Troubleshooting Athlon64 System - Need Help

[Amarony87]

Hey Folks, I've always had good luck with getting help in this forum so here goes..

I have the following system which has been up and running for about 4 months:

Athlon64 3400 CPU
MSI K8N Neo Platinum Board
1 Gig PC3200 CL3 Kingston Ram
2 x 80gig SATA stripe

System went down yesterday and not sure where to start troubleshooting in order. System shut off while running and now dies shortly after turning on. Basically after powering up, I get nothing on the monitor, and doesn't seem to be posting at all. After about 10 seconds it powers off. I do have one of those D Bracket 4 light red/green cards and it shows all 4 red right when powering up. I've disassembled the system and reassembled to make sure there are no lose wires/screws etc.

My question is where do y'all think I should start for troubleshooting. Unfortunately I don't have another system to easily swap out parts so newbish me thinks the problem is CPU.. MBoard... Power Supply... or Memory. Any of you have any suggestions on what items to start with or anything else I can try? BTW i swapped out a hard drive and that is not the problem.

It should not be a cooling issue as I'm loaded up with fans but ya never know i guess.

Thanks in advance for any suggestions.

 

[sparky853]

Sounds like it could be a Power Supply issue...What make and wattage is yours?

AMD 64 3200+, MSI K8T Neo2, 1GB Dual-Channel DDR400, ATI R9800PRO 128MB, TT PurePower 420W, LG DVD+-R/RW

 

[Amarony87]

Got an Allied 500W Power Supply (model AL-B500E). Might be a good place to start by switching that out. Enough wattage but could be gimped i guess.

 

[Amarony87]

Forgot to mention I switched out the vid card and that is not the problem either. Definitely something tanked on me still can't get anything to come up after power up.

 

[sparky853]

Sounds like the PSU has enough power, as long as it hasn't gone tits up on you.

Do you get any POST beeps?

You said you have the little MSI bracket with the LEDs. Do they change from all red to any other combination? Or does the system shut off with them all red? According to my MSI manual (I have the K8T Neo2), all 4 red means the CPU is damaged/not installed properly.

Have you been doing any overclocking? Can you get into your BIOS and check system voltages?

AMD 64 3200+, MSI K8T Neo2, 1GB Dual-Channel DDR400, ATI R9800PRO 128MB, TT PurePower 420W, LG DVD+-R/RW

 

[Cybercraig]

It's taps for that power supply, CPU, or motherboard. The first green LED on the top left indicates early chipset initialization. If you can't even get there it has to be one of the three. I hope it's your power supply (cheapest fix) but it also acts like a recently blown mainboard problem I had too. Swap PS first with a known good one.

Abit IS7 - 3.0C @ 3.6ghz - Mushkin PC4000 (2 X 512) - Sapphire 9800Pro - TT 420 watt Pure Power
Samsung 120gb ATA-100 - Maxtor 40gb ATA - 100
Sony DRU-510A - Yellowtail Merlot

<P ID="edit"><FONT SIZE=-1><EM>Edited by Cybercraig on 02/27/05 01:14 PM.</EM></FONT></P>

 

[Amarony87]

Thanks again guys. As a follow up I get no beeps at all upon power up. Have not been OC'g at all but you are correct in that all 4 red lights show and they do not change at all. I can't even get to the BIOS to check any of those settings. The power supply seems to be powering I guess the question is how much. It certainly is shooting enough power to get the various fans and lights to work.

I get the sinking feeling that it might be the processor or mboard 🙁

 

[pat]

MSI doesnt have constant quality. I had bad experiences with them, and never I will get another one. No matter how high they overclock or how fast they are.. they simply dont last very long.

-Always put the blame on you first, then on the hardware !!!

 

[sparky853]

Have you tried reseating the CPU & heatsink? Use some Artic Silver 5 paste. If you are unsure, lots of people here will give advise on how to clean and reapply the AS5.

I would but I've never had to.

AMD 64 3200+, MSI K8T Neo2, 1GB Dual-Channel DDR400, ATI R9800PRO 128MB, TT PurePower 420W, LG DVD+-R/RW