Sysdll Posted November 20, 2008 Share Posted November 20, 2008 I’ve just hit a streak of 3 computers that have the same symptoms. No video, no beeps, but the fans powered by the motherboard and the fan on the video card powered only by the agp slot all spin. So there is power going through the boards.I know it's motherboard problems because I’ve swapped out every part including the case to no avail. I’ve seen ads on Ebay for bios replacement chips and I was wondering if this might work because the boards can’t be completely dead or the fans wouldn’t spin.If anyone has any experience in this area I’d appreciate hearing about it.Thanks in advance. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
CoffeeFiend Posted November 20, 2008 Share Posted November 20, 2008 Could be a lot of things still. A lot of such old boards (from the AGP era) are known to have bad caps. Could be a bad/weak PSU (quite likely, especially in such old boxes). I've never, ever seen a BIOS chip go bad like that on its own (neither in another "non-PC" device). The odds of you having 3 bad boards, with 3 faulty BIOS chips is less than one in a million. Unless you happen to know they've been flashed by some mentally challenged person, who felt like unplugging the power half-way through the process.If I had to bet, I'd pick the PSUs. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Nerwin Posted November 20, 2008 Share Posted November 20, 2008 Nah I hardly doubt its anything to do with the bios, Bios is only a Basic Input/Output System. The only two reasons I can think is the CPU or the PSU. I have had motherboards that I knew were completely shot and the fans ran fine, but no post. Anyways, It also could be the Ram, seating issues can cause this or bad memory module. Or maybe the mobo is really shot.But it sounds like you tried every thing, checked cables, tried other parts, unplug devices, etc.The thing I do is checked all the internal cabling, make sure everything is seating properly, make sure any devices is in working condition. Well I did my best. But most of the time the Bios chip is soldered and is really hard to replace, unless its a very very old motherboard.Well I hope I helped.-Nick Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
starcraftmaster Posted November 20, 2008 Share Posted November 20, 2008 ya i think it woundent be the bioswhere did you get these motherboards fromand make sure the psu gives the amount power the mother board needs Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
jaclaz Posted November 20, 2008 Share Posted November 20, 2008 Any recent (meaning several years) motherboard have BIOS chips with a "recovery" part (which is not "flashed" by updates or normal BIOS tools) that's the part that should make the beeps and allow re-flashing from floppy even if all the rest has gone beserk.It is nearly impossible (if possible at all) to "ruin" this part, and anyway VERY unlikely that this happens on three machines.If you have access to some other boards, not necessarily identical, the only necessary thing is that they use the same kind of BIOS chip and same BIOS manufacturer (AMI, AWARD, Phoenix, etc.) from a motherboard grossly similar, like same socket, same "main" chips, you can try using the "other" BIOS chip on one on the failing boards, after having checked thoroughfully that there is not some electrical problem of any kind to the actual BIOS chip socket.The "exchanged" chip won't get harmed in any way, and even if the "recovery block" is not exactly the same, it should be enough to beep or however to change the behaviour of the motherboard when booting.If you see changes you may risk the money to buy the new chips, otherwise it would be wasted money.jaclaz Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Sysdll Posted November 21, 2008 Author Share Posted November 21, 2008 Unless you happen to know they've been flashed by some mentally challenged person, who felt like unplugging the power half-way through the process.Yeah, I suspect foul play. Anyway thanks everyone for the advice, as usual I learned a lot. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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