i know my motherboard or cpu is dead, but which one?

[amgkid]

this is an amd duron with stock hsf on a msi kt7 pro-a. i can't get it to post. is there anything visible that should let me know? i can't really see anything different but then again, i don't know what to look for. thanks

 

[CraigRT]

to answer your first question... it's likely the mainboard (if you don't know what happened)

if the CPU overheated or something it could have taken out both pieces or most likely just the CPU... so not sure what to say. try swapping memory, try different slots.... try removing any peripheral cards not needed for the computer to post... etc...

hope that helps.... good luck to you.

 

[amgkid]

thanks craig,
i've swapped out every part of the computer and i've narrowed it down to the cpu or mainboard. i have another duron handy but i'm afraid to take the cpu and hsf out. the clip is on really tight and i think i might break my other duron in the process. would a cpu overheat from normal use? the cpu fan powers up fine when i turn it on. this computer has been running well for the last 2 years and has just recently crapped out. it just froze one day and never started up again.

 

[KennyH]

does the motherboard speaker emit any beeps? also, did that version have the MSI D-LEDS on it? If so, check those out and report back.

 

[amgkid]

yeah it has the d-leds on it. the pattern on the leds is red/green/red/green which is supposed to mean it's going through the base and extended memory test. i'm assuming this is the cache on the cpu? or is it the RAM? i have swapped RAM with a good chip and i still get this error.

edit: and no beeps on startup

 

[zephyrprime]

It's the ram. Test you duron on your other MB. Take a little care in removing the clip and you should be ok. It's probably you MB just going by odds alone.

 

[gordy33]

I'm having the same problem, from what I've heard the odds are that its the mobo. I don't have another CPU to try out though, so I'll have to hope its the mobo and buy a new one.

 

[Lanyap]

If you see your drive LED's come on during the attempted boot up then it's not your CPU since the BIOS is doing a drive check and you have to have a working CPU for the BIOS to execute.

 

[wyvrn]

I had the same problem, see this thread. In my case it was a bad processor.

 

[gordy33]

Just took mine in to have it looked at, turned out it was the motherboard as I thought.