Question GA-78LMT-USB3 Lights and Fans on but no ones at home. PLEASE HELP!!

[Ukparis]

Hi there I am having a problem with my PC I built it almost 10 years ago and it has been running absolutely fine until I was burgled and rather than steal it they decided to smash it up.

It lights up fans work, but there is no beep and no display. I have checked all connections and taken out the ram but nothing works.

I’m running;

Gigabyte GA-78LMT-USB3

Gigabyte Nvidia GTX 750 Ti WindForce2 OC 4 GB

Corsair Vengeance 2x 4 GB DDR3

Corsair Vengeance 2x 8 GB DDR3

Corsair Vengeance 2x 8GB DDR3

Corsair Vengeance 2x 4 GB DDR3

Images here;

https://imgur.com/a/QqHdiku

View: https://imgur.com/gallery/QqHdiku

https://imgur.com/a/06GeXIM

View: https://imgur.com/gallery/06GeXIM

https://imgur.com/a/dzrKoU6

View: https://imgur.com/gallery/dzrKoU6

 

[drea.drechsler]

Hi there I am having a problem with my PC I built it almost 10 years ago and it has been running absolutely fine until I was burgled and rather than steal it they decided to smash it up.

It lights up fans work, but there is no beep and no display. I have checked all connections and taken out the ram but nothing works.

...

It doesn't look very smashed up in the photos, can you take some that show what got smashed?

Start with disconnecting the HDD to see if it boots right into BIOS at least. If it doesn't, then it's not a damaged HDD that's preventing starting so examine everything very closely looking for bent/broken parts. Look at connections that aren't tight or are incorrect and for cracks in circuit boards. Once you find damage, that's when you assess what's worthwhile to fix/replace. That pretty much means taking everything out to check it over thoroughly.

If you can't find any visible physical damage then reassemble outside the case to bench test, just like a new build. Do it as a minimal build: just motherboard, CPU, PSU, one stick of memory and a GPU. All you're trying to do at this point is get into the BIOS, then add the boot drive, then more memory. If it doesn't work after swap out the GPU for a known good one. Try a known good PSU too.

If it still doesn't work after swapping PSU and GPU with known-good it's probably best to just toss the mobo/cpu/memory and build new. This thing is horribly outmoded and you can find an AM4 mobo/cpu/memory combo for not much more. It may be pretty much the bottom-end on everything but it will be much better performing, and compatible with modern OS' (if you avoid first gen Zen processors).

 

[Ukparis]

It doesn't look very smashed up in the photos, can you take some that show what got smashed?

Start with disconnecting the HDD to see if it boots right into BIOS at least. If it doesn't, then it's not a damaged HDD that's preventing starting so examine everything very closely looking for bent/broken parts. Look at connections that aren't tight and for cracks in circuit boards. Once you find damage, that's when you assess what's worthwhile to fix/replace. That pretty much means taking everything out to check it over thoroughly.

If you can't find any visible physical damage then reassemble outside the case to bench test, just like a new build. Do it as a minimal build: just motherboard, CPU, PSU, one stick of memory and a GPU. All you're trying to do at this point is get into the BIOS, then add the boot drive, then more memory. If it doesn't work after swap out the GPU for a known good one. Try a known good PSU too.

If it still doesn't work after swapping PSU and GPU with known-good it's probably best to just toss the mobo/cpu/memory and build new. This thing is horribly outmoded and you can find a much better AM4 mobo/cpu/memory combo that won't be much more expensive.

it was mainly the casing a few pins got bent and stupidly unplugged everything, so am wondering if maybe I have plugged in something in the wrong place?

I’ve checked everything over and can’t see any real damage, as it said on the box very durable I don’t think they where lying.

Unfortunately I can’t afford to start again as haven’t got the money so am hoping someone can offer a solution other than bin it lol.

I have just tried to unplug everything even taken the battery from the motherboard to do hard rest but still the same, fans lights and everything working but yet no beep or boot.

 

[drea.drechsler]

it was mainly the casing a few pins got bent and stupidly unplugged everything, so am wondering if maybe I have plugged in something in the wrong place?

I’ve checked everything over and can’t see any real damage, as it said on the box very durable I don’t think they where lying.

Unfortunately I can’t afford to start again as haven’t got the money so am hoping someone can offer a solution other than bin it lol.

I have just tried to unplug everything even taken the battery from the motherboard to do hard rest but still the same, fans lights and everything working but yet no beep or boot.

It's almost impossible for us to tell you when something is connected wrong since it means tracing back wires to the components. You'll have to do that, but you'll also need a manual to tell you how and where to reconnect everything. You can get a downloaded copy from the mfr's support site if you don't have the one it came with.

You won't get trouble beeps if there is no system speaker which many motherboards don't have built-in. For those, you can connect one but you need to have it.

HDD's are fairly delicate, so if it was smashed around it could be damaged. With it disconnected the system should default to going into BIOS. You'd need a new HDD then, and that means re-installing the OS.

It helps to take everything out and do a bench test. Because you're completely disassembling it you'll go through a re-connection of everything just like it's a new build and following the manual, which also helps.

ADDED: oh yeah...looked back at the first picture and I see that the case of the PSU is not very well closed up, like it's bent or something. If it took a hit it could be damaged internally. I'd be worried about that, probably a good idea to get hold of a known-good one just to see if it helps.

 

[Ukparis]

It's almost impossible for us to tell you when something is connected wrong since it means tracing back wires to the components. You'll have to do that, but you'll also need a manual to tell you how and where to reconnect everything. You can get a downloaded copy from the mfr's support site if you don't have the one it came with.

You won't get trouble beeps if there is no system speaker which many motherboards don't have built-in. For those, you can connect one but you need to have it.

HDD's are fairly delicate, so if it was smashed around it could be damaged. With it disconnected the system should default to going into BIOS. You'd need a new HDD then, and that means re-installing the OS.

It helps to take everything out and do a bench test. Because you're completely disassembling it you'll go through a re-connection of everything just like it's a new build and following the manual, which also helps.

ADDED: oh yeah...looked back at the first picture and I see that the case of the PSU is not very well closed up, like it's bent or something. If it took a hit it could be damaged internally. I'd be worried about that, probably a good idea to get hold of a known-good one just to see if it helps.

HDD works fine as already tested that with a friends PC.

The leads I’m not sure about are

HDD LED
Reset SW CH
Power SW CH
POWER LED +
Power LED -

I’ve looked in the manual but still can’t work these out.

 

[drea.drechsler]

...

HDD LED
Reset SW CH
Power SW CH
POWER LED +
Power LED -

I’ve looked in the manual but still can’t work these out.

To test you don't need any of these connected up, so take them all off. Then use a screwdriver to put a short across the "two power SW CH" pins. It should start up then; if it works you'll get no LED indications of anything (power LED, HDD LED) and no way to reset it but at least then you know you have to work better at getting these connected properly...that will need the manual.

If even when you get them connected properly and you know it but it still doesn't work, but does with them disconnected, then they could have smashed something on case front panel that makes it broken.

If it doesn't start up even with them disconnected then you have more basic problems than connecting these properly. Make sure the 24 pin connector, CPU power and GPU power are all connected properly and plugged in fully. SOMETIMES, especially with cheap PSU's, some of the PSU connector pins don't fully engage the socket contacts. To fix that possibility, disconnect PSU then push on the back of each pin in the 24 pin, CPU power and GPU power connector with a small screwdriver or other tool to push each pin solidly home.

 

[stonecarver]

Well your power supply got hit hard the lid is popped up so if you booted it with a damaged power supply you may have caused more damage.

 

[Ukparis]

T

To test you don't need any of these connected up, so take them all off. Then use a screwdriver to put a short across the "two power SW CH" pins. It should start up then; if it works you'll get no LED indications of anything (power LED, HDD LED) and no way to reset it but at least then you know you have to work better at getting these connected properly...that will need the manual.

If it doesn't start up then you have more basic problems than connecting these properly. Make sure the 24 pin connector, CPU power and GPU power are all connected properly and plugged in fully. SOMETIMES, especially with cheap PSU's (like yours) some of the PSU connector pins don't fully engage the socket contacts. To fix that possibility, disconnect PSU then push on the back of each pin in the 24 pin, CPU power and GPU power connector with a small screwdriver or other tool to push each pin solidly home.

That sounds a bit dodgy sorry but I don’t want to blow anything as I’m not really savy on where I’d place the screwdriver safely sorry.

It maybe cheap but it still managed to run gta v and other games so it was doing all I needed it to do and was running windows 11 without any lag.

 

[Ukparis]

Well your power supply got hit hard the lid is popped up so if you booted it with a damaged power supply you may have caused more damage.

The power supply has been tested by a friend and was ok but yes it doesn’t look good. I have had to put a new fuse in which got lights and fans on, cd drive works but HDD doesn’t seem to start and no bios. I really have checked for lose connections but just stays the same.

 

[drea.drechsler]

T

That sounds a bit dodgy sorry but I don’t want to blow anything as I’m not really savy on where I’d place the screwdriver safely sorry.

Well...that will be one unknown you can't resolve fully. You won't blow anything if it's disconnected from the AC power though, you can be confident of that much. Do be sure the connectors are fully seated at the least.

 

[drea.drechsler]

The power supply has been tested by a friend and was ok but yes it doesn’t look good. I have had to put a new fuse in which got lights and fans on, cd drive works but HDD doesn’t seem to start and no bios. I really have checked for lose connections but just stays the same.

What fuse? That's curious as I've not run across a fuse that's not internal to the PSU in quite some time.

ADDED: oh, and it's almost impossible to adequately test a PSU. Even a part swap test has limited usefulness, but did he swap the PSU into a known good system and it worked after replacing the fuse?

 

[stonecarver]

With the advice others have given you can use your phone to take as many pictures as you need. Take a picture of every cable hook up every screw so you can remove parts from case and test and just relook at your phone to rebuild in the case if she lives. But first thing to help you is change that power supply. Borrow one if that's your only option

 

[Ukparis]

What fuse? That's curious as I've not run across a fuse that's not internal to the PSU in quite some time.

The fuse on the plug lol

Well...that will be one unknown you can't resolve fully. You won't blow anything if it's disconnected from the AC power though, you can be confident of that much. Do be sure the connectors are fully seated at the least.

what do you mean fully seated? sorry

 

[stonecarver]

If the fuse blew it was telling you it had an issue, Just my 2 cents

 

[drea.drechsler]

The fuse on the plug lol

what do you mean fully seated? sorry

You may have missed what I edited in:
ADDED: oh, and it's almost impossible to adequately test a PSU. Even a part swap test has limited usefulness, but did he swap the PSU into a known good system and it worked after replacing the fuse?

And yeah, I'm leaning to a PSU problem too. If you can possibly get a known-good PSU to swap into your system, it would be the next thing to try.

Fully seated...meaning all the way inserted, at least the plastic body. It's sometimes difficult to get all the way down. OH yeah, and you can also pinch each wire going into the back of the connector and push on it to push the contact further in, instead of using a screwdriver. That could also work but is a bit more difficult.

 

[Ukparis]

With the advice others have given you can use your phone to take as many pictures as you need. Take a picture of every cable hook up every screw so you can remove parts from case and test and just relook at your phone to rebuild in the case if she lives. But first thing to help you is change that power supply. Borrow one if that's your only option

I have unplugged and plugged everything back in and it’s still just as described I can’t borrow a power supply unfortunately so I’d need to buy one . But would the fans and everything work if it was faulty?

 

[stonecarver]

But would the fans and everything work if it was faulty?

YES kind of like starting your car. But does it drive.

 

[Ukparis]

If the fuse blew it was telling you it had an issue, Just my 2 cents

I was overclocking it as was messing with settings, which is why tried removing the battery on the board for 5 mins to see if could reset it as don’t have a jumper

 

[Ukparis]

YES kind of like starting your car. But does it drive.

lol I don’t drive so i honestly have no idea I just presumed if fans and everything was powering on it wouldn’t be that. I will order a new one now. Will it matter which I buy?

 

[drea.drechsler]

lol I don’t drive so i honestly have no idea I just presumed if fans and everything was powering on it wouldn’t be that. I will order a new one now. Will it matter which I buy?

Look for one on Tom's tier listing:
https://www.tomshardware.com/reviews/best-psus,4229.html

The one thing I'd do is think about the power you actually need. Either be reasonable about power needs of that system and get a lower power PSU to save money, or go truly big because you might soon upgrade to awesomeness and would have that component, at least, locked in.

750W (what you have, if it's believable) is extreme gross overkill for your system; you could get along just fine with 450-550W of decent quality.

 

[stonecarver]

Give it a little while for other members to see your post, we have excellent guys who know power supplies and the right one you will need.

Look for one on Tom's tier listing:
https://www.tomshardware.com/reviews/best-psus,4229.html

Thank you I could not find that link.

 

[drea.drechsler]

Give it a little while for other members to see your post, we have excellent guys who know power supplies and the right one you will need.

Thank you I could not find that link.

Yeah...the problem with giving specific suggestions is we have no idea what may be available to OP. bummer.

BUT...if OP wants one, I'd suggest getting that Corsair RM-550x if he can find it. It's top rated in Tom's tiers and EXCELLENT, I have one. Super quiet running an R7 3700X CPU and RX 5700 XT GPU even while Folding@Home, which pretty much maxes power of both CPU and GPU simultaneously, for days on end.

 

[Ukparis]

Look for one on Tom's tier listing:
https://www.tomshardware.com/reviews/best-psus,4229.html

The one thing I'd do is think about the power you actually need. Either be reasonable about power needs of that system and get a lower power PSU to save money, or go truly big because you might soon upgrade to awesomeness and would have that component, at least, locked in.

750W (what you have, if it's believable) is extreme gross overkill for your system; you could get along just fine with 450-550W of decent quality.

That’s what I was recommended at the time and as I don’t really know what I was doing I just accepted it.

And thank you that was my next question wether I needed 750 w as looked at your link and found the number 1 on there for £23 on eBay. Happy days.

 

[Ukparis]

What fuse? That's curious as I've not run across a fuse that's not internal to the PSU in quite some time.

ADDED: oh, and it's almost impossible to adequately test a PSU. Even a part swap test has limited usefulness, but did he swap the PSU into a known good system and it worked after replacing the fuse?

he just took it and tested it I’ve no idea if put into a working system sorry.

 

[Ukparis]

Yeah...the problem with giving specific suggestions is we have no idea what may be available to OP. bummer.

BUT...if OP wants one, I'd suggest getting that Corsair RM-550x if he can find it. It's top rated in Tom's tiers and EXCELLENT, I have one. Super quiet running an R7 3700X CPU and RX 5700 XT GPU even while Folding@Home, which pretty much maxes power of both CPU and GPU simultaneously, for days on end.

I thought the Corsair CX430M was top as I’ve just ordered that 🙁