[Novalug] Dead Computer Diagnosis

[Miles D. Oliver]

   Thanks for all the input. I've also got a dead system (ABIT-NF7) MB 
doing the exact same things with what is 'supposedly' a brand new power 
supply. and this has been very good thread for me too to also try 
and diagnose my problems.  The 500W PS is supposed to be new with the 
case I just bought.

   I get no beep codes and NO video but the fans spin up.

   I was able to get someone to assist verifying memory and Video cards on 
another system and they work fine but need to verify CPU (Got 2, AMD 
2100 and a 2500 to check) to rule things out.  Nobody close to me has a MB 
that can check CPUs for me though. The MB was RMA'd to Abit for a 
replacement so it should be good coming back from them.




On Thu, 16 Nov 2006, Greg Faust wrote:

> David,
> I agree with the PSU diagnosis.  I'd like to mention that I have seen power 
> supplies that look good on a multimeter, but have too much "ripple" in the DC 
> power for a stable system.  You would need an oscilliscope to look at the 
> waveform and there aren't really any criteria for what works and what 
> doesn't.  I would probably just replace the PSU with something I wouldn't 
> mind keeping as a spare if it doesn't resolve the problem.
> -Greg Faust-
>
>
>> From: "David A. Hammond" <hammonds at starpower.net>
>> Reply-To: hammonds at erols.com
>> To: novalug at calypso.tux.org
>> Subject: [Novalug] Dead Computer Diagnosis
>> Date: Thu, 16 Nov 2006 08:46:39 -0500 (EST)
>> 
>> Hi,
>> 
>> I have a machine which is (nearly) dead and I need some help
>> getting started on diagnosing it.  There's not much to go on.
>> 
>> When I hit the power switch, it lights up and both fans (power
>> supply and cpu) spin.  Nothing else happens.  The keyboard
>> lights don't flash, there's no beep, and no synch is sent to
>> the monitor.  As best I can tell there are no diagnostic leds
>> anywhere on the motherboard.
>> 
>> What led up to this state is as follows:
>> 
>> This machine is primarily used as a file server, name server,
>> DHCP server, etc.  A couple of nights ago it wasn't serving
>> anything and I could not ping it, so I turned the monitor on
>> and found that I had no synch.  So I tried to reboot it.  It
>> got pretty far into the boot sequence (Fedora Core 3) and
>> hung.  So I tried again.  It didn't get as far so I tried
>> yet again.  This time it quit even quicker, so I figured maybe
>> it was a heat problem and unplugged it for about a half an
>> hour.  When I powered it back up I went into setup so I could
>> watch the cpu temperature.  It started at 36 C and slowly climbed to 45 C 
>> where it seemed to level off.  I then turned
>> it off but did not unplug it.  When I came back the next
>> evening, I found it in the state described at the top of this
>> note.
>> 
>> One other thing:  When I was trying the reboots the first
>> night, I could power the machine off with the front panel
>> switch but I could not power it back up unless I unplugged
>> it for about 10-15 seconds.  Does this give any hints?
>> 
>> I have a digital voltmeter, so I can check voltages out of
>> the power supply.  I haven't done that yet.
>> 
>> (Please respond to the list or to hammonds at erols.com.  I am
>> using webmail from work now, so the From address is probably
>> not right.)
>> 
>> TIA,
>> Dave
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-- 
  Miles D. Oliver
  www.mmoliver.org
_________________
"If a man speaks in the woods where there is no woman to hear him, is he
still wrong? Probably."

"If a woman speaks in the forest with no man near to hear her, is she
still complaining? Of course."