Diagnosing hardware problems

[Tobyfex]

What I have:

Dual core (GHz??), 8gb ram, saphire graphics card computer. It runs windows 7 and is in a heavy stainless steel casing. It has five fans to reduce heat.

Where I was:

Just five minutes ago I was browsing through websites giving me diagnostic processes which I can go through to solve problems with my computer. It is a desktop, a custom one which I bought second hand. I have been having problems with it for a while, at some point last year it produced extreme heat and stopped working properly. What I was able to go on was that it was powering up, not producing any beeps, instead making one click sound, and then nothing would happen.

Where I am:

I re-seated everything, working fine... Working fine... Re-set the cmos battery (idk if thats how you say it right), still working fine, and then I reseated the ram. Nothing, won't power up. I tried un-plugging certain things, turning it on, nothing. Reseated the power supply a couple of times and nothing.

 

So as I said before I have been told the problems lie with the motherboard, as it wasn't booting up, but why won't it turn on, I'm sure a faulty motherboard won't effect the power input? Maybe it does, I'm not sure.

 

I have reseated this computer many times and that usually would solve any problems I was having - which sounds strange to say.

 

Thanks for your help!

[Plastic Nev]

Hi Tobyfex and welcome to Extreme Tech Support - Free PC Help,

Considering all was OK till you removed and replaced or at least re-seated the RAM, that is where the fault may lie, how many sticks of RAM are in it?

 

First turn off the power, you can leave the plug in to maintain the earth connection if the socket is a switched one. If more than one stick of RAM, remove all but one stick and try again, if still nothing replace that with another and so on. while the sticks are out, make sure the contacts are clean, a pencil eraser is good for that and wipe with a soft cloth afterwards.

 

it is unlikely all sticks are damaged or dudd, but be aware they could be as bad RAM will prevent a start up.

 

Nev.

[BreatGritain]

Whilst you have the RAM out, check that no dust has fallen into the RAM slots, as this could prevent start up, too.

[Tobyfex]

I removed the sticks and replaced them one by one. There was no dust or dirt, but I gave them a quick wipe just in case. Sadly no luck. :( I noticed am unusual click, though, which I didn't before. So something at least, is trying to happen.

[KenB]

Hi and welcome to ExTS

 

You need to strip the motherboard down to just the 20(4) way power connection from the PSU

see here

 

I assume that you used to get a single POST beep when it was booting OK ?

 

No beeps when you have it stripped down indicates a PSU or m/board problem.