No post, no boot no nothing

[dwr]

Firstly hello! And big respect to such a cool forum – lots of useful info.

I was wondering if anyone could help me with this most annoying problem?

I built my own pc about a year ago and its been running like a dream, until now.
When I came to turn it on this morning all I got was power to my mobo, fans, mem, pump etc, but it just seems to idle there and go no further ie no boot and nothing on monitor. There is no POST and the internal speakermakes no beeps. The activity lights on the memory flicker in an unusual pattern then go out.

I have checked all connection and for lose wires/screws that may be shorting, all the components on the mobo look fine (no fried caps), I have tried taking all the components out one by one and POSTing, trying to see which component is faulty, but to no avail. I have also tried resetting the CMOS also with no luck.

System specs:
Intel P4 3.6Ghz
Asus P5AD2 premium
4 x 512 Corsair XMS2 Pro Xtreme mem
ATi Radeon X850 XT Platinum
Asetek waterchill Water cooler cpu/nthbridge/gpu
Antec neo power 480w

If anyone has any ideas I’d be most grateful.
Cheers
Dick Willy

[flanzig1]

When testing by removing parts, did you try with the video card out and with all the ram out? Check to make sure that the water headers are tight to the chips. If everything looks good, then need to start with a PSU swap, if thats good your looking at a mobo or maybe aCPU.

[bailey]

just for the fun of it, remove the 120 volt ac power cord from the power supply for 5 min, and then plug it back in and see if the computer boots up normal.
I have seen this work at times.

[dwr]

Thanks for the replies guys

As an update-
I managed to get hold of a mate’s rig that has practically the same set up as mine and switched over all the components one by one to see if any of the bits were faulty. This hour’s graft gave no results everything seamed in working order. (Water cooling is sweet till something goes wrong - then an unbelievable pain in the ass!!)

THEN I swapped mobos over, and guess what, i'm back on - all working fine.

Just for interest I put my mobo in the empty rig and installed the basics, to see if I was just being completely stupid and missing something. As soon as I powered on I got a bright flash and some smoke from a small green component on the mobo (I think it was a capacitor?) leaving it blackened and a scorched surrounding area.

So now the board’s totaled

Has anyone else had this happen, or know a cause?

Also if anyone knows off hand if this sound likes something covered in a warranty if mobos come with any?

And if putting a water cooler in you case immediately voids any warranty of parts?



Over and out

Dick Willy

[flanzig1]

You are a victim of the bad cap syndrome. Some time ago, some mobo makers were using defective caps. If the board is out of the normal warranty period, your pretty much out of luck.

[jayb1234]

The watercooling will void the processor warranty. I don't know whether it voids any others.