DFI LP NF4 Won't Post... Had been working for 5 years

[iamkoza]

DFI Lanparty NF4 Ultra-D - 7-04-BTA Bios
Opty 165 @ 2700mhz
2 GB ddr 400 (PC 3200) running at OCZ Ram 3338 @ 227 MHZ on divider
OCZ Gamer-extreme 700W PSU
3 x 80 gb hitachi HDD raid 0
7900 GT 512 MB video card

All parts 4-5 years old, PSU is 1-2 years old, system has been running stable for 4 years.


I got back to my home after 5 days away only to find out my PC will not post. My fiance told me that yesterday she powered on pc, got to windows log on screen, but the mouse wouldn't work for her. So she held down the power button to turn it off. In the past month or 2 I've had random issues with the keyboard and mouse not working right or not being recognized. But a reseating of the plugs or restart fixed problem. Keyboard was plugged in to ps2 port, mouse usb.

But now I can't even get the PC to post. It gets stuck on 4 LED's, which means it isn't even recognizing the CPU. So far I've tried a 2 hour CMOS clear, replacing the CMOS battery, placing a single ram stick in the proper DIMM2 spot.... nothing has worked, and the same 4 LED problem persists. The computer powers on, fans and psu work, but it won't go past 4 LED. One weird thing to note, the keyboard lights will continously flicker on and offer in rapid fashion.... but removing the keyboard has no effect on the problem.

I have no desire to unravel the computer, but I'm going to have to take it apart and somehow systematically figure out what's wrong, but I recall from building it, that it's sometimes difficult to diagnose what is the true problem.

Anyway, dfi-street is long gone, and dfi club isn't working, so I thought I would try you fine folks.

My best guess is the motherboard may have bit the dust, the 4 LED's mean it could be processor, but I am anal about temperatures and even with the overclock the opty always ran cool, I suppose it could always be PSU related, but the PSU appears to power on w/o problem..... anyway thoughts?

 

[QuietIce]

to OCF!


I'd go looking for dead caps after all this time. Those things don't last forever regardless of how good they are/were. While you're looking at caps I'd also do a good cleaning, unplug all the plugs, take out the RAM and expansion cards, blow out all the ports/sockets (whether they're being used or not) - just a good general cleaning and inspection.

If you have a multi-meter you can check the PSU.

Other than that you're down to swap and try - if you have any spares available. The RAM is easy and I assume you tried more than one stick? After that everything else is compatible with modern components except the CPU ...

 

[iamkoza]

Thanks for the info

how do you go about trying to find possible dead caps? Would a dead cap keep the board from powering on at all? Because the board gets power, it just doesn't recognize the CPU (4 LED lights on mean CPU hasn't been recognized).

I plan to take the board out of the case and clean/re-install everything. I don't have any spare ram, but I tried each stick separately. I really have no spare parts to speak of. It seems like there is no easy answer.

I have access to a voltmeter, so I can check the PSU to see if Voltage is being applied correctly. Thanks for the info.

 

[QuietIce]

A bad cap could cause the problem you're having. A bad cap will often have a bulging top or be leaking fluid - maybe only a small amount of fluid. Any cap that's leaking or bulging is bad. Unfortunately, not all bad caps will do this so you could still have a bad cap even if everything looks normal. Still worth a look, though ...

 

[iamkoza]

well, took mobo out of case, cleaned the mobo, cpu heatsink, video card, and used spare PSU and it booted up without problem.... my guess is I may have had a short somewhere... I haven't been able to tinker with it much to find out what exactly happened, but it looks like it has to either be a short... or a bad psu since those are the only variables that changed by taking it out of the case? Perhaps the simple cleaning of it helped (it was not very dusty, but who knows)

 

[QuietIce]

(it was not very dusty, but who knows)

Exactly. Doesn't take but a speck of dust and some humidity to create a short on computer parts. Glad you got it cleared up ...!

 

[iamkoza]

Turns out the power supply was the culprit. Very odd to have everything power on, but just stall during the POST. I took old PSU out of the case and connected it to the MOBO that was out of the case, but no luck. Luckily I had a spare PSU.... but I can't recommend OCZ to anyone... I had 1 DOA OCZ Powerstream 520, a second 600W one died after a 1.5 years. Then this OCZ Gamextreme 700W one crapped out after another 1.5 years.

 

[QuietIce]

The first two were made by Topower and the last by FSP so its all a matter of which ones you buy. Some low-end OCZ's were produced by Channel Well and may still be running five years from now. Some of the top end OCZ'z are made by Impervio ...

 

[trents]

Turns out the power supply was the culprit. Very odd to have everything power on, but just stall during the POST.

Not really. Apparently, the posting up calls for more power which the PSU could no longer give. Just because a PSU can run a couple of fans doesn't mean it can give enough juice to run the whole system. I've had bad PSUs that would post but not allow me to get into Windows.