Diagnostics Test: CPU or Motherboard?

[ghounds07]

Well I tried turning on my computer the other day and nothing appears on the monitor, no signal is getting out.

I've tested memory, video card, monitors, dvi/vga, etc. and those are all working correctly.

I have narrowed it down to either my CPU or Motherboard (unless my HDD fried, but I don't know how to test that).

So any help on how to diagnose this problem so I can buy a new mobo/cpu combo please let me know, as I would rather diagnose it myself and not pay the local computer store $45!

Thank you!!

 

[wanderer27]

Do your fans work?

Can you hear your HD spin, or does you LED for the HD light?

If you have a LAN built into your MB, I'd check to see if the light on it flickers.

I had the same thing happen several months back, and it turned out to be the MB.

 

[Fern]

I'd pull the mobo out of the case, put it on a phonebook.

Leave in CPU+HSF, ram (one stick), gfx card. Hook up the PSU, KB, mouse & monitor. (No drives or other cards etc). I don't usually bother to hook up a PWR switch buttion. I just short the pins on th emobo using a paperclip.

See if it will boot to the BIOS screen. If not clear the CMOS, and retry.

If it's a no-go I'd say it's most likely the mobo (unless you've been OCing the CPU with extra juice).

When something like this happens and I don't have an extra cpu/mobo to test with, I'll just go ahead and replace th emobo.

I've never had a working CPU go bad.

EDIT: I always test the PSU, I swap in a spare that's known to be working. You'll should do that.

Fern

 

[ghounds07]

thanks for the tips everyone, thankfully I have a spare PSU so I will test that, I will also see if the HDD is working (didn't pay any attention to it). If nothing happens I'll buy a new mobo then.

 

[amdskip]

What power supply are you using?

 

[ghounds07]

I edited my post, I have a spare PSU, I am using a 450W Rosewill PSU from newegg and have a spare 350W that came with my case that works fine as well, which I will test tomorrow.