Pc died on me

[warrenpfo]

For those slightly more pc numerate than me please let me know if you can help.

I built my pc some 6 years back and it's done me proud with no problems ever. Today I went out and left the pc on for about 3 hours. On return its off and nothing I do will turn it back on.

When I plug the power in there is a red light on the psu that comes on and on pushing a little button on my motherboard there are a load of led's that come on so assume its not the psu but I may be wrong as its fan does not spin and it makes no noise.

The MB is an asus striker extreme and it has a fault finding LCD on it but as luck would have it the display is knackered and only showing some of the text and not all so can't make out the code.

Any advise would be great on the other hand it may just be the excuse I was looking for to get the MacBook Pro or iMac.

 

[Crispin]

I would swap the PSU first. You can get 'em cheap from www.scan.co.uk
If the fan is not turning then it's a start. They often get neglected and fill with dust over the years and eventually overheat.

Try hoovering the PSU (don't let the fan spin too fast!) and leave it for a while - might have a thermal reset.

Mine does this every few years as the dust builds up.

 

[warrenpfo]

Cheers.

I generally blow it out once every 6 months with the compressor but will look for a reset button otherwise maybe open it up and shoot to pc world quick for a test model.

 

[warrenpfo]

Any further bright ideas as the psu is working no problem.

I don't know how to diagnose a buggered motherboard but it would seem it needs replacing I would guess.

 

[Crispin]

So pc world said PSU is ok?
Is there nothing on the screen and fan on the CPU does not spin? Any beeps when it boots (or tries to)?

 

[Crispin]

Could buy another motherboard (of same type) http://www.ebay.co.uk/sch/i.html?_t...w=asus+striker+extreme+lcd&_sacat=0&_from=R40
They start on fleabay for 1p

Without knowing why it is having issues (no LCD and no beeps) then it's hard to diagnose. I would normally start swapping things until I find the faulty part but then I have a parts draw with spare in so it costs nothing.

Try removing all your RAM and video card, anything "extra" plugged into the board and see if it changes things?

 

[warrenpfo]

Thanks, I've just removed everything except the CPU and still nothing.

I'll try get my hands on a that mobo and give it a go. If not then we will have to go from there.

 

[Crispin]

Bummer. Without it being able to tell us why it is grumpy, you're a bit stuck....

If you had anything on the disk you want, that is easily recovered if you buy another laptop / computer etc.

 

[Shayne]

Can't you plug in to an external screen so you can read the error code ?

 

[warrenpfo]

No can do its direct solder onto the board

 

[Shayne]

Well a new screen is a whole lot cheaper than a motherboard so how about fixing that first ?

Don't know how unreadable the error code is but perhaps if you photograph the screen and mess around with the pic in photoshop altering contrast , colour and brightness etc you might just make it readable ?

 

[TonyP]

At 6 years of age I would be tempted to scrap the whole thing and get something new. You can always transfer the data off your old hard drive.....

 

[warrenpfo]

It's a quad core 3ghz machine with 4gb mem and a 759mb graphics card. In its day it was top draw but yes now it's a little behind but still more than adequate for what I use it for.

I'll try a new mother board and risk maybe £20 after that I will break it up and sell it on and get something new.

I will take a video of the LCD for you guys to show you what I mean by unreadable.

 

[Crispin]

Yup, if it does what you need it to then a £20 punt is worth it on the off-chance it's the board but failing that, it's a whole new lot. You won't (unlikely at a reasonable price) find a new board with that socket in and the RAM / CPU are not compatible with any current boards.

Anyway - good time for new toys

 

[grantw]

If it's not the PSU something like this would get you up and running with a much faster PC.

http://www.overclockers.co.uk/showproduct.php?prodid=BU-212-OK

 

[warrenpfo]

The only mark I can find on the mobo