[Gllug] Hardware fault

[general_email at technicalbloke.com]

James Courtier-Dutton wrote:
> On 12 April 2010 11:31, Dylan <dylan at dylan.me.uk> wrote:
>   
>> Hi All,
>>
>> I am faced with a machine which is *completely* un-responsive after power-up.
>> There is no HD activity, no activation of the monitor from standby, and no
>> beeping, although the fans run normally. I have removed or disconnected
>> mouse, keyboard, DVD and HD (both SATA) and memory resulting in no change of
>> response - i.e. there is no complaint of any kind about the lack of essental
>> hardware. The machine's owner tells me that yesterday it spontaneously
>> rebooted.
>>
>> Is there any way simple way to distinguish a power supply, processor or
>> motherboard fault? Any suggestions would be welcome.
>>
>>     
>
> Most likely fault is the Power Supply.
> I have seen similar problems before.
>   

PSU is the first thing to try in this situation as it's the cheapest and
easiest thing to get a spare of. Naturally don't just go buy a nice new
one straight away though, you can test whether it's that with any old
one. Also CPC sell PSU testers for about a tenner, may be worth it if
you do this sort of thing often.

Telling CPU from Motherboard problems when you have no activity is
REALLY difficult unless you REALLY know your modern electronics so in
the vast majority of cases you need a compatible (and verified working)
spare to swap. Which of those is cheapest depends entirely on what you
have :/

There are people selling PCI hardware fault diagnosic cards on ebay for
around tenner, I've never tried them (although I've been meaning to for
a while) but I suppose they might offer some more insight.

Roger.


-- 
Gllug mailing list  -  Gllug at gllug.org.uk
http://lists.gllug.org.uk/mailman/listinfo/gllug