Axiom Home Page Forums General Discussion The Water Cooler PC hardware troubleshooting help needed

Okay, the answer might just be "pay somebody who has more knowledge/experience/tools at his disposal". But I thought I'd check.

The lovely and talented Mrs. Tuttle dumped a glass of water on the surge suppressor for her desktop PC. It stopped working. It is a machine I put together maybe a year or so ago. I took it to a local guy (who seems decent and knowledgeable). He said "the motherboard is fried and the power supply seems okay". I bought and installed another motherboard of the same make/model (Asus P7H55-M Pro).

It still doesn't do anything. There is a lit LED on the mobo, and all the fans spin up, but that's it. No video. I don't hear the disk do anything.

Before I go buy another Core i3 or worse, do you have any suggestions?

Thanks, guys.

Am I correct is my understanding of your post that the computer does power on, Tom? If so, does that motherboard have a small "display" on it that shows the post code? If it's not posting, then the code would help diagnose the problem.

Just a thought.

Good idea, Cam. I'll look for a post code. I don't think it has a display, but there might be something to decode from one or more LED's. Thanks!

Tom, are you sure you connected the CPU's power supply? And if there's a post code error on that board, you'll hear beeps. There will be different beep sequences for different post code errors.

I would check the P/S. One of the rails might not be working now and it is not supplying power to the video side. There is a nifty little tool that allows you to check all the connections out of the power supply, then you will know for sure if the P/S is still OK.

http://www.newegg.ca/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16899887005

Thanks, Jason!

Okay, to recap THAT project...

I bought a new power supply, the power supply tester and a new processor.

Tested the old PSU - registered HH on the PG value (I think that's "bad"). Everything else was fine. Replaced it. Made no difference.

Replaced the CPU and Voila.

So, I ended up replacing the mobo, PSU and CPU. Ouch.


NEW PROBLEM / Different machine

Does RAM just suddenly go bad?

Subject is an aging socket 939 AMD, MSI Nforce4. It started misbehaving (BSOD 0xA). On reboot, eventually gave me a keyboard error even though USB keyboard was plugged in.

Removed and replaced the battery on the mobo. Reboot with PS/2 keyboard. Boot to RAM Probe disk. Ram Probe goes absolutely nuts with memory errors.

So, it seems like the RAM is bad, but that just doesn't make good sense to me. And I can't really make sense of the Ram Probe output.

There are 4 sticks of RAM in the machine - 2x512MB and 2x256MB.

The machine had been running flawlessly basically 24/7 for YEARS.

I'd love some ideas.

TIA, gentlemen.

Strange things start happening to computers when they get old. Like people, bits start failing.

Try pulling memory out to see if you can isolate the problem.

That's some sage advice from Frederoo. That's all I can add, unfortunately.

Good luck, Tom.

Unfortunately, I have this lovely Zalman cooler on the CPU that makes it impossible for me to pull any of the RAM without pulling the entire mobo out and apart. Harumph.

I hate Zalmans.

They're pretty.

They're damn near useless. They're not silent, and they don't cool.

I think you should use a lovely Coleman cooler on the CPU. It can do double duty for you. Be sure to get the top of the line model, The Lushury Kit.

But itth got ell-ee-deeth! http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16835118223

And I thought mine was big. At least I don't have to say, "I could of had a V8".

Haters.

The one I got IS silent. I needed something that wasn't "too tall" for the case. Apparently, I should have saved myself your scorn and just used the stock cooler.

Your 8th Axiomoe anniversary was two days ago and you're just figuring that out now?

Happy belated anniverary, Senor Tuttle!

I guess suggesting you cut the memory sticks in half with tin snips for easy removal might not be appreciated?

Nah, you should have gone with liquid cooling.

Good idea. That worked so well for the surge suppressor.

Through trial and error and error and error, I was able to isolate the errors to one particular stick of RAM. Machine seems to boot and remain stable without it while I have another one on order.

Of course, to do the testing, I had to dismantle the whole freaking thing and replace the Zalman cooler with the stock one. Machine sounds like a B-29 now.

I hate Zalmans.

Sn sn sn sn.

Tin?

when i had my pc put together a couple of years back by a tech, he suggested buying a Zalman cooler for the Q6600; i said ok.
a few weeks later i threw the Zalman out and installed a good one; i did not even want to give it to someone else, thinking it would amount to a poison gift.
those Zalman sure look good, but that's not what a cooler is supposed to be about.

I'm so sorry Tom.
I couldn't keep reading any further b/c i was laughing so hard.
That's just awesome.

I had a buddy who once mashed a slice of pumpkin pie into his keyboard as he rushed to the door and it quit working too. I still laugh at that one and he still has the keyboard.
(he couldn't bear to part with it)

I had a similar problem with RAM a few years back. I was starting to wonder if the motherboard had power regulation issues since it went through 2 sticks of RAM before the 3rd set finally worked as expected. The vendor didn't have any problems replacing the RAM though on the third try i did ask them if this was typical or not.

As for Zalman, i've used some of their vidcard coolers, northbridge/southbridge passive coolers in the past with great success.
Quiet absolutely, but check the online reviews for the ones that are effective coolers.