Dead Homemade PC: Help?

[caitlinm]

Two years ago, I put together my PC with the help of a now ex-boyfriend, a CS major. I have since moved across the country, and foolishly entrusted the USPS to ship it out here for me. When I took it out of the box and peaked inside the case, I found that many of the components had fallen out of the motherboard!

I found the motherboard manual online and tried to put everything back together, but it still won't boot. When I power it on, the CPU, GPU, and system fans all start up, but then the hard drive makes an ominous noise, there is a loud beep, and then just the fans again. No signals are ever sent to the monitor as far as I can tell. I fear that my hard drive might be dead. :( But does that explain why I see nothing at all on my monitor?

Anyway, I am hoping that someone here can help me troubleshoot. As far as I know, all the basic things are in order (i.e. I checked all the power connections, the SATA cable is connected, etc.). What is puzzling is that most things were still in place (besides the graphics card, the CPU heat sink and fan, the North Bridge fan, and mysteriously, the power cable for the hard drive), so it's not like it could be some incorrect connection or something.

Any ideas on what the problem could be?

[Alaron]

Welcome to PCMech.

We need your full system specs. What kind of power supply are you using?

Try our minimum component, out of the case procedure: http://forum.pcmech.com/showthread.php?t=132409 and let us know the results.

[caitlinm]

Thanks. Okay, so I just tried the minimal setup. Still nothing on the display. Still the warning beep after a few seconds. All the fans are spinning.

Here is my setup:

Motherboard: GIGABYTE GA-8N-SLI Pro LGA 775 NVIDIA nForce4 SLI ATX Intel
CPU: Intel Pentium D 830
PSU: Turbolink LC-A420ATX 12V 420W
Memory: CORSAIR ValueSelect 2GB (2 x 1GB) 240-Pin DDR2 SDRAM DDR2 533 (but I only used 1GB for the minimal setup, as specified)
Graphics: NVIDIA N6600GTE-R1.0

[Alaron]

When your system is still not booting with the minimum components, its time to try part substitution.

That power supply is not only 20 pin with a 24pin motherboard, but also Turbolink is bottom of the barrel quality. I highly recommend replacing the PSU as your first step.

Check out this thread for power information: http://forum.pcmech.com/showthread.php?t=131195

This would be a nice unit to use: http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16817104954

[caitlinm]

Okay, I'll try that once I can get a hold of a spare power supply. But doesn't it seem strange that it worked for two years before this? Unless you think it was damaged during the move?

I'm still suspicious about my CPU cooler. As I mentioned earlier, it fell off during the cross-country trip, and I tried to re-attach it this morning. I cleaned the old thermal compound off of both surfaces, applied half a grain of rice worth of Arctic Silver 5 in a very thin layer, and pressed it back on. But I still don't think it's cooling effectively, since when I power on the out-of-case version of my computer, its fan accelerates to full speed immediately. And I assume the beep is to alert me that my processor is overheating as well, right?

Thanks again for your help.

[The Village Idiot]

I doubt its the Power Supply as, like you said, its worked for 2 years previous and worked it appears fine. I wouldn't so much consentrate on that but. What i'd be concerned about is if the things have fallen out then it seems like they must of almost been ripped out, I think the first step i'd of actually asked was what parts came off the motherboard? The processor? Graphics etc? That way we can tell which could of been potentially damaged, as it must of had some force to take it out, and if its had enough force to get there then theres a likelyhood that it will have had further force thus damaging some of the parts

Thats my take on things.

[caitlinm]

Yes, I agree with your analysis. Here is what fell out:

0. The graphics card (out of the PCI slot) -- the GPU also became detached from the card itself, but that's not my biggest worry right now, as the system overheats even without the graphics card installed.
1. The main processor's heat sink / fan cooling unit. I re-attached this as explained above, with a thorough cleaning and application of thermal paste.
2. The Northbridge processor's fan. This attaches to the top of a separate heat sink, and one of the plastic connectors broke, so it doesn't attach firmly now. I've made a makeshift connector out of a rubber band, which seems to hold it on tightly enough.

The other things that fell out aren't vital components: the wireless card, some front panel connections, etc. I've disconnected all of those anyway since right now I just have my motherboard with minimal components sitting on my non-conductive desk.

Anyway, right now I'm just trying to get it to run without overheating (which is what the beeping means, right?). I don't even have the graphics card in. I'm worried that something on the MB is shorting because both processors' heat sinks are firmly and properly attached. Maybe something got bumped as the quite heavy heat sink thrashed around inside the case? It doesn't seem impossible...

:( Things aren't looking good, in other words.

[liambl]

The beeping can mean anything. Somewhere the manual, there will be a legend describing what each different beep means. Match your beep with one in the manual and you can narrow the problem down to one specific component.

[das1988]

Wait, wait, your Video card had pieces come off of IT, or your video card just came off your motherboard?
If the former I'd say to boot without a video card, but I don't think your board has integrated video :(
It's tough when you don't have spare parts laying around to troubleshoot with.

[caitlinm]

Both. :(

The entire card came off of the MB. And the GPU cooler (I think?) is partially detached from the card. It is connected via one connection, and the other fell off. So it can rotate around to expose the GPU surface underneath. So I need to clean off all the paste, reapply, and reconnect once I find an appropriately sized bolt.

You're right, the MB doesn't have integrated graphics. But the setup doesn't even run successfully without any graphics. In other words, without the graphics card in, when I power on, the system can't sustain itself without beeping until it shuts off. So I think there is a more fundamental problem than my possibly damaged graphics card.

I will look up the beeping in the manual. Thanks for the tip.

And I guess I will try to acquire some spare parts. I just moved so I don't have a lot of extra anything lying around, unfortunately.