Motherboard gone?

[Skanky Burns]

I recently upgraded my computer and finally all parts have arrived and everything is working fine. I also bought a new case for my wife and put all my old parts in, and that is where the trouble is.

Initally I received all parts except my graphics card, so I built her computer with all my old parts and checked that it worked. It did. Then I pulled out the (old) graphics card and returned it to my new computer. A while later my new graphics card arrived and freed up the old graphics card for my wife's computer. Now the computer won't power up.
The case led lights up, the cpu fan spins for perhaps a second and then nothing. No error beeps.

To diagnose further, I pulled all cables out of the MB and removed the graphics card and memory. This left the motherboard, cpu and cpu fan, the two power connections from the power supply to the motherboard, the power and speaker cables from the case. Upon turning it on, the same as above occured. The case led lights up, the cpu fan spins for perhaps a second and then nothing. No error beeps.

So, is there any hope for the computer?

Motherboard: ASUS A8N5X
CPU: Athlon 64 3500+
Power supply: 535 watt Enermax ATX

[snoopy369]

Hmm, I would say maybe the PSU could be at fault (not entirely fried of course, but maybe not delivering power properly). Obviously the video card sounds like it's the cause of the problem, but there should be the standard beeps if that's the problem (though I wouldn't necessarily count on that). If you can test it with either a different video card, a different PSU, or both, it's probably worth it to check that first. Also ensure the video card is properly seated - that's a common cause of failures to boot (though usually with beeps...)

The BIOS is probably the next thing to check (or if you can't easily swap out the first two, the first thing). You should be able to reset the BIOS to the factory default by shorting out two connectors on the motherboard, or it looks like in the case of this clearing the CMOS jumper:
http://dlsvr01.asus.com/pub/ASUS/mb/...2138_a8n5x.pdf page 1-19 (a 2-out-of-3 jumper that's to the right of the PCI slots between the 2nd and the third; it should be in positions 1-2 with 3 open, move it to the 2-3 position to clear the CMOS). It should be labeled "CLRTC" (clear real time clock).

That will reset the bios, which should fix any software problems.

I'd try those two things first ... do this with the video card and memory in the system, since those being removed will cause it to not boot anyhow (and maybe this MB doesn't beep properly or something, who knows).