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Motherboard went POP

Former MemberFormer Member Posts: 1,876,323 The Mix Honorary Guru
Background information:

Tried to get the computer to power on, but when you hit the power button the cpu fan would spin for like a second and nothing, just like when you try to start your car and it fails.

So I had a good look at where all the switchs wire up to, and put them all in - Pluged the power in, hit the power button. Hey Prestro everything worked even mobo beeped :)

THEN! As it was starting up something went POP I shit myself and unplugged the power.

Now i've looked around on the board up close but I cant see nothing that is damaged or looks like its 'popped My only theory is one of those big chunky things that stick up have popped - But again there's no visual evidence!

So do I chuck the board away?

Comments

  • Former MemberFormer Member Posts: 1,876,323 The Mix Honorary Guru
    Maybe try unplugging everything from the motherboard expect the PSU, fire it up and see if anything happens. My old PC had lights on the mobo to indicate if there was a hardware fault. Is everything jumpered correctly?
  • Former MemberFormer Member Posts: 1,876,323 The Mix Honorary Guru
    I'll give that ago in a controlled testing environment! haha

    I checked everything before because it would not stay on, but ill just wire the power switch and power and give it ago.

    *worries*

    Its not a big deal, I can chuck it out if need be lol :P
  • Former MemberFormer Member Posts: 1,876,323 The Mix Honorary Guru
    Okay, Carried out testing, adding one component at a time - Left the GFX Card in.

    Powered on with ram & HHD and there was no POP so I was like few :D

    Problem now is, there is no system beep when you power on the system and also there is nothing going to the monitor.

    No input signal :(
  • Former MemberFormer Member Posts: 1,876,323 The Mix Honorary Guru
    from personal experience i would guess your mobo is fubared, time for an upgrade?
  • Former MemberFormer Member Posts: 1,876,323 The Mix Honorary Guru
    Oh this is just an old one, which was the office pc, I upgraded a year ago to intel core 2 since then with a whole new system :)

    I was just wanted to see if I could get it working because i could add 512mb ram to it lol :D
  • Indrid ColdIndrid Cold Posts: 16,688 Skive's The Limit
    Are you sure it's the mobo that has the problem and not the graphics card? Since it worked without it...
  • Former MemberFormer Member Posts: 1,876,323 The Mix Honorary Guru
    I did not remove the graphics card to start with... :s
  • Former MemberFormer Member Posts: 1,876,323 The Mix Honorary Guru
    Can you hear the HDD spinning up when you turn on the power? Have you tried using the HDD in another PC, or in an external enclosure to check it's working?

    RE the graphics card, does the mobo have on-board video capability? Then if you remove the card, it may show if there's a problem there.

    If you can be bothered, I'd try using all the different components in another system (one by one) to check they work. If they all work elsewhere, assuming they are supported in the other system, it must be the mobo!
  • Former MemberFormer Member Posts: 1,876,323 The Mix Honorary Guru
    No on board gfx, i'll give it ago later today and report back :)
  • Indrid ColdIndrid Cold Posts: 16,688 Skive's The Limit
    CoolMe wrote: »
    I did not remove the graphics card to start with... :s
    Sorry, I misread!
  • Former MemberFormer Member Posts: 1,876,323 The Mix Honorary Guru
    buy a new pc and sell your bits on ebay
  • Former MemberFormer Member Posts: 1,876,323 The Mix Honorary Guru
    CoolMe wrote: »
    No on board gfx, i'll give it ago later today and report back :)
    I wanna know what you found out!
  • Former MemberFormer Member Posts: 1,876,323 The Mix Honorary Guru
    Now i've looked around on the board up close but I cant see nothing that is damaged or looks like its 'popped My only theory is one of those big chunky things that stick up have popped - But again there's no visual evidence!

    They are capacitors. Many motherboards from 1998-2001 had bad ones. Either the top of the caps would bulge, or they would leak electrolyte from the bottom. Have a good look around the ones nearest the CPU, with a good light shining in there.

    http://home.mchsi.com/~martin.rogers/SL400-bad-caps.jpg
    http://www.tweakers.net/ext/i.dsp/1052734326.jpg
    http://img395.imageshack.us/img395/5809/kzgexploded1hx9.jpg
    http://www.pcstats.com/articleimages/200302/capblown_6.jpg

    They were also used in cheap power supplies. The pop could have originated from here... the capacitors were made by cheapo manufacturers from a stolen design by a leading company, but it wasn't copied correctly.

    As you've already partially done, try the system with all cards removed but memory in place. Note any beeps made. Failing that, try another known-good PSU.

    Also this link is good:-
    http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Capacitor_plague
  • Former MemberFormer Member Posts: 1,876,323 The Mix Honorary Guru
    cavorting wrote: »
    buy a new pc and sell your bits on ebay

    You clearly no nothing about my computering status. :)
    I wanna know what you found out!

    Sorry! :lol: I'll have ago asap, got side tracked with my amazon orders!
    They are capacitors. Many motherboards from 1998-2001 had bad ones. Either the top of the caps would bulge, or they would leak electrolyte from the bottom. Have a good look around the ones nearest the CPU, with a good light shining in there.

    They were also used in cheap power supplies. The pop could have originated from here...

    As you've already partially done, try the system with all cards removed but memory in place. Note any beeps made.

    Thing is, ive seen caps that have blowen, so I'll have a look again but I got my lovely new 250GB Hard drive today :D So I'll use my old one as a test for this machine

    Just to keep wooooooooah happy ;)
  • Former MemberFormer Member Posts: 1,876,323 The Mix Honorary Guru
    CoolMe wrote: »
    You clearly no nothing about my computering status. :)



    Sorry! :lol: I'll have ago asap, got side tracked with my amazon orders!



    Thing is, ive seen caps that have blowen, so I'll have a look again but I got my lovely new 250GB Hard drive today :D So I'll use my old one as a test for this machine

    Just to keep wooooooooah happy ;)
    Yey :)
  • Former MemberFormer Member Posts: 1,876,323 The Mix Honorary Guru
    Well I changed the HD, powerd the system up. Sadly nothing coming on the screen - So I looked for another GFX but could'nt find one so i'll give that ago tomorrow!

    Hopefully it won't be so hot!
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