nf7-s starts up but no post or beeps

[maxima88]

Hello everyone. I haven't been around for a few years and need your help with my problem. This is a pc i built for my son years ago and is now just a backup for him since he now uses a mac book for school stuff. He only has it on for a few hours every other week or so for his ipod songs.

His pc is almost identical to the one in my sig except for slightly slower vid card.

Anyway, last night he turned it on and told me it was broken. The mobo lights are on and the fans are spinning. I tried resetting the CMOS a few times but that did not help. I tried it with only 1 stick of RAM, that didnt work either. I also tried removing the battery for a few minutes, no dice there too.
I also tried another PSU which also did not help.

Any other ideas or is it finally time to lay it to rest?

Thanks in advance for all your ideas.

 

[jonspd]

try a pci card for video?

do you have a different set of ram you can try all together?

 

[maxima88]

Thanks for such a quick response.

I will try the RAM in my pc as soon as I get home in a couple of hours.

I don't have any pci vid cards unfortunately.

From what I remember, no post beeps could mean a number of problems, right?

 

[jonspd]

I do believe so but don't remember right off hand.

don't forget to try

1. unplug psu from wall and mobo.
2. put jumper in clear cmos position
3. remove cmos battery and ram

for at least an hour. then reposition it all and try again

 

[maxima88]

Will do.

I remember you from awhile back. Glad to see you're still around helping others.

 

[jonspd]

yea you had orange stars when I join the forums and I do remember you as well.

I miss my old nf7-s system really was the whole reason the post caught my eye.

lmk what happens.

 

[maxima88]

No luck. I left the cmos in clear position, unplugged the PSU and had the battery off the whole night. Still no beeps.

Yeah, after I built this rigs, I was really satisified with their performance so i kinda stopped trying to push them any harder or do any more upgrades.

 

[jonspd]

have you tried another form of video?

does it go thru post sequence?

 

[maxima88]

no beeps, nothing happens. I'll try a different vid card tonight.

 

[jonspd]

also I take it you have tried

once powered on hold insert while tabbing delete. (watchdog feature I believe)

 

[maxima88]

i didn't do the tapping the delete part but i tried holding down the insert key.

 

[g0dM@n]

I don't think it was mentioned but it's very likely that it's the PSU.
I've had several occasions with similar symptoms as yours. Try a different PSU.

 

[Old Thrashbarg]

I'm surprised nobody's mentioned it yet, but: capacitors.

Specifically, the big one in between the AGP and top PCI slot seems to be the most common culprit on that board. The rest of them are usually OK, but that one seems to crap out pretty frequently, probably due to heat from AGP cards.

Also, what PSU were you using with it originally?

 

[maxima88]

It has an 430W Antec True Power. I did try my back-up PSU that I know works but that didn't help.

What I don't understand is that if the PSU is bad, shouldn't the pc and fans not even turn on?

 

[g0dM@n]

It has an 430W Antec True Power. I did try my back-up PSU that I know works but that didn't help.

What I don't understand is that if the PSU is bad, shouldn't the pc and fans not even turn on?

No, that doesn't mean the PSU is bad. I've seen it happen many times. Everything powers on, rails are good, but there's no POST until you swap out the PSU. I don't know what technical reason, but it's happened to me several times.

 

[Old Thrashbarg]

I don't know what technical reason, but it's happened to me several times.

Usually the reason is a lot of ripple in the voltages. It often won't show up with one of those cheap testers, or even a multimeter, and fans will spin just fine, but it won't be stable enough to run the CPU or memory.

At any rate, if that's an older TruePower, it's almost guaranteed to be bad, but that seems not to be your sole problem here.

 

[g0dM@n]

Usually the reason is a lot of ripple in the voltages. It often won't show up with one of those cheap testers, or even a multimeter, and fans will spin just fine, but it won't be stable enough to run the CPU or memory.

At any rate, if that's an older TruePower, it's almost guaranteed to be bad, but that seems not to be your sole problem here.

I wish I could afford an oscilloscope...

 

[Old Thrashbarg]

I wish I could afford an oscilloscope...

Actually, for those sorts of purposes, you probably can afford one. Pretty much any scope would be fine since the switching frequencies are pretty low, and old '70s/'80s surplus units in the 10-20mhz range can be had for <$50.

 

[g0dM@n]

Damn... too big though. I don't have much room left over here... thx for the info!!

 

[FlailBoy]

430W Antec True Power

I had one of these and *it* had bad caps.

However, if you have already tried another PSU, definitely take a look at the caps on the mobo.