PC died...need help :(

My backup pc
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compaq presario with a k6-2 500mhz
192mb ram
on board video

its old, but it was my first pc and still has some sentimental value

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here's the problem.

i turn on the power switch and nothing happens....no video out, no beeps. however, i can hear the hd spinning and the lights on the cdrom+floppy are on.

im guessin the power supply is fine.

i am guessing the culprit is the mobo. the cpu fan, which is connected to the mobo, doesnt power up.

i plug a case fan into the motherboard and the lights blink, but the fan itself doesnt turn. the pci nic card light also is on/flashing.


any ideas?

did u checked ur ram? cause it sounds like ur RAM is dead... and for the fan, try to connect it... good

yeap, tried it with only 1 stick in at a time and nothing changed.

Ahh, bad RAM wouldn't keep the CPU fan from spinning or the issue with the case fan. Sounds like you got a surge through the mobo that fried some circuit traces. If that's the case, I would suspect the PSU.

Were there any electrical storms in your area recently? Brown outs, black outs? Anyone of those could cause an overvoltage situation that could easily blow those tiny power traces on the mobo.

You may be able to plug the CPU fan directly into the PSU connector. If the mobo automatically shuts down due to no rpms on the CPU header, you can try using a splitter and power directly from the PSU, but plug the RPM lead into the CPU header. It's worth a try.

If I were you;
I'd take the "un-necessary" stuff off the mobo. Like tv tuner cards, sound cards, harddrives, etc. leave one stick of ram, cpu, hs/f(goes without saying), ps, and try to boot up.
If that doesn't work, take the mobo, cpu, etc. out of the case then try to boot it up.
If that doesn't work, try swapping out the components. Check the 12, 5, 3.3 volt rails from the power supply with a digital multimeter.
There ya go, that's what I would do.

thanks for the advice guys.

the thing is already pretty barebones as i dont really use it for anything intensive. i tried to plug a case fan into another 3pin connector on the mobo and got the same result (fan doesnt spin, but it lights up).


as for weather, nothing bad lately. everything goes thru a surge protector and my current pc works fine.

i dont think the thing should even need a cpu fan to boot up. its got a heatsink on it and the fan (very small one) was pretty much screwed on top of it.

Really sounds like a PSU problem to me. you can power up your power supply manually by disconnecting the mother board and using a piece of wire or paper clip to start the power supply by shorting the green line (there should only be one) to any of the black lines. this will start your psu assuming it is good still. the fan should start up and you can check all of your lines with a multimeter.

I would start there

Did you try plugging the fan into one of the 4 pin PSU connectors? You will need an adapter to do it. You can get one at any computer store or even Radioshack. This will show you whether the fan is OK. Since the hdd spins, that means the 12 Volt line is probably OK.