My desk top just died

[vitriol]

aah the BBC Model B, remember using them at school. 

[Rik]

I made a lot of money from mine.

[Baz]

I made a lot of money from mine.

REALLY???  how/where/who from/how much............I have one tucked away somewhere, maybe even two

[Rik]

I wrote software for it, Baz, and sold it on Prestel (the original paid software download). I also freelanced for Acorn as a programmer.

[David]

Well it done that was a job and a half had to take all the front cover off then move the optical drive because of space.fitted it at last and turned it on......nothing  I have  a usb multiplug in the front and it lights up so there is power.just gone through the list and its connected ok....why do I think this will be dire news

[Rik]

It's beginning to sound a bit like a motherboard failure, David.

[Ann]

Looks like you're going to be building that new computer a bit sooner than you thought, Mr Piano Player.  I built my first computer following the instructions on the BYO website.

http://www.buildyourown.org.uk/pc-building/

I also had a book but couldn't make head nor tail of it    It made everything sound so complicated.

[David]

Oh thanks for this link Ann.

[David]

It's beginning to sound a bit like a motherboard failure, David.

Have to look on the bright side Rik....got a nice new psu and I have already seen a motherboard today....always look on the bright side.............I can do memory and fit psu.....tomorrow the world...
I will get it checked out and if it is dead It will be time as Ann said to have a bloody good time.
The guy over at Maplins reckons for £600 (my budget) He reckons I would end up with a cracking machine the motherboard bundle is quad and I can use the RAM out of mine so in a way I have moved on a little anyway............................   will the hard drive be usable or is there anyway to get the data off it ?

[LesD]

Just some final things to run through that maybe you have done already.

Initially the single beep you mentioned sounded healthy to me. It's Machine BIOS dependent but a string of beeps usually gives an error code one is healthy.

Do you have a separate graphics card? If you do it will be the one the cable from your monitor plugs into.
Make absolutely sure it is seated properly in the connector slot on the motherboard (mobo).
While fitting memory it could possible have been disturbed.
If it is an AGP one like Lona's there will ever likely be some sort of locking pin at the back down near the socket on the mobo.
If the are any other cards in sockets on the mobo check that each one is seated and connecting properly.
sometimes the sightest of angles can be enough to cause some pins not to connect properly.
If you can work out what other cards do like the LAN card which will have the ethernet cable from your router plugged into it or a sound card with your speakers plugged into it you could try removing them temporarily and seeing it the machine will POST without them as a process of elimination.
Some mobo's have these feature on the mobo itself if yours is one of these this advice won't help but take a look and see.

Then there are the harddisk drives (HDD's). I believe I have seen SATA mentioned in your machine, which I have no experience of. When I built this machine a had a 120 GB IDE HHD drive going spare that was virtually new so despite the mobo having SATA facilities and the intention to go that way later so far the need has not arisen. That said I know that a badly seated ribbon cable between mobo and IDE drive can have unexpected consequences on the way a PC behaves so it is worth double checking that all the connections to your drive(s) are made properly. Reading about Simon's experiences a week or four ago he found SATA connectors very fragile so hopefully one of yours has not suffered the same fate. Machines in my experience will POST without the HDD's so you could see what happens if you disconnect them.

Another thing to look at is all the fan connections especially the one from the processor fan to the mobo.
If the processor overheats a good many shutdown as a self protection measure and no power to the fan would certainly make the processor overheat. That said I would have expected some sort of burst of life before this happened. There may be another fan on your graphics card make sure its connector is making properly.

I apologise if you have been there and done that as the saying goes but I have all but given up before now only to discover the daftest little things usually of my own making causing my grief!

Have at least one last look David. 

[vitriol]

This is very strange, first Lona's pc (corrupt graphics) which I had seen on a workmate's PC and now this.  Another colleague of mine changed his power supply recently and was getting the exact same symptoms that you describe David.  Solitary beep but then nothing.  The LED on his motherboard was coming on so power was there.

All I had to do to his was reset the BIOS by moving the jumper into the Clear position, leave it there 10 seconds and then put back in Normal position.  Applied power and his PC booted.

You could try doing that David, if you haven't already

--David

[Steve]

Certainly agree with LesD and Vitriol, It may just be coincidence but you have been ferreting around inside the case recently.For instance my PC will do diddly squit if the CPU fan is not functional/connected.

[LesD]

All I had to do to his was reset the BIOS by moving the jumper into the Clear position, leave it there 10 seconds and then put back in Normal position.  Applied power and his PC booted.

Sound advice here David. 

Just be sure to do this procedure with the mains power plug removed from your PC and/or the wall socket!

I know there are some machine where you can get away without doing this but there are definitely those where you cannot!   

P.S. This edit is because I have just had another thought and that is concerning the state of your CMOS battery. It is probably best described as shiny, on the mobo and roughtly the the size of a two bob bit (I know you will know what that looked like  ) with possibly CR2032 on it. A new on is only about 20 two bob bits so could be worth a try.

[David]

Thanks les thanks Vitriol and Steve.run out of time tonight.got the day off tomorrow so I intended to strip the machine down to the bare bones to see if there is any life and then one by one check and recheck,even if it just gives me the confidence to get around inside its worth it.Graphics card is the first
Heres my checck list
psu connection to motherboard
Heat sink fan connection
case fans
power cables to drives
check video card seated correctly
and all expansion cards connected

checl my Ram retention clips

And as a last resort will check to see if the power switch is ok......seems a long list but its worth a go but the way it just gave one bleep and turned itself off has to be a clue.

I had hoped that the psu had to work overtime to cope with the extra ram I had installed but as you know Im as thick as 2 short ones at present.

You know me though I wont give up and althuogh my new build has been brougfht foward I intend to resue this machine as well.....

In a month I will either have a cupboard full of bits or 3 functioning pcs...and no doubt learned a lot.....hope it wont be (go to pc world ) thanks guys will let you know how I get on  you never know it may be a case of "The Milkey bars are on me"

[David]

Thanks for that Les the battery I did look at earlier and it did occur didnt think this could make the machine unconcious though or in this case in a coma..just added it to the list and will replace if it isnt this I will use them on the new one so nothing has been got and wasted......

[Steve]

Most MB will POST with a flat battery.However if you cant find the CMOS reset jumper on the MB, disconnect power lead and remove the battery and leave it out for a couple of hours.

[David]

Thanks Steve,Les and Vitriol worth a try will do this.....Your all a credit to the human race......one day in about 350 years or when there is a severe frost in hell I may be able to help someone along in the same way you do for me and every one else....

[Steve]

PS Be careful, I managed to damage a MB changing the CMOS battery and now every time we have a powercut I have to restore the bios settings manually. Its a bloody nuisance as the PC has RAID as well

[LesD]

Thanks Steve,Les and Vitriol worth a try will do this

No problem look at all the ideas that we can get you to try out without taking any risk ourselves! 

No offense to my fellow advisers! 

[Steve]

I know Les,better to watch. But I see no solution except by a process of elimination.

[LesD]

One very last thought because it's my but recalling another of your threads about "Educating your keyboard", your current problems weren't triggered when you swapped them round or just after were they. 

Thinks best add check keyboard and/or its connections to your elimination list. What say you Steve? 

No keyboard would make a beeb or so but the machine should still POST though I guess.

[Steve]

Bios default is "halt all errors except keyboard" I think?

[vitriol]

Bios default is "halt all errors except keyboard" I think?

yup they're normally set up like that

[Dangerjunkie]

Hi,

Sorry to hear it's not going according to plan. On the bright side, however, you now have a really nice PSU that will power your new motherboard (the old one wouldn't have had a hope in Hades of running a top notch board with a modern quad CPU.)

Before writing off the board I would try the following:

• Have you connected all the cables that you should have? Particularly the second (square, 4-pin) power cable to the motherboard.
• Does you graphics card have a 4-pin power socket like a disc power socket? Is it connected?
• Have you tried the graphics card from another machine?
  
• Does your graphics card have more than one output socket (VGA, DVI?) Have you tried the other one to see if any video is coming out of that?
• Try disconnecting the power, gently removing the battery, leaving it for half an hour then putting the battery back and powering up. Enter the BIOS, restore defaults and save.

One beep normally suggests that the BIOS is happy and thinks the machine is working.

Cheers,
Paul.

[David]

Well I am amazed.my defunct machine has taken up more of today and decided to use laptop for online stuf.
then I thought I would try out the daughters machine.....and although its old the speed is blistering just carried out speed test on TB and its 5.4 and in comparison with the PB this leaves it standing.....I just clicked Idnet to favourites and it is so fast I hadnt rea;ised it had loaded and ened up with 3.............................time for a rethink  .cant think why this should be faster though