Jump to content

how do you know when your motherboard has failed?


Recommended Posts

Hi,

 

I'm having some problems with my pc, everything was normal until recently. Then it decided not to boot anymore. It does POST fine, but then when it should show the Windows flag and the progress bar, it hangs on a black screen.

 

I tried...

Swapping a different graphic card in. > same symptoms

Used the windows xp sp2 cd recovery console to do fixboot and fixmbr > same symptoms

Cleared cmos (using the jumper) > same symptoms

On the motherboard near the CPU, you need to plug in a standard 12V 4-pin power connector and a smaller floppy power connector, i swapped those onto a different rail on my PSU > same symptoms

Stripped down my computer to only PSU, MOBO, CPU, RAM, VGA card > same symptoms

Tested my ram with memtest86+ > no errors

 

There are no expansion cards in my computer.

 

Im thinking it could either be the PSU or the motherboard... I dont have a spare PSU to swap in, how can i tell if my motherboard has gone?

 

PS: I tried booting a linux livecd and everything seemed to work fine until I do "startx", then it just gives me a fatal error--without any extra info (I tried both "ati" and "vesa" drivers)

 

ANY help is appreciated... thx guys!

Share this post


Link to post
Share on other sites

Well, I am glad you asked Sharp, I tried again and...

-BackTrack 2.0 using the "vesa" driver and KDE did work at 1024*768 without any configuration.

-BackTrack 2.0 with a non-default xorg.conf file (I changed the driver from "vesa" to "radeon" and added an operating mode "1280x1024" under both 32 and 24 bit depth), then X started to load in 1280x1024 (i saw the X shaped mouse cursor in the middle of the screen), but then it reverted to "1024x768" and loaded KDE in that resolution, donno why:p, but once in KDE, I changed the resolution back to 1280x1024 with no problem using the built-in "Resice and Rotate 0.5" utility. Then I tried playing a movie in "Mplayer" and that worked fine too... fluxbox worked too at both resolutions btw.

I tried the "ati" driver as well but that did NOT work. Can post /var/log/Xorg.0.log if necessary.

The "vesa" driver did NOT work either...

-GRML64 0.2 works at 1280*1024 using the "radeon" driver (both the fluxbox and openbox window managers work).

-Kubuntu 6.06.1 freezes after the blue Kubutu boot splash screen (the second one, can explain if necessary...).

-Kubuntu 6.06.1 boots in safe mode into 1024*768 using the "vesa" driver and KDE (Could prolly have gotten it to work at 1280*1024 by editing xorg.conf but I didnt try).

-Ubuntu 6.06.1 freezes at the point with a flashing _ (underscore) in the top left corner.

 

Maybe I shud post the boot log from Ubuntu (or any distro that does cause the sys to fail), but im not quite sure how :P

Share this post


Link to post
Share on other sites

Join the conversation

You can post now and register later. If you have an account, sign in now to post with your account.

Guest
Reply to this topic...

×   Pasted as rich text.   Paste as plain text instead

  Only 75 emoji are allowed.

×   Your link has been automatically embedded.   Display as a link instead

×   Your previous content has been restored.   Clear editor

×   You cannot paste images directly. Upload or insert images from URL.

×
×
  • Create New...