Any ideas?

treddstone

New Member
Ok a friend of mine just built his first rig. Well, kind of built it. He asked me to come inspect because it wouldn't start...apparently the first time he powered on, it beeped once (I'm guessing the "everythings good" short beep). However, after that, the comp did nothing and turned off. So when I came to look at it, when I pressed the power button, the Zalman 9700s green led would blink about 5 times, then shut off. I did it one more time, and I could have sworn I smelled a bit of smoke, so I immediately shut it off. He has no spare parts so testing one by one isn't much of an option...I did try his original heat sink to no avail. I'm stumped, I thought maybe it was the power supply, but I don't know why the LED would blink. Anyone have any ideas??
 
Yeah, I'd check the PSU and for shorts in general. Make sure the standoff's are installed correctly, maybe even disassemble the machine and try running the computer with only the bare essentials, or even the mobo outside the case.
 
Yeah I took out the sata drives and vid card and ran it with the mobo out as well, but still got nothing. Its a brand new psu, in fact he got most of what I have because he likes my rig so much...only his isn't working : ( I thought at first he may have killed his mobo from a faulty installation but he said he did everything the way its supposed to be done. I'm not sure what to do...

and and btw, none of the fans turn on, only that blinking led...except now the stock cooler is on so nothing is working.
 
Theres not much else to say other than what The_Other_one already said. If you smelt smoke, then something was shorting, or a capacitor blew. Sounds like it's time to replace the motherboard or some other part. Take the whole system apart and inspect each and every part for signs of damage, look at the capacitors for fluid leaking out, or for scortched marks on anything.

It is possible that the PSU died. The led flickering off and on might have been the last gasps of the psu. It really could be a number of things. Without the system in front of us, it is very hard to figure out.
 
Test every other part than the PSU and mobo... if everything works, you narrow it down to those two.. most likely the PSU.. why not get yours and test it?
 
*Update*

So after a more thorough investigation, I realized he had a floppy power cable plugged into the wrong spot (he doesn't even have a fdd). He also had a bad sitck of ram. So everything's running beautifully now : )
 
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