Re: [gentoo-user] {OT} Power supply or motherboard dead?

[Stroller]

On 19 Mar 2008, at 13:41, Grant wrote:

> A Gentoo desktop of mine won't turn on anymore.  I was hoping it was
> the power supply but I've installed a new one which doesn't fix the
> problem.  Is there a sure way to know if the motherboard needs
> replacement or if I have two dead power supplies?

Hi there,

I work on PCs for a living, mostly peoples' home computers, and in  
the case of a "dead pc" the cause is nearly as often something else  
as it is a dead PSU.

Causes such as a duff CD-ROM drive or a damaged USB connector are  
surprising but not uncommon, so reset the BIOS (using the  method  
described by Volker) and if that doesn't work unplug as much as  
possible from the motherboard - you'll surely need the CPU & RAM for  
it to post, but you may wish to swap out the RAM at some point in  
your diagnostics - and unplug most everything else. That means  
drives, PCI cards, USB devices, stuff connected to the USB & serial  
headers, graphics card if possible. Also don't connect the power  
supply to any of the drives, or anything else that you're not  
currently using.

I've seen cheap power supplies take out the motherboard when they go.  
Sorry if you find that to be the case.

Stroller.
  
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