a glitch with the BIOS settings.
  • Cliff_ForsterCliff_Forster Icrontian
    edited April 2009
    QCH2002 wrote:
    BTW... have you reset the BIOS? Maybe it's just a glitch with the BIOS settings.

    Good suggestion, might save you from the uncertainty of the flash, thats a good place to start. Do you know how to reset the mobo bios?
  • QCHQCH Ancient Guru Chicago Area - USA Icrontian
    edited April 2009
    Pour water on it? ;D I'm sorry... that's mean.
  • BuddyJBuddyJ Dept. of Propaganda OKC Icrontian
    edited April 2009
    ASUS website says it's 140W ready. Here's the plan.

    Install the Athlon 64 so it'll boot.
    Flash to the latest BIOS.
    Replace the CMOS battery.
    Double check all power connections, making sure you've got both the 24-pin and 8-pin power connectors correctly installed.
    Then try and boot with the Phenom and one stick of RAM, with all other non-necessary components removed from the system.
  • bluntblunt
    edited April 2009
    alright... we had a friend who has his own computer repair business come over.. we swapped processors, flashed the bios.. which did nothing.. he pretty much narrowed it down to motherboard damage.. were just gonna order a new mobo.
  • Cliff_ForsterCliff_Forster Icrontian
    edited April 2009
    Out of curiosity, could you list all four CPUs you tried?

    The older Athlon that works
    The Phenom that failed
    The other two you tried that do not work

    I have one more potential idea on what could be wrong, but I would need to know all the CPU models.
  • RichDRichD Essex, UK
    edited April 2009
    I'd go with motherboard. That model has been notorious!
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