MB died...should I risk it?

[Harpo]

Well it finally happened. I built my own PC using the info contained on this board a few years ago. It worked wonderfully all this time. But the MB/Processor just died on me.

This was originally the $500 machine...so we're not talking about a lot of money.

Since I'm not computer savy, it took me about a month to get everything running the first time. So understandably, I'm a little nervous now. It's been so long that I frankly don't remember everything I did. I have backed everything up using DriveClone at least.

I saw a few MB/Proc combinations being sold at a local PC store which is going out of business.

One was a Sempron 2800 chipset SiS760GX, another was Intel P4 524 chipset Intel 8656 & ICH5.

They also have some AMD 64's (3000, 3200, and 3500)

I tried to find out if any of these work with PT but came up empty. Will I be able to use any of these?

And...will I have to wipe my hard drives clean and start over or will they work as is with a new MB/Proc?

[Harpo]

This must be a tough one...

I'm trying to decide if I should just buy one of those MB/Proc combos and see what happens. I'm not sure I like my odds though.

[albee1952]

Why not search for the same mobo? That way, you can just install it and you're done. Any other mobo is going to require a reformat(probably). You could try booting your new system with the XP install disk in the drive, run the install and select REPAIR when it comes up. SKip the Sempron as it is not up to the task.

[sunburst79]

No SIS chipsets! They simply do not work.

My advice would be build the new 500.00 dollar machine

Or take it to a computer shop and let them determine wether its a Processor or or the MOBO. Have you checked the power supply? You might post whats actually happening when you hit the power button and maybe we can help determine the problem.

[Harpo]

Thanks guys.

Nothing actually happens when I hit the start button. Fans start spinning, the hard drives are apparently working too....but nothing comes up at all on the screen. I actually had a couple of different shops look at it. One said it was the hard drive, the other said it was the MB/Proc. The 2nd guy seemed to know more about what he was talking about. Neither one could even get anthing to happen even in safe mode.

[sunburst79]

Fans spin up so the PSU is probably OK. do you get any beeps ot all? what happens if you disconnect everything but the hard drive, keyboard and monitor? does the monitor appear to be working at all? Try booting it with the memory pulled and see if it beeps. Do you get ahHard drive activity light as it powers up? Lets try a few things before we call the priest...

[Harpo]

Now you've got me thinking.

I use the monitor with another PC as well and it's fine. Plus I tried a different monitor on it just to check.

I don't have much of anything hooked up to it. It's pretty much just monitor, keyboard, and mouse on a normal basis. The M-Box does light up.

I'll try the memory thing when I get home and listen close for any beeps. I can tell you that the HD light flashes when you first turn it on and then stops completely after a few seconds and stays lit. At that point, it seems all activity ceases. (Fans still run.) At no point does anything appear on the monitor.

I was eyeing that MB and processor listed on the "$600" desktop and wondering if I could just stick them in my current box. I'll have to look at my powersupply and see what it is. How important is it to have 500 watts or so?

[superpenguin79]

Harpo: had a similar situation on a machine I built and it was unfortunately the mobo as well... so... I already had another machine in place, so I just installed PT to the new one. Biggest concern was my previous data which I back up to an external drive, but had failed to do so for about a month or 2 before the crash... so to recover data, thankfully the HD was still in tact and I pulled it, purchased an external drive case from compusa, and plugged it in via USB on my other machine. I was able to map the drive, but the Documents and Settings portion of the drive was shot for some reason or "password protected"... so I booted into Linux from a live distro cd and used unc paths to get to the root where my old data was loaded, copied over to my existing windows drive for my good machine, and was able to recover successfully.

so all in all no matter what machine you go with, don't scrap your hard drive unless you're unable to map and pull data from it otherwise. Valuable info can be saved pretty easily and with drives being very cheap now days I'd copy everything off of the drive on your crashed machine if possible to the new drive if you're missing anything, then format the old drive and it could probably become a good secondary internal drive, or external drive if you need one.

[sunburst79]

Harpo: had a similar situation on a machine I built and it was unfortunately the mobo as well... so... I already had another machine in place, so I just installed PT to the new one. Biggest concern was my previous data which I back up to an external drive, but had failed to do so for about a month or 2 before the crash... so to recover data, thankfully the HD was still in tact and I pulled it, purchased an external drive case from compusa, and plugged it in via USB on my other machine. I was able to map the drive, but the Documents and Settings portion of the drive was shot for some reason or "password protected"... so I booted into Linux from a live distro cd and used unc paths to get to the root where my old data was loaded, copied over to my existing windows drive for my good machine, and was able to recover successfully.

so all in all no matter what machine you go with, don't scrap your hard drive unless you're unable to map and pull data from it otherwise. Valuable info can be saved pretty easily and with drives being very cheap now days I'd copy everything off of the drive on your crashed machine if possible to the new drive if you're missing anything, then format the old drive and it could probably become a good secondary internal drive, or external drive if you need one.

SuperPenquin79 is correct save the old drive, Compusa has USB drive cases they sell for 29.00 bucks and they are great to stuff older hard drives into.

It's also handy to keep a old PCI based video card around for trouble shooting stuff. Any card with a VGA port will do-mines from a 175 MHz IBM 330. I assume any old school computer repair shop has a box of these under the bench and would sell you 1 for 5 bucks.

its kind of sounding like possibly A) video card B) processor. C) bad memory in no no particular

A bad stick of memory will shut the machine down and keep it from posting to you might pull those one at a time and try rebooting,

The last Mobo I had went completely dead. to fans no lights no nuthin. The one before that had a AGP slot go bad.

The fact that you have case fans and the IDE light is showing some activity leads me to think that your Mobo might be OK

Try the memory next.

[Harpo]

First of all, thanks for the help everyone. Once again this forum proves it is the very best.

Well I have some positive results from all this.

I tried booting it up with just keyboard, mouse, and monitor attached and got the same thing. No one steady light, fans, no beeps.

Then...I tried booting it with the memory stick pulled out. Got a repeating series long beeps that continued until I shut it back down. I reinstalled the memory and tried again.

It booted up normally. All the right beeps.

I then reattached the M-Box after a shut down and rebooted again with fingers crossed. Again, normal boot-up. Pro Tools only asked me to reset the clock this time. Started PT with no problems and played a track I have recorded to test it. No problems.

I then attached my midi USB cable and tried another boot. No problems.

I then attached my midi keyboard and tried another boot. No problems.

I haven't tried to record anything yet...still nervous.

Am I looking at some bad memory here? (Oh if it is only that simple.)