Motherboard or CPU fail, way to find out which???

HighWire

Hi guys, my PC is giving me grief, I think it might be the mobo or cpu or even both, but Im looking to see if theres an easy way to find out.
I have an Abit IS7, getting on a bit now.

Heres the symtoms.

1. Turn on machine - No noises, beeps anything, but mobo lights are on, all the fans are working.
2. Blank screen - Nothing appears on screen. Not even the BIOS.
   I tested both the video card and screen on a different pc and they are working ok so its not them.
3. DVD drive doesnt open.
4. I took everything off the mobo except the video card, but still nothing.

Any way to easily figure out if its the motherboard or cpu that has failed?

If it is the motherboard can someone with more knowledge than me let
me know if I get a new one with ddr2 will my old ddr memory work with it?
I know it wont be as fast, but no point throwing out the baby with the dishwater.

Cheers,

Highwire.

Blazer

It's probably the motherboard..If it was memory you'd get beeping.
Can you try the cpu in another board to verify that it's not that?
Also if it it the board and you mean to replace it you're better off getting ddr2 mem as well.
I know of some dual mem boards that support both ddr and ddr2 but they're not supposed to be great. With the price of memory now at it's lowest in years you're better off to take advantage of it rather than wait. For €70 you could get two gigs of ram.

HighWire

No, cant check the CPU, my mate let me use his PC for the video card check, but dont want to risk messing up his PC.

Yeah I suppose I could do that.
I was thinking of getting a new PC and letting the kids have this one,
Its about 4/5 years old now nothing special - 2.8ghz, 1gb, gx5600 graphics card. The only thing I need in it is the HDs.

Mate of mine said just get a cheap one from Dell and take the time to sort out the new one.

8T8

Could be the power supply which would be a very cheap and easy thing to replace if it were the culprit.

To test it you would need to unplug the main power from the PSU to the motherboard cable from your mates PC and plug it into yours and just see if it powers on after that.

The Abit IS7 uses DDR 400 so DDR-2 wont work in it.

This power supply €55 & this upgrade kit plus graphics card should get you back up and running, better than what you'd get from Dell.

HighWire

The power supply? Never thought of that.
It was coming on then shutting off, but then it went on when I powered it on a second time.
So even the the fans would be working it wouldnt be good enough to power everything. Its only a 350W at the minute.
This is from the IS7 manual -

This motherboard provides two power connectors to connect to an ATX12V power supply with 300W, 20A +5VDC, and 720mA +5VSB capacity at least.

Would the 500W be ok then?

As for the RAM I meant if I got a mobo that uses ddr2 could I plug in the ddr that I have at the minute to the new mobo.

I'll give that a try. Big difference €55.
Though that Athlon 64 X2 6000+ does sound nice.

Blazer

No the DDR ram will not work in your board.
DDR2 is 184 pin while DDR is 168 I think..
It wouldn't even fit in anyway.

HighWire

Ok so lots to test this evening - Power supply
and then if that doesnt work look at upgrading.

Cheers thanks guys.

HighWire

Hi ya, I found this online -
http://www.extreme.outervision.com/psucalculatorlite.jsp
Filled in everything I have and its calculating the power at 436W