Computer Geeks: Help!
 

Okay, here's the dealo. This morning before leaving for the Lighstpeed Offices this morning I'm on my computer at home in my underwear eating Special K. All of a sudden "POP", and my computer goes dead. It was a rather loud "POP". The monitor is displaying "no signal" but the computer is still running. The buttons that I use to shut down and reboot the computer don't work. I unplug the damn thing, plug it back in, and notta. No beeps or anything.

Tonight I opened it up. (This is a two year old computer built by myself.....) Power supply seems okay; There is still power going through it. The CPU and fans seem fine. Put in a new graphics card, still nothing. The hard drive seems to boot up.

Any clue what's wrong?

Sounds bad man :(

Special K...................:Hollering

First, start it up, get as close to the HD as you can,..if you hear it spin up..well..good..but you prolly wont.

Id say something happend to your motherboard. Try re-setting the CPU, the ram, and reset the Motherboard jumpers to reset the BIOS

I bet your CPU or MB are fried..easy fix though.

Special K - Yes. I'm on a fucking diet. Leave me alone.

Hard drive spins up. I took out the CPU and reseated it.

Reset the bios? I don't think that will solve anything. The bios doens't make loud noises.

Can't do anything with RAM tonight.

I'm assuming several things.

Take everything out of your computer except for:

1. MB (of course)
2. CPU
3. RAM
4. Video Card.

I hope it's an AGP. I had the damndest time with my K7S5A because my video card popped out ever so slightly and I couldn't get any response out of my system. I yelled at the distributor, called GigaByte, and searched message boards before I finally found it.

Plug in your power, your keyboard, and your mouse.

Turn it on.

Change in the monitor? Should at least give you a boot up status. If it doesn't, then write back.

Re install your random pop drive

Capacitor likely blew. Examine each one on the motherboard.

either that or a voltage regulator.. Prolly a lot harder to spot if so.

IF the sound came from your computer, it's either power supply or motherboard. Period.

But, are you sure it's not from the monitor? Have a spare one to just check and see?

If monitor checks out, then replace the power supply, if not that then it's the motherboard.

Might be both too, if the PSU blew the wrong thing. :) We've had motherboards where a couple inches square turns into a charred mass due a PSU going out in a server. Crazy shit can happen.

Just because the PSU is powering up your hard drives/fans does NOT mean it's supplying proper voltage to the cpu/other components on the motherboard.

Also, if you are savvy enough you can likely tell if it's the monitor simply by listening/watching the hard drive lights. If they appear to blinky blink like the box usually does when it boots up, start w/ the monitor as it's likely your box is fine.

Good luck.

-Phil

your motherboard probably got fried

If it's drawing power and you don't hear ANY beeps when you turn it on, that generally means the motherboard is fucked...

Hard to fix from Seattle but I would start with replacing the power supply. Those buggers are at the start of everything =)

You might also want to reset the CMOS on the motherboard. The manual should tell you how to do this.

The pop you're talking about does sound like a power supply issue. If the power supply still works it may have shorted something on your motherboard.

yeah its probably a cap... they go pop. I had one go on my mother board a while back... just replaced the board and everything worked again. look to see if any of the caps look like they have swelling...

Right. You should at least hear some beeps to tell you what is wrong with the system, like bad memory beeps.

Plug in a different monitor... just to be sure.

Unplug the computer from everything.

Toss it in the car.

Drive to Best Buy/Circut City/Fry's have them check it out.

Though, it sounds like you shorted out the motherboard......

I agree.. new MB is needed.

I had a power supply blow out on an early Lightspeed computer years ago. That was an easy fix.

I didn't think to try the monitor. I've never had a monitor die on me; I have half a dozen here at my house. I'll try that in a little bit.

If it's a Capacitor or the mb itself I might as well toss it out. The mother board was two or three years old and was pretty much maxed out; By the time I buy another mb I might as well spend a little bit more and get me a spiffy new computer.

Thank God I back everything up every week.

Sounds like a capaciter has shot the shitter. probly need a new motherboard or more if it shorted out other stuff.

only time i ever heard a pop, it was my monitor. was there a smell?

EAsy choice would be the video card. Next most likely is the mobo but since you almost surely dont have a compatible one laying around you'll have to take it apart nad test everrything else in another pc (ram, PSU, and even though incredibly unlikey the HD).

It's your board. :(

The same thing happened to me about a month ago.

if youre saying everything works, but nothing shows... sounds like the monitor blew:2 cents:

yeah, I just read the symptoms again, and no beeps is not a good sign . . . even when it works you should get a beep

the "no signal" on the monitor . . .is that displayed? if so, I take back the monitor theory on the other board

Dude you are getting a NEW pc !

It's about the right age for capacitor problems. Is it an ABIT motherboard :1orglaugh

Capacitor failures plague motherboard vendors:
http://www.geek.com/news/geeknews/20...0207018535.htm

If your heatsink got dislodged from the CPU they fail with a big 'POP' but that's probably not it ...

motherboard. Just get it replaced, your cards and memory, and most importantly, your hard drive should be fine.

the POP reminds me of this time someone shipped me a harddrive surrounded by packing peanuts FULL of fucking static. As soon as i moved the static back, the thing blew open with the loudest POP ive ever heard from an electronic device. HD was toast to say the least.

Yeah if its a loud pop it was probably a capacitor on your motherboard.. basically bad bad news. :(

Has anyone sudjested running a diagnostics on it(beeps or lights)? Easy way to find out whats wrong..

he said no beeps

if the board is an expensive one, send it off to get new caps. if it's just a cheap one, chuck it.