Bang and the PC just wouldn't start.

Terry

Let me preface this by saying that I'm far from an expert in this field and generally just prick around with old computers and take parts from them to upgrade the piece of crap I built myself.

Anyway, the other day I needed to oil the fan in my PC (the power on, not the processor one).
So I decided to give the motherboard a bit of a dusting.

I took all the leads out and thought I had put them back in the right place.
Turns out I didn't.

All went to the right place except for the few at the front. The ones for the on switch and the lights at the front and such.

So I took it all apart again, found the bit on the mother board which shows where all the leads go and put them back in the right places.

I went to turn it on, but it just wouldn't work.

Did I screw it up completely beyond repair, or is there hope yet?

It's not the greatest in the world (900 mhz processor), but it's better than the piece of shít I'm using at the moment (500mhz processor and it won't take more than 128mb RAM).

Edit: I don't know the nam of the leads at the front, but they are for the on/off button, the reset button and the lights and stuff. Small little ones.

awhir

ur just probly puttin them in wronly



not sure if all mobos are layed out the same ,

Terry

Definitely put them in the right way.

The connectors are marked and I followed the instructions on the motherboard itself.

Could I have blown the main power unit the first time by putting them in incorrectly?

RoyalMarine

it shouldnt cause a problem putting them in the wrong place.

id say strip it all apart again, dont tighten any screw's too much and put it back together piece by piece.

Gadgetman496

What do you mean by "Bang!"? Did you actually hear a bang?

Where did you put the oil? on the case fan or the PSU?

Is your PSU firing up?


-

PogMoThoin

Plug in a fan to a four pin molex & jump the power supply with a paperclip to see if its working. Guide here.

mathias

Anyway, the other day I needed to oil the fan in my PC (the power on, not the processor one).

Having put together countless PC's , fixed countless more , and spend a good part of my working life dealing with PC issues , I can honestly say that I have never heard of anyone having to oil any pc part !!

What fan were you oiling and why , and where did you get the information that a pc fan part needed to be oiled !!

For the record , most pc fans are sleeve bearing fans and should never have to be oiled, if the fan becomes noisier or loses what lubrication it had during manufacture then the seals on the shaft have gone and any oil you put in will be gone in no time , the fan needs to be replaced , not oiled ,better still to replace the whole power supply , the wrong oil or too much of the right one can cause havoc in a power supply , and fans and PSU's are so cheap as to make oiling them a very false economy.

stevejazzx

what's funny is the 3 posters before you matthias, seemed to think it wasn't worth mentioning...terry it's a pc...not a motorbike...oiling a case fan...very odd

re: the power issue

*mkae SURE the power cables are in properly
*try reseating ram and or cpu
*reset cmos

Terry

mathias wrote: »

Having put together countless PC's , fixed countless more , and spend a good part of my working life dealing with PC issues , I can honestly say that I have never heard of anyone having to oil any pc part !!

What fan were you oiling and why , and where did you get the information that a pc fan part needed to be oiled !!

For the record , most pc fans are sleeve bearing fans and should never have to be oiled, if the fan becomes noisier or loses what lubribation it had during manufacture then the seals on the shaft have gone and any oil you put in will be gone in no time , the fan needs to be replaced , not oiled ,better still to replace the whole power supply , the wrong oil or too much of the right one can cause havoc in a power supply , and fans and PSU's are so cheap as to make oiling them a very false economy.

Wow. Such anger.
How about I'm poor and can't afford a new PSU.

Anyway, here's where I got the info about oiling the fan:

Ruu wrote: »

Good article here for fan maintenance. It suggests not using WD40.

Now, I'm quite willing to take Ruu's word on it because he works at this type of thing.
Also, the PSU shown in the first pic in the link is the exact same one as mine.
That was a year ago and it worked fine afterwards.
I'm actually looking at the oil right now. A friend dropped it back earlier.
This procedure has worked for many of my friends after I showed them the link and lent the oil to them. No complaints yet.

stevejazzx wrote: »

what's funny is the 3 posters before you matthias, seemed to think it wasn't worth mentioning...terry it's a pc...not a motorbike...oiling a case fan...very odd

re: the power issue

*mkae SURE the power cables are in properly
*try reseating ram and or cpu
*reset cmos

Power cables are in properly.
I'll didn't go near the CPU, but I'll try the RAM thing.
It won't start at all, so the CMOS thing is moot.
Thanks.

gadgetman496 wrote: »

What do you mean by "Bang!"? Did you actually hear a bang?

Where did you put the oil? on the case fan or the PSU?

Is your PSU firing up?


-

See link above regarding where I put the oil.
I'm not a complete idiot.

As for the thread title, see the sitewide annoncement for my inspration.

PogMoThoin wrote: »

Plug in a fan to a four pin molex & jump the power supply with a paperclip to see if its working. Guide here.

Thanks, I'll give that a try.

RoyalMarineComm wrote: »

it shouldnt cause a problem putting them in the wrong place.

id say strip it all apart again, dont tighten any screw's too much and put it back together piece by piece.

I'll try that too.
Thanks for all the help. I'll be back for more if it still doesn't work.

mathias

Wow. Such anger.

Not anger , astonishment , that anyone couldnt afford a fiver for a new fan is all !
http://www.komplett.ie/k/kl.aspx?bn=10464

Trying to extend the life of a part that costs so little seems really silly to me.Surely a new one is better than dousing your PC in 3 in 1 , seeing as you have to take out the fan anyway!

Kintarō Hattori

Sorry for not contributing anything worthwhile Terry but this thread is fantastic!

Terry wrote: »

See link above regarding where I put the oil.
I'm not a complete idiot.

Terry

mathias wrote: »

Not anger , astonishment , that anyone couldnt afford a fiver for a new fan is all !
http://www.komplett.ie/k/kl.aspx?bn=10464

Trying to extend the life of a part that costs so little seems really silly to me.Surely a new one is better than dousing your PC in 3 in 1 , seeing as you have to take out the fan anyway!

Cool (no pun intended), I'll buy one of them right away.
Oh, wait. I don't have a credit card. I'm a pov, you see. This is why I'm trying to fix things instead of throwing them away and buying replacements.
I apologise if my financial state astonishes you, but the reality is, there are people in this world who cannot afford to throw these things away and would rather try to fix them.

Now if you will excuse me, I have to go and wash my hands. They seem to be covered in oil after I doused the entire PC in oil.

I would rather you not reply to my thread again, unless you have something useful to add. You see, I have subscribed to this thread and recieve e-mails every time someone replies. I would rather not waste my time reading your responses.
Thanks.

Anti

:rolleyes:

L31mr0d

w00t!!!... hey Terry, i'm a notification in your inbox stealing ur megabites


on a serious note, what on earth is a POV? I thought that stood for "Point of View"

also as riotously hilarious as the title is, its very misleading when you are actually looking for help with your PC. There is a big difference when a pc makes a bang and when it simply doesn't start.

If you could elaborate on "it doesn't work" it would be helpful. Do any fans spin up, is there any post noises, does the screen come on or flicker, if there's any LEDs on the motherboard are they lit up when the power is connected?

bubonicus

To fix your PC, you need to do this:D

Terry

L31mr0d wrote: »

w00t!!!... hey Terry, i'm a notification in your inbox stealing ur megabites


on a serious note, what on earth is a POV? I thought that stood for "Point of View"

also as riotously hilarious as the title is, its very misleading when you are actually looking for help with your PC. There is a big difference when a pc makes a bang and when it simply doesn't start.

If you could elaborate on "it doesn't work" it would be helpful. Do any fans spin up, is there any post noises, does the screen come on or flicker, if there's any LEDs on the motherboard are they lit up when the power is connected?

Absolutely nothing happens. No lights, no flickers, nothing at all.
It's as if it's not plugged in.


bubonicus, tried that, it didn't work.


(Pov: Poverty stricken individual)

L31mr0d

unplug all the headers (leads) except for the power on header then try again. What is the model number of your motherboard

nesf

mathias wrote: »

Not anger , astonishment , that anyone couldnt afford a fiver for a new fan is all !
http://www.komplett.ie/k/kl.aspx?bn=10464

Trying to extend the life of a part that costs so little seems really silly to me.Surely a new one is better than dousing your PC in 3 in 1 , seeing as you have to take out the fan anyway!

It's a simple enough repair so it does make some sense. Buying a new fan every time one needs a bit of grease or oil is really wasteful. It's not extending the life as it is doing routine maintenance.


Terry, have you tried unplugging all of it and just trying to boot up the barebones (ie no harddrives connected etc)?

Terry

L31mr0d wrote: »

unplug all the headers (leads) except for the power on header then try again. What is the model number of your motherboard

Tried it. No joy.
The model number is VT8231, however google shows this as a laptop motherboard and the viatech website seems to be down.

nesf wrote: »

Terry, have you tried unplugging all of it and just trying to boot up the barebones (ie no harddrives connected etc)?

Yep. I've tried everything suggested here.

I connected a different PSU from another computer I had lying around and that won't start it up either.
The other PSU was definitely working too.

Gadgetman496

Remove and reseat the processor.


-

Terry

Will that work?

I'll ****ing try anything at this stage.

Kimbot

Terry, have you checked the fuse in the molex plug you are using?? That might have went so try another plug.
If its not the plug then try you PSU in another PC, if that works and you are getting no joy I suggest taking a look at all the pins on the power blok of the motherboard and see if any look charred.

Terry

First thing I checked was the fuse.
I usd the same lead as I'm using on this PC right now.

Had a look at the pins and none are charred.

As already stated, I replaced the PSU with one that I know is working.

Anti

Right this is a last attempt.

Rip everything out of the pc, and build it on a table. Or maybe a milk crate as your a bit pov atm

I have a feeling while cleanign out the pc some dust has gathered somewhere behind the motherboard. Its worth a shot anyway.

Terry

I'm fairly sure I got all the dust when I was cleaning it the last time, but I'll give it another go. Just not now. My neighbour gave me a 12 pack because I dropped him over a network cable. Everybody needs good neighbours, especially if you're a pov.

Terry

Oh yeah, if I take the processor out, I'll need some conductive gel or something after I put it back, yes?

Anti

Aye you will. Thermal paste its called. If you want to be real cheap scrape it off the cpu, and the bottom of the heatsink and try and reuse it, Not reccomended though. If your in dublin i can load ya some, or throw some in the post to ya.

Terry

It's ok. A friend is heading out to maplin later in the week, so I'll just get him to pick some up for me.
I appreciate the offer though.

L31mr0d

when you where cleaning out the pc did you reseat the CPU? I'm guessing you didn't otherwise asking about what gel to use would of been moot. So you should have to reseat.

I'm sorry to say it but this sounds awfully like a pebcak issue. You've not plugged in something or plugged the cables in wrong.

On the motherboard there should be 2 power connectors coming from the PSU connecting to it, check this. One should have 4 pins the other should 20

For the leads, leave ALL of them disconnected. Plug them all out. What you are going to do is get a flathead screwdriver and short the 2 pins for the power switch lead. This will remove the variable of the actual power button being broken.

Terry

L31mr0d, I think you may be right.

I will piss myself laughing at my own stupidity if you are.

I have the PC sitting beside me right now.
I've taken everything apart. Cleaned the fan, which was very dusty and put it all back together. I'm looking at a power cable labelled P2. It's a 4 pin one and I can't remember where it goes.

PogMoThoin

RTFM

On the mobo somewhere

Terry

Well I know that. I just can't see where.
There are plenty of open pins, but this is a square 4 pin thingy and doesn't seem to fit anywhere.

I'm currently looking through the Via forums to see if I can find a picture of the motherboard. All the site is giving me is this new mini one with the same model number.

KamiKazi

if you post up some pictures of the parts your having trouble with we might be able to help more terry

Kintarō Hattori

Terry wrote: »

I will piss myself laughing at my own stupidity if you are.

Can we laugh at you too? Please???

Gadgetman496

Is there a socket for the 4 pin connector anywhere near the graphics card slot?

-

Terry

KamiKazi wrote: »

if you post up some pictures of the parts your having trouble with we might be able to help more terry

GIS brought up nothing, so I'll sort out pics tomorrow.

eo980 wrote: »

Can we laugh at you too? Please???

Yes, although that square four pin thing I mentioned earlier wasn't on the original PSU, so I don't think it has anything to do with the current (no pun intended) problem.

Terry

gadgetman496 wrote: »

Is there a socket for the 4 pin connector anywhere near the graphics card slot?

-

Not that I can see.
This is a 7 year old PC here, so it only has the basics and a couple of things I added myself.

PogMoThoin

There are 2 connections from the psu 24 pin and 4 pin. The 4 pin will most probably be located somewhere near the processor as it supplies power to it. Have a good look at the mobo.

What mobo is it? Google for a manual

Newer mobo's that support dual & quad cores have 2 4pin connectors which are joined together to make an 8 pin connector. I remember there was a bit of confusion bout 2 yrs ago when some peeps had power supplies with only one 4 pin connector.

Terry

PogMoThoin wrote: »

There are 2 connections from the psu 24 pin and 4 pin. The 4 pin will most probably be located somewhere near the processor as it supplies power to it. Have a good look at the mobo.

What mobo is it? Google for a manual

Newer mobo's that support dual & quad cores have 2 4pin connectors which are joined together to make an 8 pin connector. I remember there was a bit of confusion bout 2 yrs ago when some peeps had power supplies with only one 4 pin connector.

There is no 4 pin located near the processor.
There is a row of 14, a gap and then a row of 4 all along the same line.

I've googled for a manual under vt8231, but can't find the proper one. I've also googled for images, but can't find one.

Anti

That your board ?

Terry

Similar, but no.
Mine has three of those white port thingies. The little round tower thingies are on the top of the processor, as you look at it in that pic.
Actually. Here's a pic.

Kimbot

Terry wrote: »

There is no 4 pin located near the processor.
There is a row of 14, a gap and then a row of 4 all along the same line.

I've googled for a manual under vt8231, but can't find the proper one. I've also googled for images, but can't find one.

Terry "vt8231" what type of motherboard is that?? That only seems to be the chipset rather than the board itself.

Terry

jonny24ie wrote: »

Terry "vt8231" what type of motherboard is that?? That only seems to be the chipset rather than the board itself.

I've no idea. I don't know where to find that out and the manual is long gone.

Anti

Terry. Have a close look at the board. It should give a manufacturer and a model number on it somewhere.

For example: