A way to check to see if the MB or power supply is bad?

Question

Blue screen with codes came on, but did not get the codes in time. Turned on computer and the fans come on for several seconds then turn off. There is no HD activity. Bad MB?

Answer 1

Try a bare minimum set up. No HDD, FDD or CD drive. Clear CMOS then load fail safe defaults. If the minimum set up beeps once and displays POST, press del to open BIOS menu. Go to Hardware Monitor and observe the voltage rails for 30 mins or more. If they are pretty stable and PC does not restart, power supply and motherboard are OK.
BSOD usually indicates Windows has become unstable. Instability could be hardware or software induced.

Answer 2

Over time, cards can work their way out of sockets.. vibrations and heating / cooling cause this...

Try this --

Shut off your computer, open it up, touch the power supply with your hand then pull the cards out of the comptuer and set them aside (on anti-static plastic preferably..)

Disconnect all drives and other devices. Make sure your system speaker is connected to the motherboard. Turn on the computer and watch the fans and listen for the speaker to beep.

If it appears to be functioning properly then it likely isn't a motherboard issue. If it's not beeping and/or continues to shut down again as you said before then it could be either the mobo or the powersupply still.

Assuming you think the mobo is good continue with these steps --
- shut it offer, touch the power supply to drain your anti-static, put in the video card and hook up any extra power connectors needed for the video card. make sure it is seated properly. hook up the monitor. turn on the computer.

If you're still not having trouble, then one-by-one install each card by first turning off the computer, touch the power supply install the card, turn it on, make sure it doesn't shut itself off. (most computers don't have many cards these days)

If you get all the way through your cards and the drives are the last thing, try connecting the power to all of your drives at once and power up. Does it fail? If it fails it may be a faulty drive or a faulty power supply.

Assuming all of this is so far ok, now shut off the computer and connect the data cables to the drives and press the other ends into the mobo to be sure they're in snug then fire up the computer. If you've made it this far and it fails then you have a bad drive. You'll want to disconnect 1 drive at a time shutting off the power each time.

Remember while you work and before you change something -- always turn off the computer and touch the powersupply at least once before fooling around. This pretty much eliminates electrostatic issues.

If you live in the dry mountains or other place where there's a lot of static then you better look into better anti-static protection first but you likely already are aware of this.

With any troubleshooting, always start from an absolute that you know works and verify that that works, then work your way towards the more complex. Similar to science.

Regards,

Roger Tiedemann, Jr.
roger at rogertdj.com

Answer 3

I think you might be on the right track.
A blue screen (BSOD) is caused by a hardware failure or a device driver that tries to get the system to perform an unnatural act.
One of my essential tools is a power supply tester. These cost less than $20 and can easily eliminate the power supply.
Next, start stripping down the system to eliminate all unnecssary components. This means unplugging it and removing the DVD/CD drives, PCI cards (like sound cards) and all USB-attached stuff. Leave the memory and hard drives in place--even though they might be at fault.

Power up again and listen for beeps. If the motherboard is in trouble (but alive) it will send a code out via it's own speaker. The system's motherboard site will tell you what these mean.

It's unusual for a motherboard to fail out of the blue, but a virus can cause the damage you're describing--it can also pooch the BIOS--hopefully it's not.

Answer 4

Be nice if you had another power supply to check with. Are there any swollen capacitors on your motherboard? Check this page before you get into your hardware: http://www.delete-computer-history.com/fix-computer-freezes.html