Faulty motherboard/blown PSU issues

[piemanji]

Hello. This is my first post here. I hope you'll be able to help me!

 

I've recently been trying to fix up my parents' old desktop (I'll call it PC #1) in the hope of slowly upgrading it as and when I can so that when my laptop dies (which is going to be fairly soon!) I'll have a decent replacement. It originally didn't give any output to the screen, though everything looked/sounded like it was starting up. I worked out (by using components of a friend's working desktop) that the problem was the motherboard. I managed to get hold of an old tower with motherboard, processor, RAM and PSU (PC #2).

 

I removed the DVD drive and hard drive from #1 and put them in #2. Everything booted up and I got the Windows welcome screen - hooray! But it wouldn't work - it said I needed to activate it, and couldn't get it connected to the Internet in order to do this. So I got an Ubuntu disc out and tried to boot from that, but the BIOS hung on 'Boot from CD: '.

 

I found a hint saying I should remove the BIOS battery and replace it a couple of minutes later, which I did, but then it wouldn't switch on at all. Nothing whatsoever from the PSU. So I removed it and replace it with the PSU from #1, which was certainly working a few days ago. Again, nothing at all. I tried plugging both straight into the wall without being attached to the motherboard. Nothing.

 

So my question is/questions are - what is the problem here? Both PSUs seem to have died - but is this because of a faulty motherboard? And how might I have caused the problem? Should I just get a new PSU or is there a risk that might blow too, and should I get a new motherboard as well?

 

Thanks in advance for your help.

[KenB]

Hi and welcome to ExTS

 

Firstly - if you took the hard drive from #1 and put it in #2 then unless the motherboard was exactly the same - which I don't think it is as you are getting an activation message, the system will not boot. The activation, I think, is because Windows detects a different environment.

 

It originally didn't give any output to the screen, though everything looked/sounded like it was starting up

If this was the case it is unlikely to be the motherboard - unless you have on-board graphics ?

 

Let's work on PC #1

 

switch off at the wall - leave the plug in to maintain the earth ( ground ) connection.

 

Take any external hardware ( printer etc ) off the system

 

Take all cards ( RAM / Video etc etc ) off the m/board.

 

Disconnect the molex ( power ) connections from the HDD / CDROM

 

Disconnect the data cables at the m/b end.

 

Leave only the 20(4) way connection from the PSU connected.

 

Switch on.

 

If you have an internal speaker connected you should get POST beeps.

You should also see fans spin and any m/board LEDs lit.

 

Do you ?