Flash stopped PC!

bigtom71

I was in a quandary as my version of Windows 7 had run out, and my PC would not pick up the DVD drive to install a full version of the OS.

After trying everything, I decided to flash my DVD-ROM drive. This seemed to partially work as the drive at least started making noises again and the PC was working fine. I restarted the PC and now nothing. All that are running are the fans. The PC does not boot up at all.

Have I damaged the Motherboard or CPU? I have an MSI MS-7519 mobo.

Can anyone help?

Tom...

Solitaire

Optical drive may be nuked. Try removing the cabling linking it to the mobo and maybe even PSU - hopefully the drive is berserk rather than bricked and is causing the boot sequence to fail. If you can't get at least into the BIOS with the drive disconnected its just bricked and there's a new issue with the mobo as well

bigtom71

bigtom71 wrote: »

I was in a quandary as my version of Windows 7 had run out, and my PC would not pick up the DVD drive to install a full version of the OS.

After trying everything, I decided to flash my DVD-ROM drive. This seemed to partially work as the drive at least started making noises again and the PC was working fine. I restarted the PC and now nothing. All that are running are the fans. The PC does not boot up at all.

Have I damaged the Motherboard or CPU? I have an MSI MS-7519 mobo.

Can anyone help?

Tom...

I have been searching through the MSI website and forums and shifted the JBAT1 jumper for 15 seconds to reset the mobo BIOS. But no luck.
So for now, I have an expensive heap of metal that makes a gentle hum but nothing else! Would removing the small battery in the motherboard help?

bigtom71

Solitaire wrote: »

Optical drive may be nuked. Try removing the cabling linking it to the mobo and maybe even PSU - hopefully the drive is berserk rather than bricked and is causing the boot sequence to fail. If you can't get at least into the BIOS with the drive disconnected its just bricked and there's a new issue with the mobo as well

Thanks Solitaire. I have disconnected the optical drive completely and it made no difference. Where do I go from here?

Solitaire

Check all cables are firmly connected then take out battery and short JBAT1 or CLR_CMOS (whichever you have) for ~30 seconds, then reinsert battery and try again. After that fails its time to start pulling the whole thing apart - you should only have the PSU, CPU+mobo and a graphics card if there's no onboard VGA. Put in one stick of RAM and cycle through your sticks of RAM until you get it working or you run out of sticks to test.

If that happens you need to retest again but this time swapping the PSU for another one you have handy (yeah, we all keep one just for this reason...) and see if that gets the system going. You should also take the disconnected PSU and use it to try and power up the system you've just robbed the second PSU off. That should help you figure out if the PSU and/or CPU+mobo are bad. Trying to verify if its CPU or mobo is a pain and we'll cross that bridge when we get to it. Suffice to say it involves thermal paste.

Lots of it.

bigtom71

Thanks Solitaire. I will have a look at it tonight and see how far I get.

bigtom71

Okay Solitaire,

I stripped it down and left the graphics card, mobo, PSU and CPU. Then I took out the battery and shorted the JBAT1 jumper. I started up and no joy. I put another PSU in to see how that went and no joy (although, it had 4 less connectors to the mobo - I don't know if that is critical or not).

I cycled through the RAM and nothing.

I haven't taken the original PSU out to test against another machine, but I know it is going to be fine - it's a corsair vx550w and it's only about a year old, and it is powering up the fans and the hdds.

So, I think I am down to the hard stuff - CPU and mobo

I have a Pentium Dualcore E5200 (LGA775) and a MSI P43 neo-F ATX board.

Solitaire

God that's a mess Sounds like the screwy DVD drive has somehow fried something important on your mobo :eek: Could still be CPU but I doubt it. Test it anyway if you have another LGA775 mobo and get the time. And thermal paste. Lots of both

You could also try a different graphics card (if you have no onboard VGA) and see if you can get a response that way. But I fear we're clutching at straws here; its most likely the mobo

bigtom71

I think you're right. I don't have a spare CPU to use, so I will have to assume it is the mobo. I may have a spare graphics card I can try, but I think I'll be wasting my time.

Does this mean getting a new motherboard?

Solitaire

Yup Is that mobo still in warranty? If not you'll have to either get a new LGA775 mobo or use it as an excuse to upgrade your rig (if you have the money and if its not overkill for your needs).

bigtom71

Thanks Solitaire. As far as I know it has a 2-year arranty and it's only a year old. I have to check out serial numbers, etc. later on this evening.

Hopefully, it will only cost me the postage to MSI for a new one.

Fingers crossed.

Tom...