JP Vossen on 1 Oct 2008 13:04:14 -0700


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[PLUG] Dead PC


I have a neighbor's Gateway 503GR Desktop Computer, circa Sep 2004 that 
failed to power up after an accidental shutdown.  It was on a UPS and 
was rarely if ever shut down.

The power button is one of the newer ATX momentary contact types, but 
even if I hold it down I get nothing.  No fans, no beeps, no nothing.  I 
do have a green LED right next to the power connector and I've tried a 
spare power supply which didn't help.

The SATA hard drive is fine and we've copied the "My Docs" to a laptop 
via removing the hard drive and using my USB cage.  No problem there.

* As noted another power supply didn't help
* I unplugged everything and replugged it = nope
* I took out the CMOS battery and let it alone for an hour = nope
* I tried removing the CPU to see if I get any beeps = nope
* I tried removing the RAM to see if I get any beeps = nope
* I tried removing the CPU and RAM  to see if I get any beeps = nope
* AFAICT, the capacitors are all OK

I blew all the dust out, and as noted tried to re-seat everything.  The 
dust wasn't too bad, BUT--the unit was kept in a small, closed desk 
cabinet, so overheating may have been an issue.

At this point, I suspect plain old motherboard or maybe CPU failure. 
I've found MB replacements for $80-150 on the Net, and given all the 
fancy extras (CD and DVD, memory card slots, etc.) the machine has it's 
probably worth it.


Anything I missed or any comments?

Thanks,
JP
----------------------------|:::======|-------------------------------
JP Vossen, CISSP            |:::======|        jp{at}jpsdomain{dot}org
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