Motherboard?

[68falcon]

My dad brought home a computer that belongs to a man he works with. It is a gateway GT series, i can't recall the exact specs but it's got an AMD 64, 200GB HD, 1 (maybe 2) gigs of RAM, 300W PSU.

The problem was that it wouldn't always come on, or sometimes it would turn off (after it hadn't been used for a while) and not come back on. He originally had another guy look at it and that guy replaced the motherboard, but the problem persisted.

When I got it, I hooked it up, fired it up and it ran POST fine, came up and said Checksum error, press f1 to continue, i did that and it started up fine. I restarted and shut it down a few times and it worked, but one time I did it it didn't make it to POST, the fans spun up, HD light worked but the power LED didn't come on. for a while I could fix it by switching off the surge protector (after shutting it down with the button), and when I turned the surge protector back on it would start up fine (without even pressing the power button on the computer).

Now I'm at a point where it won't come on at all, I didn't do anything to it, it just wouldn't come back on the next time i tried it. All it does is spin up the fans (no power LED), DVD drive light blinks, no beeps, no BIOS/manufacture logo, monitor just blinks red.

When I had it working I turned off hibernation, and defraged, but other than that I didn't do anything in windows. The checksum error led me to believe the cmos battery was bad so I took it out, checked it with the voltmeter and it read 3.01V, reset the cmos, reset all the BIOS setting(when I could get that far) and no fix. I also put in a known good PSU, and took all the components out except for the processor and PSU, still wouldn't start.

I'm supposed to be getting the original MB tomorrow (at least he thinks its the original, may be the new one since he didn't get it fixed).

I also tested the power switch and it seems fine. My question is do you think it could be anything other than the MB, and if not, will a computer make it to POST without a CPU, just the MB and PSU?

Thanks

 

[Billzie7718]

The system will not POST without a CPU. I would say check to make sure the heatsink is making good contact on the CPU (it was probably removed when the MOBO was replaced and it could be a heat related issue). Make sure the MOBO speaker is active or if it has connectors, make sure they are in the right spot. It could be that you're receiving BIOS beep codes but just don't hear them because the speaker is not functional. With the just the CPU installed, you should definitely hear beep codes for no memory present.

 

[68falcon]

Thanks, I'll try all those things, one of my first thoughts was a heat issue, and when I could get it to boot up I opened up the BIOS's temp and voltage monitor, and let it sit for about 15 min, it never got above 47 C, but then again it wasn't under any load, but while in windows I did some defraging and that took about 45 min, it never seemed to have a problem. I don't have any thermal compound to replace the heatsink with is why I wanted to try it without the CPU first. I'll also check the speaker.