System Specs: AMD 64 3500 Newcastle Gigabyte 939Ultra 1gb Corsair XMS Gainward 6800GT Enermax 600Watt PSU Scythe Kamikobo CPU cooler. XP Pro SP2 The other day I set the above machine off, just downloading some stuff and it ended up staying on for a couple of days. About 3 days in, I came home from work and the machine had turned itself off. Odd I thought, so I booted it up again, all the fans came on, but the machine switched off before the GPU post screen came up. Thinking the graphics card had died, I swapped it for a 6600, but to no avail. I then took the cooler off, cleaned the gunk off, and fitted a standard AMD cooler, same thing. Turn on, the fans fire up but before the screen comes out of stand-by, the machine stops. Just so Ive got things straight, the post order should be graphics---->CPU---->memory----> drives etc? Any thoughts would be appreciated.....Im begining to think the CPU has failed in some way.......but surely the GPU would still initially post....no?
No. The only way to find which part is dead is to switch the parts from this machine into a working machine, one by one, until it doesn't work. Judging by your description, it's probably either your motherboard or your CPU.
Techno-Dann is right,a swap out of parts is the easiest way to find out the faulty part.You could pretty much rule out everything apart from the cpu and mobo,because the rest would give you a bios code/alarm dependant on your motherboard type.
mobo im guessing, except do you have any means of testing all the other components? or just the mother board and cpu
I can basically test everything separately, bit of buggeration, but I guess I'll have to. Incidentally, Ive removed the CPU and memory, and the machine powers off in exactly the same way
LOL - yeah, for $70 that will help. Actually though, the first thing HAS to be the CPU. Without that, NOTHING else will happen. If you can get the num lock/caps lock key to cycle their LEDs, then the CPU is fine. Next is memory. Yes, I know people are use to getting the memory countdown on their display, but this is 90% for show. In most modern systems all the memory has been tested, but certainly the system will need the first 1 Meg of memory for stack and code execution. A video driver will not work without stack and thus memory. One good way to test your memory, take it all out - all of it, then see if it acts differently. It should beep or flash some mobo LEDs etc. Anyway, if it acts differently you can probably rule out memory as the problem. If it acts the same, then that really didn't help though. The next things are the keyboard and the SIO, though many times these are done before memory - if possible. Usually Some USB will be done and then finally the VGA card. By the time of the VGA, the BIOS is probably 1/2 done with its work.
