System won't restart after swapping GPU

J_Donk

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Jun 28, 2016
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I have an older Gateway (P4/1.6 gHz) system that I was using to test some old video cards that I was trying to sell on EBay and all of a sudden, the system would not boot up. Now, I used to be a hardware tester, so I know how to easily install/remove components on a PC. But now, it doesn't boot into BIOS or anything. It powers on and the fan spins, but nothing else. I have tried unplugging everything and plugging it back in, but nothing seems to work. Does anyone have any ideas what could be wrong? Any other info I can give you? I'm thinking either bad power supply or fried the mobo. Any help would be appreciated. Thanks
 
well first off - whatever vid card you tested last is toast, and so much toast so that it seems to have taken your PC with it.

Try the normal bench testing process. Take everything out of the motherboard (ram, cpu, any cards), power on and make sure you get bios beep codes. Then add back the ram & cpu 1 by 1.
-- and note you will need a new set of thermal paste when you put the CPU back.

If you get no beep codes after taking everything out of the motherboard, then you have a bad PSU or bad motherboard.
 
Both video cards I tested worked fine. I wasn't sure which one I wanted to use, so after I tested I switched them again, which is when it stopped starting up. I tested both GPUs in another system I have (which currently has one the of the GPUs running in it). I have a few rainy days coming up here, so I'll let ya know how it goes. Thanks.
 
ok if both cards still work, then so much for that idea...

Its also possible something made contact where it wasnt supposed to while you were moving parts around (ive done that before), and its causing your test system to have problems.
 
Had a rainy day so I got to this again. I tried a half-assed benchtest (don't have any therm paste atm so I don't wanna take out the CPU if I don't need to) and tried to start with only the RAM removed, but still only the fan comes on, and no beeps. Couldn't find my multimeter to test my PSU but I remembered the old paperclip trick. Hooked it up, hit the power and the fan didn't turn on. I know this is normally indicative of a bad PSU, but the fan turns on when the PSU is plugged into the mobo. I don't have much experience troubleshooting PSUs though, so any advice there would be helpful. As far as the mobo goes, I don't see any burnt spots/bloated caps or anything suspicious. Anything beyond that, I think I'd need a multimeter to test. What do you think?
 
Well with the ram removed and only the CPU in -- no beeps sounds like your cpu went bad.
Any way to test the PSU with another system? Another PSU with this system?

if those dont pan out, its time to invest in some thermal paste.
 


Yeah, I tried the PSU on another system and it worked fine. I am thinking either CPU or mobo. I believe I can test the mobo with a voltage meter (if it has power going to it, it's fine, correct?). I don't a way I can think of to test the CPU.
 
Okay, finally had a minute to get to this. It is pretty much barebones at this point...no HDD, no RAM, just PSU and CPU installed. I removed the CPU, hit the power switch and got...nothing at all. The little light on the mobo lights up and the power switch lights up, but no fans spinning or anything. So I'm guessing CPU=fried and mobo possibly still good? (I don't see any swollen caps or anything suspicious looking.)
 
Have you tired reseting the bios? Just need to pull out the battery on the motherboard, I was testing a video card I got from cragslist, and my desktop would keep booting with a gray screen, I just reset the bios and it booted up
 

Yes it has a speaker, it's a Gateway, they are pretty standard. And I remember it beeping at me before in the past when I didn't have RAM fully connected in the slot.