NADA

I have a dead pc on my hands. No signs of life whatsoever. It is an emachines T2824 and the light around the power button is not even lit anymore. I tried replacing the PSU - no change. So my next step in the mobo but I wanted to check and see if there are any other possibilities. Now, one thing, please type slow and use big words. I have done stuff like replace HD, CD roms, etc - this was my first PSU replacement but I have never gone near the mobo except to install memory !

Hi, Sorry to hear of the problems with your pc.

Here's how we would tackle this in the workshop:
1 remove side case, carry out visual inspection,
check for dust build up,
Any LED's lit?
Fans spinning?
Sounds/vibrations from hard drive
Check voltage at wall receptacle
fuse/circuit breaker, if fitted,(mains)
check switch for voltage
ditto for PSU
check last point where voltage exists and start from there
replace mains wire check all switches

2 Remove any recently fitted hardware replace old video card if new one fitted, reseat RAM
check cables from PSU to mobo
check 20 or 24 pin connector (or 20 +4 pin connector, if fitted
check cable from power switch to mobo

3 Swop out PSU
if no joy then move to CPU, check for security, Thermal paste, good pin contact, heatsink undamaged and secured
swop out CPU for one that works (be prepared this could ruin it if mobo is kaput)

4 Check out motherboard, remove from case (avoid short circuits)
if no joy then its a new mobo and probably CPU or time to consider its future.!

NOTE Please be aware that whoever does this work must fully understand and apply all personal safety and antistatic (ESD) precautions. If that person is not fully aware of, or does not understand, or is not able to follow and adopt the correct procedures, then it is better by far to entrust the work to a local competent computer tecnician.
It is good to save money and to learn but not at the expense of personal safety or risk of damage to your computer your data or yourself
Regards
paws

Ok, possible household electrical problems aside (this is 2nd outlet I am trying), there is a green light on the mobo that lights up when the machine is plugged in and the PSU is in the on position. No movement of fan or HD noise or lights or anything. Machine has not been modded hardware wise and it has onboard video - just stopped working. New PSU had no effect, I ordered a mobo off ebay, but I want to be sure I don't have to check anything else before I install it. (attempt to) . You mentioned the case - could it be a short in the case that could then fry this mobo? I am under the inmpression that the PSU went south and took the mobo with it. this is a documented problem on the emachines forum. I am getting a new PC for my daughter anyway, but again, I want to learn something if I can learn it cheaply. Even learning how to use a multimeter. I would rather keep it as a project rather than pay somebody to fix it.

Hi, Yes Sometimes the mobo will be inaccurately fitted or become slightly misaligned…knocked by children ..hit by the Hoover etc. that's why we take 'em out of the case. It looks like power is now getting through to your mobo…what did you do to achieve this? …follow up on this line, it could be productive. Its easy to fry a mobo/Cpu by incorrect fitting and there are personal safety issues here, as spelled out in my previous post. Like for bomb disposal officers….training that relies on "trial & error" is not to be recommended! Don't forget that you should reinstall your operating system after the mobo replacement, so make sure your back up/archivecopy of everything important on your machine is 100% accurate, up to date and reproducible. You should consider pulling your hard drive from the machine and slaving it to another machine or wiring it (USB) so that you can get all your important stuff safely copied off to removable media as a first step. Good luck Regards paws

It looks like power is now getting through to your mobo…what did you do to achieve this? …follow up on this line, it could be productive.

I didn't do anything - just purchased a new PSU - the old PSU did the same thing - green light on mobo but nothing else, so there is really no change with the new PSU. Would this be typical if the mobo was taken out by the PSU?

You should consider pulling your hard drive from the machine and slaving it to another machine or wiring it (USB) so that you can get all your important stuff safely copied off to removable media as a first step.

Got an image and a clone of the drive

Hi I'm a great fan of taking an image, but in this situation with a new mobo, it is recommended that you do a fresh install of Windows from the Windows installation disc regards paws

Hi I'm a great fan of taking an image, but in this situation with a new mobo, it is recommended that you do a fresh install of Windows from the Windows installation disc
regards
paws

Understood - thats why I have the clone also, to copy file from it if the first drive has a problem.

OK, Just as an update - Installed the mobo (found the same model on ebay) and powered the baby up with the existing hard drive. All I had to do was install the chipset driver - I guess some of the chips on this mobo were different than the old one - and I was back in business, so is was the motherboard which was taken out by the power supply. I noticed a brown substance on the top of a couple of the transistors/capacitors (whatever they are). Does this mean they were leaking?

Well done, that is good news Yes, if you have an exudate, especially brown exudate coming from a capacitor it means it has failed or is about to! The exudate can also damage the mobo itself…. its drips down the sides of the capacitors and contaminates anything in it's way. If you look carefully at the top of a standard capacitor the top should be perfectly flat…… if its starting to bulge upwards ie becoming convex then its failed or about to Some workshops offer the service of undoldering the dud capacitors and soldering in exact replacements……but it's tedious work, and difficult sometimes to find the correct value capacitors and very easy do do damage to other components on the motherboard. In my view it's now uneconomic to do this sort of work…….(difficult for us to charge enough to make a profit but less than the cost of a new mobo! ) I reckon it was a smart move on your part just to replace it in total. Regards paws

I do have anouther question - the cpu fan seems quite a bit louder than it was before the transplant. Could I have fouled up with the amount of thermal paste I used? Could the fan be running harder based on temp or do they just run at a single speed?