Motherboard no longer POSTs after returning from vacation - is it dead, Jim?
Howdy folks,
Wall of text, yes, but please give it a quick read. Mostly I'm looking to know if my motherboard should be considered "dead", or if there's some steps I can take to fix it. Here's the story:
So I just got back from a 4-day trip. Before I left, I disconnected my PC and accessories from AC power (they're plugged into a UPS, which I turned off and unplugged).
When I returned and re-connected the UPS and powered it on, my PC would not start. I turned off the rig's power supply and turned it back on. This time, the drives and fans turned on (received power), but the mobo (a BIOSTAR TForce4SLI Socket 939) did not POST -- no beeps, nothing. It's like a zombie.
I proceeded to systematically gut it to see if any particular hardware was preventing it to POST. Nothing. Even after removing EVERYTHING (including GPU, all PCI cards, all drives, RAM, CPU, everything but the 24-pin power cable) it would still not POST. I also followed the procedure to reset the BIOS configuration and CMOS just in case, as well as pulling the coin cell battery for 30 seconds and re-inserting it.
More details on how it "powers up": giving the mobo power (either turning on the PSU or plugging the PSU in) causes the system fans and peripherals to receive power (which is NOT normal, it has NEVER automatically started when given power) while not POSTing. There is an on-board power switch that would normally power it off, but neither it nor the case's power switch work (even after holding it for over 15 seconds). I have to manually pull the plug.
The mobo has 4 LEDs that indicate its status. According to the manual, the configuration it displays indicates the following:
I'm already looking into buying a replacement AMD Socket 939 board and they're about $60-75, which I'm okay with. I'd save that for a fully new system, but I'm holding off for a Bulldozer setup.
Here's the relevant PC specs:
<dl class="list_no_decoration profilefield_list"><dt class="shade" id="profilefield_title_21">Processor</dt><dd id="profilefield_value_21"> AMD Athlon 64 X2 3800+ Manchester 2.0GHz Socket 939 Dual-Core Processor </dd><dt class="shade" id="profilefield_title_22">Motherboard</dt><dd id="profilefield_value_22"> BIOSTAR TForce4SLI Socket 939 NVIDIA nForce4 SLI ATX AMD </dd><dt class="shade" id="profilefield_title_24">Memory</dt><dd id="profilefield_value_24"> OCZ Platinum 2GB (2 x 1GB) 184-Pin DDR SDRAM DDR 400 (PC 3200) </dd><dt class="shade" id="profilefield_title_23">Video Card</dt><dd id="profilefield_value_23"> EVGA GeForce 7800GT 256MB GDDR3 PCI Express x16 </dd><dt class="shade" id="profilefield_title_27">Power</dt><dd id="profilefield_value_27"> Antec NeoPower 480 watt </dd></dl>
Thanks for taking a look. Let me know what your diagnosis is. Are there some more steps I can take to revive it? Or is it just plain dead, Jim? Any input is appreciated.
EDIT: it's worth noting that things have been wonky with this setup before in the past regarding turning it on. For example, for a long time I would have to hold the case's power button down for 3-5 seconds before it would turn on, or have to turn off the PSU and turn it back on before it would start. It's been fine since I migrated it all to the Sentey Burton case, and continued to be fine in the NZXT H2 case it's in now, so I wondered if my old case had a bad switch. But now this. So maybe it's the PSU, but I've tried a different PSU before when it acted strange and got similar results.
Wall of text, yes, but please give it a quick read. Mostly I'm looking to know if my motherboard should be considered "dead", or if there's some steps I can take to fix it. Here's the story:
So I just got back from a 4-day trip. Before I left, I disconnected my PC and accessories from AC power (they're plugged into a UPS, which I turned off and unplugged).
When I returned and re-connected the UPS and powered it on, my PC would not start. I turned off the rig's power supply and turned it back on. This time, the drives and fans turned on (received power), but the mobo (a BIOSTAR TForce4SLI Socket 939) did not POST -- no beeps, nothing. It's like a zombie.
I proceeded to systematically gut it to see if any particular hardware was preventing it to POST. Nothing. Even after removing EVERYTHING (including GPU, all PCI cards, all drives, RAM, CPU, everything but the 24-pin power cable) it would still not POST. I also followed the procedure to reset the BIOS configuration and CMOS just in case, as well as pulling the coin cell battery for 30 seconds and re-inserting it.
More details on how it "powers up": giving the mobo power (either turning on the PSU or plugging the PSU in) causes the system fans and peripherals to receive power (which is NOT normal, it has NEVER automatically started when given power) while not POSTing. There is an on-board power switch that would normally power it off, but neither it nor the case's power switch work (even after holding it for over 15 seconds). I have to manually pull the plug.
The mobo has 4 LEDs that indicate its status. According to the manual, the configuration it displays indicates the following:
- LED1 lit: "indicates the voltage of memory is activated normally." (remains lit even with no RAM or CPU installed)
- LED2 lit: "indicates the system is ready for Power-on."
- LED3 and 4 NOT lit: "Abnormal: CPU / Chipset error."
I'm already looking into buying a replacement AMD Socket 939 board and they're about $60-75, which I'm okay with. I'd save that for a fully new system, but I'm holding off for a Bulldozer setup.
Here's the relevant PC specs:
<dl class="list_no_decoration profilefield_list"><dt class="shade" id="profilefield_title_21">Processor</dt><dd id="profilefield_value_21"> AMD Athlon 64 X2 3800+ Manchester 2.0GHz Socket 939 Dual-Core Processor </dd><dt class="shade" id="profilefield_title_22">Motherboard</dt><dd id="profilefield_value_22"> BIOSTAR TForce4SLI Socket 939 NVIDIA nForce4 SLI ATX AMD </dd><dt class="shade" id="profilefield_title_24">Memory</dt><dd id="profilefield_value_24"> OCZ Platinum 2GB (2 x 1GB) 184-Pin DDR SDRAM DDR 400 (PC 3200) </dd><dt class="shade" id="profilefield_title_23">Video Card</dt><dd id="profilefield_value_23"> EVGA GeForce 7800GT 256MB GDDR3 PCI Express x16 </dd><dt class="shade" id="profilefield_title_27">Power</dt><dd id="profilefield_value_27"> Antec NeoPower 480 watt </dd></dl>
Thanks for taking a look. Let me know what your diagnosis is. Are there some more steps I can take to revive it? Or is it just plain dead, Jim? Any input is appreciated.
EDIT: it's worth noting that things have been wonky with this setup before in the past regarding turning it on. For example, for a long time I would have to hold the case's power button down for 3-5 seconds before it would turn on, or have to turn off the PSU and turn it back on before it would start. It's been fine since I migrated it all to the Sentey Burton case, and continued to be fine in the NZXT H2 case it's in now, so I wondered if my old case had a bad switch. But now this. So maybe it's the PSU, but I've tried a different PSU before when it acted strange and got similar results.
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That said, I would be very wary of buying a replacement motherboard. These are signs that the platform is generally failing at the chipset due to age, which means you're likely to see the same problem crop up again.