Please help, my computer has totally died. When i push the power on button it simply does nothing. I have checked all the wiring inside and replaced the power supply with 2 others (both a new shop bought one and one from my mates dell). I can’t think what it might be other then motherboard failure, which is expensive to replace, as I’m a student so 50 to 100 quid for a new one is a lot of money.

Does anyone have any ideas of what might be wrong? If not anyone know of any good online retailers who sell a good range of motherboards, processors ram and (maybe) GFX cards, at a cheap/reasonable price.

Finally does anyone have any recommendations of what to get. I’m after something which will handle most modern games (half life series, unreal tournament).

Hello, and Welcome to D-A-L.

If you've changed the power supply for a known good one, and ensured that the connections are fine, the only things left are the power outlet it's plugged into, or the motherboard, or a faulty power switch (on the front panel). Ensure your power outlet is supplying power. (Plug a lamp into it and make sure it operates.)

To check your front panel switch, note the two pins it's connected to on the motherboard header. Remove the switch connector (at the motherboard header) and short the two pins that it connects to. If the machine starts, you need a new (momentary contact) switch.

p.s. the pc spec's are as follows....

mother board : matsonic MS8188E
RAM : 1gb of ddr 266 (2*512mb)
GFX : ASUS Radion 9600xt 128mb
PSU : Premier model LC-B350ATX, total output 350W max
HDD : Seagate 250Gig
other IDE : Cd (i think its a writer but not 100%), Dvd rom, Dvd RW
processor : AMD Athlon XP 2200+

the pc has onboard graphics and lan but i have installed a second lan card (for connection to my x-box with) and the GFX card above.

if you need/want anymore details just ask and ill try and find them for you.

thanks again.


Edit:
thanks for your reply,

i did not think to short the switch on the motherboard i shall try that and see if it works.

the kettle lead works as i have tryed a number of them and used them to power up other appliances (screen, laptop etc). Is there anyway of testing the power supply outside of the computer? maybe plug it in and attach to a harddrive that has been taken out of the pc?

Yes there is. Remove the main power supply connector from the motherboard. Refer to the picture in the top right hand corner of the appropriate attached link.

You should be working with the power supply connector, not the motherboard connector.

If your PS connector is a 24 pin;
http://pinouts.ru/Power/atx_v2_pinout.shtml
Locate Pin 16 and short it to any COMmon pin (Black). (On either side of Pin 16 in the same row, NOT across to the other row. ie; Pin 15 or 17.)


If your PS connector is a 20 pin;
http://pinouts.ru/data/atxpower_pinout.shtml
Locate Pin 14 and short it to any COMmon pin (Black). (On either side of Pin 14 in the same row, NOT across to the other row. ie; Pin 13 or 15.)

Other references;
http://www.helpwithpcs.com/courses/p...nc-pinouts.htm

If the power supply starts, that much of it is good. Unplug it right away as it shouldn't run (long) without a load.

thanks for your help. the psu is dead. i have tryed shorting the button on the front with no luck.

what are the chances that both the motherboard and the psu have problems? i changed the psu for one which was new and bigger/same watt output and it still would not start.

"i have tryed shorting the button on the front with no luck."

Do you mean you tried shorting the pins on the motherboard "header pin assembly" which the front panel switch connector connects to?

Did you check the PS itself (as per above instructions) to see if it starts?

"what are the chances that both the motherboard and the psu have problems?"

A bad power supply can certainly damage a motherboard.

sorry for the slow reply, but I did not have a computer and my mate wanted his laptop back .

the problem was that the psu spiked and caused damage to the motherboard. when I checked the ps (as you suggested) it was dead. also when I shorted the pins (on the mobo) it still did not start. I have replaced the mobo and processor. this also meant that the gfx card and ram needed updating, as the current motherboard does not support agp cards and runs off ddr2 ram which I did not have as my system was so old.

thankfully my grandparents gave me most of the money as an early x-mas gift as I need a pc to do my uni work on.

My current system is:
AMD Athlon 64 X2 Dual Cord 4200+ 2.20GHz
MSI K9N Neo V3 nForce 560
GeForce 8500 GT 256MB DDR2 HDTV/DVI
2GB Corsaid DDR2 PC2-4200 Dual Channel Ram
with a Huntkey 450W PSU

im also running windows vista (business) for the first time is there any thnig you would suggest to run with my system (i have downloaded vista drivers for the gfx and mobo and i am currently running AVG anti virus)

I haven't had the opportunity to "play" with Vista yet. The only (primary) things I can suggest are an A_V (AVG (which you have) or Avast) and a decent Firewall. I use Comodo.

thanks for your help. i have alway used ether windows firewall when im at uni (uni network is fairly secure) or the fire wall on my route at home. ill give Comodo a good and see what its like.

Thanks for your help.