Dead Motherboard?

[KaptainKrazy]

Hi! I'm completely new to this forum, and I thought you guys might be able to help me out. A few days ago I thought it would be a nice summer project to fix up my dads old PC that he had laying around in his attic. I wiped all the drives and did a clean install of Windows 7, and everything was going great. I was using iTunes to back up my iPad when all of the sudden it just shut down. It was connected to a surge protecter, and everyhting attached to it died. I reset the surge protector and power came back. I tried to boot it, and it froze during POST. Cycled the power few times and finally got it go. The Starting Windows animation began, and all the sudden switched to a hard drive test; went back to windows, back to drive test (again), then froze. Did the motherboard get screwed up? Or is it something else? It takes seven or eight power cycles to get it to start booting Windows. Once I even got it to the desktop, but it unfortunately froze.

Any help would be appreciated!

 

[suteck]

Hi and Welcome to Tom's

First thing I would check is the power supply unit. If you're telling us a surge went through the surge protector and tripped it then that means that some of the surge got into the computer. It might have blown something in the power supply so I would check that first. If you think something went back from the computer into the surge protector we kinda have the same conditions. What psu do you have? If it's one of the nameless cheap brands that companies like to put in them then I don't have to much faith in them lasting long anyway, especially after sitting around for a while.

If it will run a hdd check or chkdsk let it do so. It will only take some time before it finishes doing that and it won't hurt anything. I've learned a long time ago that once it thinks it sees a need to do that check it will NEVER let go until you let it finish. If it reboots over and over and won't even do that I'm back to the power supply problem. It could be the motherboard but that's the last thing we look for. Does it have a video card or does it have onboard or ondie graphics?

 

[KaptainKrazy]

Hi and Welcome to Tom's

First thing I would check is the power supply unit. If you're telling us a surge went through the surge protector and tripped it then that means that some of the surge got into the computer. It might have blown something in the power supply so I would check that first. If you think something went back from the computer into the surge protector we kinda have the same conditions. What psu do you have? If it's one of the nameless cheap brands that companies like to put in them then I don't have to much faith in them lasting long anyway, especially after sitting around for a while.

If it will run a hdd check or chkdsk let it do so. It will only take some time before it finishes doing that and it won't hurt anything. I've learned a long time ago that once it thinks it sees a need to do that check it will NEVER let go until you let it finish. If it reboots over and over and won't even do that I'm back to the power supply problem. It could be the motherboard but that's the last thing we look for. Does it have a video card or does it have onboard or ondie graphics?

Yeah it has one of those PSU's that comes preinstalled in the case. The video card is a ATI Radeon 5450. The MB has onboard graphics, but last time I checked it was acting a little wonky. Could you reccomend a good budget PSU?
I'm only fourteen so I'm not exactly rolling in dough.

 

[suteck]

Here's an Antec VP-450 450W ATX 12V v2.3 Power Supply for only $40 if that isn't too much, HERE - http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16817371045
Or - CORSAIR Builder Series CX430 V2 (CMPSU-430CXV2) 430W ATX12V v2.3 80 PLUS Power Supply for only $24.99 after mail in rebates. HERE - http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16817139026
Or - Thermaltake TR2 W0070RUC 430W ATX12V V2.2 Intel Core i7 Compliant Dual 80mm Fans Full Cable Sleevings Power Supply only $29.99 after mail in rebate HERE - http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16817153023

These are some of the brands I trust. The ATI 5450 says it likes a minimum of 400 watts, that's why I picked these PSU's and wattages.

 

[KaptainKrazy]

Thanks! Hopefully that will fix the problem.