computer will not boot

[yegum]

hi i am new to forums and i have a problem with my pc

when i power up i get no display on my monitor and the motherboard speaker keeps beeping.all the fans on the tower spin and the keyboard lights up. i have cleared the cmos by removing the battery and shorting. The problem arised after changing some of the bios settings,i then accidently tryed to boot the pc without the ram properly inserted and i could smell smoke but quickly turned the pc off.

i think it is the motherboard but am not too sure can someone please help

(amd phenom quad core 2.2 ghz, 1 gb ram ,nvidia hybrid sli 8100 motherboard)

[Plastic Nev]

Hi and welcome to Extreme Tech Support - Free PC Help.

I can only say that a smell of smoke does not sound good, whatever it was is now likely to be dead.

The beeps from the on board speaker, are they in a pattern, as in some long some short, and in what order. Also are they continuous, or does the beeping stop?

[yegum]

the beeps are continous they are also in a pattern ( beep,beep,beep_beep,beep,beep_beep,beep,beep etc)

[Match]

Hmm could be Memory error, or CPU, but if you look here at your specific Bios then you will know more

 

BiosCentral - Award BIOS Beep Codes

[yegum]

well the little smoke i did smell seemed to come from the ram socket so it could be my ram socket on my motherboard that has gone bust,i have got 2 ram modules one being a 1gb and the other being 2gb i have swapped both around in the ram socket and have tryed with one in and one out but have had no luck.

if it is the ram socket is there any way the replace the socket without replacing the motherboard.

[Plastic Nev]

The only thing now, if you seem sure the smoke came from that area, would be to check the socket to see if there is any blackening near to or at one of the many contacts. If nothing is visible it could be underneath, which would mean removing the motherboard from the case to inspect.

 

That inspection should give you some idea of whether you have the soldering skills to replace it. I personally wouldn't recommend it, things now are so small that it is too easy to finish up with solder bridging two or more connections which would probably cause even more trouble.

Also removing the faulty socket, if such is the case, can do damage if not done with extreme care.

 

The thing though is to go have a look at the link Match gave so you can identify which BIOS you have, and also find what the beeps code means. It is definitely saying there is a fault but the code tells you where.

Nev.

[Dalo Harkin]

I would seriously advise against trying to repair the board, 9/10 if something blows on a MOBO it takes one or more other parts with it.

If it is just one dead RAM slot then you could live with that - you just need to see if there are any other issues....

[yegum]

well i think it is the ram socket or the components accosiated with it, i can not see any blackining on the surface of the motherboard so i am probally going to check behind it,both of the socket seem to have gone. i am begining to wonder if i had purchased a faulty motherboard in the begining since my computor kept on crashing i replaced the ram to an lower spec and send the faulty ram to amd, they returned it saying there was no fault with the ram and it was a bios issue so it may of been a faulty ram socket from the begining.

anyway i probally going to have to replace my motherboard, anyone know of any good mobo which is under £50 and has similar specs or better than my mine

[Dalo Harkin]

If your looking around the £50 mark then I would say these 2

Scan.co.uk: MSI 770-C45, AMD 770, AM3, PCI-E 2.0(x16), DDR3 1600(OC), SATA 3Gb/s, SATA RAID, ATX Very good overclocker

 

Scan.co.uk: Biostar TA770E3, AMD 770, AM3, PCI-E 2.0 (x16), DDR3 1333MHz, SATA 3Gb/s, SATA RAID ATX I have put a few systems together using this board and cannot fault it

 

So all depends on if you plan on overclocking :D

[yegum]

welll i looked behind the motherboard and found that one of the thin copper tracks running from the ram socket had burnt out so i soldered a new one and the computer seems to be working fine, the 2gb ram which was causing my computer to crash has'nt caused any problems yet. so it seems i have fixed my problem but i may change my motherboard in the future since i have heard it is not very good.is there a mobo thats suports am2 but features a ddr3 socket

[Dalo Harkin]

Soldered a new what?

you cannot bridge the gap with solder - they are copper for a reason, and they are also imbedded within the PCB itself.

 

Fancy adding a pic for us :)

[Plastic Nev]

Well I also am startled that you managed that, knowing the compact nature of a motherboard. I have in the past repaired burnt tracks with soldered in copper wire, but on printed circuit cards of much larger construction for machine controllers. In other words, where I had room on the card to play with.

The last one, some years ago now, was a speed control card for a golf trolley:D

The main power transistor had overheated, blown, then burnt the track out, it meant replacing the transistor and track, luckily nothing else had blown.

But that isn't a computer mother board.

Nev.

[yegum]

well the copper track got so hot it burnted away the layer which coats it and melted some of the copper which explains why my bios was indicating a missing ram, so i bridged the gap with some solder and super glued the track back in place to electrically insulate it (not the best thing to use but the only thing avalible to me), it was tricky since the track was very thin (i had to do it under a magnefing glass and machine a new solder iron tip)

i was lucky that i cut the power in time to the computor when i smelt smoke because who knows what else may of blown.

[Plastic Nev]

Well thanks for the feedback and you must have better eyes and patience than me. Congrats on getting it working, but it is not something we normally recommend as solder can too easily bridge over to another connection causing a short circuit.

however I would be recommending you do look round for another motherboard as the original cause of the burn out is unknown and could arise again.

Nev.

[KenB]

Hi yegum,

 

Your description of how you bridged the burnt track took me back to when my son snapped the main circuit board for his guitar effects pedal. That was a double-sided board. I bridged every soldered joint using a machined down tip and magnifying glass as you did :)

This was a number of years ago - it is still working.

 

What concerns me is what caused your track to burn out in the first place ??

[Tootech]

so i bridged the gap with some solder and super glued the track back in place to electrically insulate it

 

Well Done!!

 

Its not often boards can be repaired, and I guess due to the relatively short repair distance, solder ie lead/tin alloy will conduct the electricity just as well as copper.

 

Impressive :D:D

[Plastic Nev]

Two concerns to finish this off if you come back to look.

Whatever caused the track to burn in the first place is not known and could happen again.

 

Secondly, if it does and you need to replace the mother board, or decide to replace it anyway.

If exactly the same type and make of motherboard is not available and you have to use a different one, please be aware that when you first try turning on with the new board in, Windows will quite likely see it as a new environment and refuse to start.

 

If that does happen it will need a "repair" of Windows to be done, please get back to us if that is the case.

Nev

[wellies]

It was my experience when repairing burnt printed circuit tracks that solder could eventually crack again. One strand of multi-core wire soldered across the gap (a bit like 5 amp fuse wire) made a more permanent job of it. All very much like micro-surgery.

[yegum]

thank you for your replies, i have realised that what ever caused my motherboard to burn out will probally cause problems in the future again and i will probally need to replace my motherboard.i also realise that other componants probally have been ruined or worn down due to the excess amount of current that caused my track to burn out, but l will continue to use my motherboard until it goes for good (hopefully it will not take anything else with it :confused:).

 

i have heard that my motherboard is not a very good overclocker and that the design is poor the ram issues however which i described before seemed to have dissapeared which makes me think that my motherboard was indeed faulty from the beginning and that the copper track that burnted out could not carry the excess current to my ram modeules to operate then properly thus causing my computor to crash.

 

anyway again thankyou for your replies

[Plastic Nev]

OK Yegum, we will leave it at that for now, I do remember you saying you thought the RAM module may not have been inserted properly when it first burnt, you never know that in itself may have been the cause. However do have a good New Year and all the best from FPCH.

Nev.