[mdlug] Help diagnosing hardware problem

[Robert Adkins]

Gigagbyte products aren't exactly known for their longterm robustness, it's
within the realm of possibility that the motherboard is on the way out.

There are power supply tests available that allow you to plug the PS
connector into it, without being connected to the MB and it will check all
the voltages and let you know if it is operational or not.

The good thing is, everything is cheap as all hell these days, for
replacement computer parts.

You can pick up a PS, Motherboard, CPU and Ram for under $150 and actually
have quality components.

If you are looking to buy replacement parts, I would like to suggest
checking out Computer Direct on John R just south of 14 Mile, between
Wendy's and Firestone.

They recently had their grand opening and are working towards opening up 6
more locations in SE Michigan and then plan on expanding across the state.
The more stores they open up, the more Michigan workers they can put to
work.

-Rob

> -----Original Message-----
> From: mdlug-bounces at mdlug.org 
> [mailto:mdlug-bounces at mdlug.org] On Behalf Of Ingles, Raymond
> Sent: Wednesday, June 17, 2009 8:39 AM
> To: mdlug at mdlug.org
> Subject: [mdlug] Help diagnosing hardware problem
> 
> I think I've narrowed it down, but here's the symptoms:
> 
>  My father called me yesterday, reporting that his computer 
> (bought in May of 2005, running Ubuntu 9.04) would get to the 
> login screen, but once he signed on, the monitor would say 
> "no signal" and nothing further would happen.
> 
>  I went over last night, and checked things out. At that 
> point, it would boot through the BIOS and the boot loader, 
> but would no longer even get to the graphical login screen. 
> Once the monitor said "no signal", it was unresponsive to 
> keyboard input. I tried booting from a live DVD - again, no 
> graphics. I tried booting into a leftover Windows partition - 
> it also locked up, "no signal". Even memtest (from the hard 
> drive or the DVD) would give a blip of text, and then reboot. 
> I could get to a text root prompt via the live DVD, but no 
> obvious problems showed up in the logs.
> 
>  At that point I figured it was either the video card, the 
> power supply, or the motherboard. I returned with several 
> video cards, and replaced the existing AGP Nvidia 5700LE. A 
> PCI ATI Rage Pro card allowed booting and apparently normal 
> operation, though memtest still flaked out. An AGP Matrox 
> G400 prevented the system from even powering up - hitting the 
> power button did nothing. (Never saw that before.)
> 
>  At the moment, they are back to the PCI video card. At this 
> point I think it's probably the power supply. My dad will 
> pick up a 400-500 watt supply and we'll see if that allows 
> the system to work again. Does anyone have any thoughts or 
> suggestions?
> 
>  Basic system specs:
> 
> Gigabyte K8NSC-939 motherboard
> 939-pin OEM ATHLON 64 3000+CPU
>   - 1GB DDR RAM
>   - GeForce 5700LE 128MB
> 
>  Sincerely,
> 
>  Ray Ingles                                            (313) 227-2317
> 
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