PC help: Dead MoBo?

[Richelieu]

My old comp died a couple of months ago and i've just gotten around to troubleshooting it.

At first it would reboot by itself every now and then and give me a message saying that the OS had encountered a major problem and needed to check the disk during reboot (WinXP). I usually let it check the disk but never got any reports of bad sectors or anything.
Within a week of the first occurence of random reboot, it went from once to once a day to 4 or five times in a row the last time it happened. It was on a saturday morning and i had a new PC bought by the end of the afternoon.

So i just tried booting it up just now: the power supply looks OK - fan working - but i don't even get a beep during boot-up. As far as i can tell POST is not happening. Of course i don't get anything on the monitor.
I'm thinking it's a dead motherboard but i'm wondering if anyone has other suggestions.

Thanks.

[notyoueither]

Have a look at the capacitors around the processor.

If you are like the 9 out of 10 other people with similar trouble reports, the caps will be swollen. Some of them may even have leaked (you'll see brown or black stains on top).

[Richelieu]

Originally posted by notyoueither
Have a look at the capacitors around the processor.

If you are like the 9 out of 10 other people with similar trouble reports, the caps will be swollen. Some of them may even have leaked (you'll see brown or black stains on top).

Right on. At least 4 capacitors with the top busted, with brown stains.

No big surprise, but it still sucks.

Thanks NYE.

[notyoueither]

Yeah. There have been a few spates of bad caps in a lot of boards. Even good ones go bad as they take a lot of jolts to protect your processor.

The good news is that boards for vintage CPUs and RAM can be very inexpensive. The bad news is some combos can be impossible to get (AMD skt A and SDRAM).

[Richelieu]

Originally posted by notyoueither
...some combos can be impossible to get (AMD skt A and SDRAM).

Guess what...

[notyoueither]

Well, you can get sktA for DDR, and DDR is cheap at the moment (256M for ~$50, 512M for less than $100).

You should be able to get a board for less than $100 CDN.

These prices should be for brand new with a warranty. Big stores won't have them though. You'll need to find a smaller mom and pop that does a lot of repairs or someplace like OEM Express.

[notyoueither]

Or EBay.

[Urban Ranger]

That may indicate a problem with that power supply.

[Richelieu]

I'll go with the DDR socket A MoBo. I know a good shop for that. And i'll ask them about testing my power supply too.

Thanks again guys.

[Mr. Harley]

Richelieu - how much memory do you have? There are LOTS of SDRAM motherboards for Socket A out there on the web, almost all under $50. Avoid PCChips, they have never gotten good reviews, ever. Some sites with surplus MB's are SurplusComputers, JustDeals, AND ISellSurplus. All are www. - .com. However, definitely get the Power Supply checked.

Speaking of which, what is the name and brand of your power supply, and what does it output? Look on the side, it should mention the Amperage/Watts per output. Plus, what is your config - Processor, video card, HD, etc. The only issue I have with AMD versus Intel is that AMD almost always is a power hog compared to the equivalent Intel systems. Many problems people have with AMD systems is using too weak or too cheap a power supply.

[Richelieu]

RAM - 1 Gig @ 133 but i'm going to recycle it to my Mom and my brother's PCs.

I look at this as a "project". I haven't touched hardware in a while so it will give me a chance to build a new system, even if its with somewhat dated stuff. I'm only going to use it as a 2nd system anyways.

And yes: i will definitely have the power supply checked. Since i'm getting the new MoBo i'll have to get something that fits it anyway.

[DaShi]

Reminds me of my first laptop. Random reboots as well. Kept it through most of college until I sold it to my sister.

[Geronimo]

Originally posted by notyoueither
Well, you can get sktA for DDR, and DDR is cheap at the moment (256M for ~$50, 512M for less than $100).

You should be able to get a board for less than $100 CDN.

These prices should be for brand new with a warranty. Big stores won't have them though. You'll need to find a smaller mom and pop that does a lot of repairs or someplace like OEM Express.

50 bux for 512 mb of first gen ddr ram? ouch. What would likely provide a better gaming experience, 1.5 gb of 133 sdram or 512 mb of ddr ram?

Since my free replacement board has been somewhat buggy I'm still toying with buying a brand new board and starting over from scratch even though I hate consign my old 1.5 gb of sdram to the dustbin.

[notyoueither]

With XP you are likely better off with the 1.5G of SDRAM, but not if the board is flakey.

DDR400 512s from Kingston should be available on line for ~50usd (for AMD). DDR2 might be a bit cheaper (Intel).

[Blake]

50 bux for 512 mb of first gen ddr ram? ouch. What would likely provide a better gaming experience, 1.5 gb of 133 sdram or 512 mb of ddr ram?

If you multitask a lot then 1GB+ is essential.

If you want to run modern, memory hog games then a SDRAM system will have bottlenecks other than the ram speed.

Basically if you want to run modern games then you need 1GB+ DDR (maybe if you don't multitask much and avoid EA games you can get away with 512MB; a secondary gaming system could get away with 512MB). If you only want to run older games than the SDRAM system will do just fine.

(btw the cheapest ram is basically DDR400, the older slower stuff is pretty much phased out and isn't cheaper).