What are the chances of bad MB vs CPU?

[Sandwich]

My daughters computer went "Kaput" i.e. the fans spin but no beeps no matter what I do. It has a gigabyte MB 7nf-rz amd xp 2700+ 333 cpu 2X kingston 256 kvr 400's ATI 9600xt VC cdrw and a dvd. I've taken everything out and still no speaker sound. The speaker seems to be connected ok. Oh and also no boot!
I can't find a new MB on the net that matches this one. Therfore I'm probably stuck with a reinstall if it's the MB, that is, as I suspision. I do have an old anthlon 1.2 sitting on the shelf that I think I could slip in and see. Does that sould like an idea? If it's the cpu, a new one for this MB shouldn't be very expensive, if it's still available. That way I wouldn't have to reinstall anything.


I suspicion the MB, for a couple of reasons. I) I've had gigabyte MB problems this year. Suddenly mine went out and looked like a Christmas tree. Then my wifes MB went bad with a bad memory slot! If it's the MB in my daughters computer it's the third bad gigabyte in the family this year!
2) I think I can just notice a slight bulge on a couple capacitors. their heads are bulged compared to others on the board. It's so slight that it could be my imagination, but I don't think so.
Is my thinking right on this? What do people suggest that I do?

[TripleRLtd]

Yeah, your thinking is correct on this. But, depending upon what caused the failure, it could have taken out the cpu as well.
Try the older Athlon...it should work (I'm theorizing w/o checking). If that works you know the m/b is ok. If it's a working cpu and the pc fails to boot, it's the m/b.
btw: have you tried to take "everything" out including the ram and/or vga to see if you get error beeps? Best of luck samich.

[Ferrit]

I would definetly agree. Since amd xp cpu's are near indestructible except if the actuall heatsink falls right off . I would look directly at the motherboard

[TRICKPLAYER]

Make sure also in veiw of your other problems you have a surge protecter, also if you have 2 sticks of ram, try them on there own alternatly, or try and borrow a stick to try, if you only have the one.

[Sandwich]

Thanks everyone, Yes I've taken everthing out and disconnected all cdr's and HDD memory, videocard. There's nothing left but the cpu.

[slgrieb]

Unless you had something like a catastrophic power supply failure or the like, I wouldn't worry much about the processor. The capacitors that seem to be bulging really are. Defective electrolyte. I'm seeing a lot of this lately on boards I sold about a year and a half or two years ago. Dell just coughed up $300 million to replace Optiplex boards with this problem.

[Sandwich]

"Unless you had something like a catastrophic power supply failure or the like, I wouldn't worry much about the processor. The capacitors that seem to be bulging really are. Defective electrolyte. I'm seeing a lot of this lately on boards I sold about a year and a half or two years ago. Dell just coughed up $300 million to replace Optiplex boards with this problem."Slgrieb

So my problem with gigabyte boards may have occurred no matter what brand?or should I still blame gigabyte for bad quality MB's?_________________

[slavedriver]

I would definetly agree. Since amd xp cpu's are near indestructible except if the actuall heatsink falls right off . I would look directly at the motherboard

If you've got another known working cpu I'd try that IMHO.

[Sandwich]

A change in cpu made no difference so it's the MB

[TRICKPLAYER]

you would need cpu, memory and videocard for it to post, if you done that, make sure you had the right fsb setting for the test cpu..

[Sandwich]

Yeah, but w/o any beeps I'm pretty sure its the board. I'm rma-ing it to gigabyte. It's already out of the case. Of course that would eliminate another variable. I may just try that i.e. build it out of the case. wouldn't take but a minute-- "just like NOO NOO suggests"
In any case, this will be the third of four computers in the home, and all that have gigabyte MB's( the other is a Dell) to have their MB's rma'ed to gigabyte!

[slgrieb]

Gigabyte isn't my personal favorite among mainboard, but yeah, this cuts across all brands. Problem is with the capacitors which are bought from a fairly small pool of mfgs by mainboard producers.

[Sandwich]

Well this is an update to this thread.
I've put a new MB and chip in this computer. an amd64 3000+ with a gigabyte k8ns ultra939 board. Interestingly I could boot this thing right up from the old HDD. I had to go to safe mode first, let it find new hardware. Then it would boot into regular windows and I could install the new MB drivers.
My queston is re: Windows update. It will nolonger work. Says my windows isn't genuine, but it is. Must I call microsoft? Yes probably, but I thought I'd ask. Also Does this mean that nforce2 is not very dif than nforce3? Since I didn't have to reinstall everything? Anyone with experience in this?

[confus-ed]

.. had to go to safe mode first, let it find new hardware. Then it would boot ..

My queston is re: Windows update. It will nolonger work. Says my windows isn't genuine, but it is. Must I call microsoft? ..

You've changed 'enough' hardware that the activation 'pants' has kicked in & decided you need to revalidate.

& on the how come it just started up in safe mode & let me fix it ? question .. well generally it will anyway, unless any boot disks drivers won't let you, so you need either some similar ide or sata drivers present for the disk/controller you intend to use, add one kind of nvidia controllers drivers & you update for them all - so windows 'knew' already, but if there are later chipset patches available - apply them !

[Sandwich]

Ok so I did a repair install. Afterward I had to call MS in order to validate, but that went smoothly. However, still having problems with win update. I emailed MS about it. It's my daughter computer and I work on it when she's at school or at work. I'll be back when everything is working.