hi guys, I'm putting this in here as it is most likely to be a mobo/cpu problem:
Having left my computer alone for around 6 weeks, i have come back to it to find that it won't fire up. At all. It has emerged that somone (little brother.........) tried to use it once, but of course found that it was passworded etc, and he claims that he shut it down from the log in screen like you are supposed to.

The Mobo is (was?) an ASUS K8N4E-Deluxe, CPU is (again, was?) a "Palermo" Sempron 3300+ overclocked to 2.5ish ghz.
I have checked all of the normal suspects - connectors (both power and switches), power on button (swapped it for one that i know works) and had a good look at everything, which is all exactly as i left it.
When the power to the computer is switched on, the tiny green "PWR" LED at the bottom of the board (not the one on the chassis/case front) lights up and stays on, and at the moment the rear master power switch is pressed, the 3 lights on the keyboard flash on . However it will go no further - no lights on the chassis, no fans, no HDD, no nothing.

suggestions/tips/miracles much appreciated.

Just to add some more details....the PSU is a generic one that's been through the hands of Dex and his overvolted Opteron before being pressed into service for this PC, so that's what I think the fault could be.

The CPU was overvolted at one point but not by much and not for too long.

My first test would be the power supply, seeing as nothing powers on.
Second would be the motherboard, Idont think it would be the cpu, because even if the CPU is bad all the other things should power on anyhow, but they should also power on if the mobo is bad.

As you know, and it is now being confirmed, there are several things to consider.

I had a similar problem not too long ago and it turned out to be dead RAM.
So if you can try to swap out the RAM with known working RAM.

reset the cmos ... (pull the battery or mess with the jumper)

manulay turn on the powersupply (to check it) http://www.techpowerup.com/articles/other/22

swapping RAM about made no difference, because.......

Quote: Originally Posted by THRiLL KiLL reset the cmos ... (pull the battery or mess with the jumper) manually turn on the powersupply (to check it) http://www.techpowerup.com/articles/other/22

CMOS reset (removed the battery, left it out for 5 mins), no difference

So I attempted to start the PSU manually - and it wouldnt start. So i suppose its RIP Dex's old PSU, he did rather rape it at points in it's life.

Have managed to shift the blame onto little brother, as he tried to use the computer when he had been told not to touch it, so I feel a new 550W PSU coming......

unless anyone else has any more ideas about the PSU and how to check that its dead further?

Quote: Originally Posted by hellF1re swapping RAM about made no difference, because....... CMOS reset (removed the battery, left it out for 5 mins), no difference So I attempted to start the PSU manually - and it wouldnt start. So i suppose its RIP Dex's old PSU, he did rather rape it at points in it's life. Have managed to shift the blame onto little brother, as he tried to use the computer when he had been told not to touch it, so I feel a new 550W PSU coming...... unless anyone else has any more ideas about the PSU and how to check that its dead further?

hook it up tp a vo;tage meter.. but i think it went to computer heven...

Quote: Originally Posted by THRiLL KiLL hook it up tp a vo;tage meter.. but i think it went to computer heaven...

so do I - there's 3.91v between the green "start" wire and any of the black wires (when the master switch is ON) but shorting it to force it into starting has no effect, and there is nothing between any of the other power wires even if the "on" wires are shorted.

new PSU time, thanks guys!

Hold up try this first. Is your CMOS jumper in the wrong position??? Cause I had the exact same problem and it was because they shipping the mobo with the jumper in the wrong position so I would only get a power LED and nothing else!

It's worked fine for a few months before; that's what's confusing.

Quote: Originally Posted by Dreyco Hold up try this first. Is your CMOS jumper in the wrong position??? Cause I had the exact same problem and it was because they shipping the mobo with the jumper in the wrong position so I would only get a power LED and nothing else!

if it was a cmos issue... the powersupply would be able to power up when he jummpered it

Quote: Originally Posted by reflux It's worked fine for a few months before; that's what's confusing.

well.....you say "fine".......one wonders whether some of the other problems I've been having have been caused by insufficient power being supplied to the graphics card.........

Just incase its sabotage from younger brother and he's had the side off it and had some jumpers around (he is 16 and does know how these things work enough to know how to break them), can someone direct me to the CMOS jumper on the K8N4-E Deluxe, there are only a few jumpers on it and none are labelled CMOS or anything helpful!!

Quote: Originally Posted by hellF1re well.....you say "fine".......one wonders whether some of the other problems I've been having have been caused by insufficient power being supplied to the graphics card.

Yeah, as I pointed out to you earlier. This would make sense considering all it had to deal with before was an X800GTO and then latterly a 6600GT. X1800xls are a little bit more hardcore.

and lo, the old dead PSU was removed, and a new 650W, 3 fan PSU (about twice the weight of the duff one!) was installed. And HellF1re did connect the computer up to the power supply, and did press the on button, and lo, the computer worked! HUZZAH!!

cheers for the help guys, twas a strange one!

Quote: Originally Posted by hellF1re and lo, the old dead PSU was removed, and a new 650W, 3 fan PSU (about twice the weight of the duff one!) was installed. And HellF1re did connect the computer up to the power supply, and did press the on button, and lo, the computer worked! HUZZAH!! cheers for the help guys, twas a strange one!

Bravo! I'm glad you got it going again.

Nice! What kind of 650W PSU did you get?

Wow, I'm surprised that it was the PSU, that happened to me over christmas time. I was stuck with a God-aweful 138*F idle 3 ghz Prescott for over 2 months. Mine was the motherboard. We replaced the PSU with a nice shiny 500 watt, didn't work. Tried it with the P4, worked fine till it blew up. then replaced, and it's sitting in my mom's computer now.

congrats on fixing, ur lucky that it was so easy, and you had the money to fix