[ar1stotle]

Blah, so I'm finally home for the holidays and some of my old customers have been calling. I picked up one of the computers I built today because it just wasn't turning on. There is no video output, and the HD activity light stays on/steady for like 20 seconds, then goes off. All the fans and everything are spinning up though. I don't know if I have another video card to try, but it seems like if it was the video card the HDD activity would be normal, eh? I tried using each of the memory sticks individually, didn't change anything. Also did a bios reset to no avail. So it seems like either the motherboard or the CPU are out, eh? I haven't had one of these cases in a while... now, if either one of those is the problem, what do yall usually do as far as diagnosing/fixing it? I believe it's a socket 939 board with an Athlon 64 processor, which I don't think I can buy anymore from a retailer where I could send it back if it didn't work. The motherboard is a Foxconn board, which also isn't made anymore and the RMA form on their site doesn't really work :-/

So, any suggestions on fixes or courses of action?

Thanks, and hope yall are having a great holiday!

[yeshuas]

One of my personal computers, which I use for testing just quit like yours.

Turns out mine is the motherboard and CPU. I tried another CPU in the MB nothing. Tried the CPU in another MB, nothing, not even a beep. So for some reason the motherboard and CPU both shot craps at the same time.

[ar1stotle]

Geez, what are the chances??
If that's the case, I doubt I could get another 939 Athlon except like off ebay... AMD won't RMA those, will they? Maybe I should just find something else that'll take DDR400 and PCIE? The best option here would be to do something that doesn't cost them any money out of pocket though :-/

[JabbaPapa]

Geez, what are the chances??
If that's the case, I doubt I could get another 939 Athlon except like off ebay... AMD won't RMA those, will they? Maybe I should just find something else that'll take DDR400 and PCIE? The best option here would be to do something that doesn't cost them any money out of pocket though :-/

There's a small chance you might be able to find someone with a stock of s939 Semprons, they were the last CPUs produced for socket 939 -- socket 939 motherboards on the other hand are probably still available from some people, my first search turned up one available here in France

Do you have another s939 system you can test the components with ? The motherboard is more likely to fail than the CPU

You are unlikely to be able to obtain replacement components from the manufacturers, as even in the best case scenario they are VERY unlikely to have any such s939 products in stock...

Having said that, it sounds like a typical case of lightning damage, so that the motherboard, CPU, and RAM should all be considered suspect

[shreader]

Could be caused by the owner not ever cleaning the dust out of the case, fans, etc. The CPU may of blown from overheating.

Sell them another newer rig or R&R the MB, CPU & Ram + PSU & video probably.

[ar1stotle]

The PSU is fine, and the video card should be fine too. I can't treat them like dirt though, because it's the first computer I ever built to sell and after I made theirs they got me more business so they kinda deserve some special treatment. I don't see anything physically wrong with the CPU, and I do have another 939 board but it's my own and it's in my P180 case with a monstrous 120mm fan on it so trying to test it in there would surely be a pain. I can try a new board off ebay though. I probably won't charge anything for this, just the cost of the replacement parts if they want to try to go that route.

[ar1stotle]

Well, I'm eating my own words. Turns out the video card was, indeed, the culprit. I've never seen a bad video card do something like this lol. It's not just that there's no video, it messes with the HDD led and is obviously not loading the OS.

Just FYI in case anyone else runs into a similar issue.