Dead PC - faulty motherboard?

[ehasler]

My PC died yesterday, and it looks like the motherboard, however I just wanted to run the symptoms past the experts here before I order a new one.

It had been running for most of the day, but suddenly switched itself off while I was working on it. Pressing the power switch then resulted in the fans kicking in for a few seconds before it switched itself off again, however after a lot of tries, the system eventually booted up into Windows for about 30 seconds before dying again.

I've tried a replacement PSU, and have unplugged everything except 1 CPU (it's a dual Xeon box), however it hasn't made any difference. I've also swapped the CPUs over in case one of them was faulty, to no avail.

I'd prefer not to have to buy any parts for it, as I'm looking to replace it soon anyway, however I've got a whole day's worth of work on the disks which are in a RAID 0 array (last backup was 1st thing that morning), so I need to get it fired up to copy the data off...

Any other suggestions?

[Trooper2]

I just had mine replaced under extended warranty and it was acting similarly, but mine took 3 weeks to die it's slow death, the other thing I'm thinking you might check would be the RAM if one one goes bad the other RAM chips won't work either. If you have more than one chip try taking them out one at a time and see if it cures the problem.

[randlemarcus]

Agreed. Dead motherboard is almost always signalled by the complete lack of anything.

Suggestion to get the data off would be to take out and reseat the RAM, and if that fails, reduce the chips by one/pair until you find the culprit. Good luck

[ehasler]

I've tried removing each stick of RAM, then replacing it, but it doesn't make any difference...

[pdV6]

Does it give you any beep codes?
Does it behave the same way even when having been left to cool overnight?

[ehasler]

No beeps, but the lights flash on the m/board and the fans fire up before it dies again, and it behaves exactly the same when left to cool overnight. It wasn't even that hot insided when I checked it after it died, so I'm pretty confident that it hasn't overheated.

[pdV6]

ehasler said:

I've tried removing each stick of RAM, then replacing it, but it doesn't make any difference...

Try removing all the RAM and seeing if you get a beep code (should be one for missing memory). If you don't even get that far, sounds like the m/b is lunched.

[bumcrack]

Are you sure your CPU and fan are correctly installed; if M/B detects the high temp in the CPU it will turn straight off. I had the same problem and that's all it was

[Muncher]

Try it out of the case to check it isn't shorting out on anything.

[LongQ]

Basic stuff checked?

Are all power supply cables and connectors seated an working correctly? Especially anything that powers the disk up. Will it boot and run from floppy/CD? Plug loose in the wall socket? (An off the wall thought! )

Is it on a power surge protection system or UPS?

Just some thought of stuff that might or might not be relevant.

>> Edited by LongQ on Monday 7th November 20:06

[Zod]

If it is the motherboard, you will need another one with the same RAID controller to get the data (unless it is a software RAID, in which case, you may be able to recover it using Disk Management in Windows.

[ehasler]

Update - it was the motherboard. I ended up buying a replacement as I didn't have time to wait to send it back to be repaired/replaced, and it fired up perfectly

[Munter]

ehasler said:

Update - it was the motherboard. I ended up buying a replacement as I didn't have time to wait to send it back to be repaired/replaced, and it fired up perfectly

Now send the old one back (still under warrenty right..). And if they wont give you your cash back get a replacement and flog it on E-Bay.

[ehasler]

Munter said:

ehasler said: Update - it was the motherboard. I ended up buying a replacement as I didn't have time to wait to send it back to be repaired/replaced, and it fired up perfectly Now send the old one back (still under warrenty right..). And if they wont give you your cash back get a replacement and flog it on E-Bay.

That's the plan - in fact, the whole lot is going on ebay as my new PC has just turned up

Typical - it broke just 1 week before I was going to replace it... It was obviously upset at me using it to browse for a sleeker, younger model