VOGONS


First post, by McLovinGR

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Hello Folks,

played some Games on my PIII-S 1,4Ghz System yesterday. Everything worked normal. I wanted to fire up the Machine again today and i noticed that it doesn't start at all. The Green LED on the Mainboard lights up, but no Fans or Harddrives are kicking in. So, i suspected the Power Button may be faulty and tried to start the PC by shorting the PINS on the Header with the Screwdriver. Same thing. Then, i disconnected everything from the Board (besides CPU) and tried again. Again, no luck. To exclude the PSU, i tried another one, which i know works, but nope. Green LED lights up but it doesn't start. I checked the Capacitors on the Board and they look all fine. No leakage or bulging. The Mainboard overall is in a very good state and worked always fine. What i did notice in the past, was when i disconnected the Power Cable from the PSU or turned it off from the PSU Power Switch and then connected it back to power, the PC started without pressing the Power Button. But the Screen stayed always off. I had to cut the Power once again from the PSU and then turn the PC back on for the Boot Process to begin.

I'm very grateful for any advice.

System Specs:
Mainboard: ASUS TUSL2-C
RAM: 2x 256MB PC133 CL2
GPU: Radeon 9600XT 256MB AGP
Soundcard: Soundblaster Live! 5.1 SB0060
SATA Controller: SIL3114
LAN: Intel PCI Gigabit LAN

Greetings,
McLovinGR

Reply 6 of 10, by mr.cat

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Bad caps would be a decent guess. But it can be something simple like graphics card not seated right or some wire loose etc.
So try reseating or removing some cards, or if you have another graphics card try using that.
If that doesn't help you can also remove the memory and listen to beeps (if any) or use a POST PCI card to get the BIOS status code.

Reply 7 of 10, by McLovinGR

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mr.cat wrote on 2021-01-07, 14:32:

Bad caps would be a decent guess. But it can be something simple like graphics card not seated right or some wire loose etc.
So try reseating or removing some cards, or if you have another graphics card try using that.
If that doesn't help you can also remove the memory and listen to beeps (if any) or use a POST PCI card to get the BIOS status code.

Removed every piece of Hardware off the Board and tested, like you suggested, but no beeps. Changed the 3 CPU Caps as well. Nothing changed. I start to believe that the Board is Toast... 🙁

Reply 8 of 10, by mr.cat

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McLovinGR wrote on 2021-01-07, 19:45:
mr.cat wrote on 2021-01-07, 14:32:

Bad caps would be a decent guess. But it can be something simple like graphics card not seated right or some wire loose etc.
So try reseating or removing some cards, or if you have another graphics card try using that.
If that doesn't help you can also remove the memory and listen to beeps (if any) or use a POST PCI card to get the BIOS status code.

Removed every piece of Hardware off the Board and tested, like you suggested, but no beeps. Changed the 3 CPU Caps as well. Nothing changed. I start to believe that the Board is Toast... 🙁

Yeah, that doesn't sound promising. There are those miraculous resurrections we only hear about...like removing the whole mobo, and putting it back into the chassis again, and then everything runs fine and dandy again.
Somehow I've just never had any of those 🙁

There are still a lot of things that could be checked. I'm afraid my own knowledge on electronics is shaky at best, but there are other folks here that might be able to help you.
Like for instance, you could maybe try to take voltage measurements in different spots of the mobo, or check the VRM controller chip.
(If the caps near the VRM have gone bad, they may have taken their old pal with them)

EDIT: The caps near the AGP/PCI ports might also be good candidates for recapping, even though they reside in a slightly milder climate than their VRM cousins.

Reply 9 of 10, by auron

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i would maybe try replacing the caps at the coil next to the northbridge, depending on what make they are on your board. if they are sanyo or rubycon it's likely not worth bothering with that. and i suppose you already checked for bad traces with a magnifying glass.