OLD! Computer, no boot

[Kasper_MC]

Hi guys, sorry for the long post in advance.

So, I got handed an old computer from a friend, who couldn't get it to boot - and it smelled pretty funky. I'm just getting into tinkering with computers - build a couple of computers with new parts, but never tried stuff like trying to breath life back into old computers. You'll get some specs first, then the story.... it's old...

 

The motherboard is a EVGA X58, either one of the two below: 

 - https://pcpartpicker.com/product/z6zv6h/evga-motherboard-132ble758a1

 - https://pcpartpicker.com/product/BLTmP6/evga-motherboard-132ble758tr

It has an EVGA (blowerstyle) GTX 280

No idea about the CPU, except it fits into the motherboard - something I7 first gen, I think...

16 GB of Corsair Vengeance DDR3 1600 ram

It had XFX Pro 550 watt PSU - I changed it to a Corsair VS650

A 150 GB Intel SSD

So, the smell came from the PSU (which was varyfied when I hit the power switch), so I changed that. But now there's absolutely no boot - I think it just cuts out a safety because of something else malfunctioning. When I turn on the PSU, a yellow LED lights up on the motherboard. 

I tried turning it on on the front power switch, a yellow LED flashes for less than a second, somewhere underneath the GPU, and a blue LED turns on next to the first yellow on - which stays on. I tried bridging the powerpins, thinking it might have been a problem with the front-switch, but with no luck. I also tried clearing the CMOS, but nope... The motherboard has an errorcode readout, but it doesn't even get to give any postcodes before it cuts out.
 

 

I have a spare CPU that can fit into the socket, but I'm not sure I should - thinking it might be the motherboard that's ruined something?

I also have spare DDR3 ram, could anything happen to it by trying that? - if it's even possible that it's that? 

Could it even be the GPU, and could anything happen to it, if I trying changing the 280 that's in there with another one? I only have the one I use in the rig I use - a GTX 1070. 

It also has a capturecard in there, it couldn't be that, could it? 

Hope someone will be able to help... I'm not really intending to use it for anything particular, I just think it could be fun to bring it to life... if nothing else to put in a newer GPU and OC the crap out of the CPU, just to try it... I really like playing around with computers, but don't really have the money to keep tinkering with my own rig, so I thought this could be fun. 

Thanks in advance  

[TempestCatto]

If it's cutting out before giving an error code, I would not try part swapping. Just keep all valuables unplugged (like hdd's and any unnecessary pcie cards). It seems like perhaps there is a power issue somewhere. Are you sure all power connectors are in and secure? If you look closely at the motherboard, do you notice any black marks, blown capacitors, or anything else that would raise a red flag?

[Slayer3032]

X58 is still an amazing platform, you can get hexcore Xeons for anywhere from $9-30 and DDR3 ECC Unbuffered memory for like $5 each even. I run a GTX 1080 in mine with a X5675@4.6ghz and 24GB of ECC Unbuffered memory.

 

I think a few of the EVGA boards don't play nice with the dual socket compatible Xeons though require something to be soldered and jumped. Your 1070 would be right at home in it really, the only downside is that it gets roughly 1st gen Ryzen level performance in games from the lower single thread performance. It also doesn't support AVX, doesn't have USB3 headers and the Sata3 should probably just be disabled since the Marvell controller that most motherboards had is pretty awful.

 

Unfortunately it sounds like the previous power supply might have hurt something. I'd start looking for swollen capacitors and burn marks from both sides of the board. Giving it a sniff around the VRM and other areas might not be a bad idea either. I'd definitely break it down, clean everything up and start with the least amount of stuff you can and try to work up and test every part as you rebuild.

 

If you want to try a different cpu, be aware that early boards don't support D0 stepping cpus so if you have an i7 920, make sure to look up the stepping of it. Westmere/hexcore cpus will also require a newer bios on top of that but early boards are fairly uncommon and it's only likely to be an issue with like the Intel DX58SO.

 

 

The GTX 280 really doesn't have a whole lot of purpose nowadays though, it's probably not old enough to be used for like an XP machine and it's going to get waxed with a $50-60 used gpu.

 

[Kasper_MC]

Thanks Slayer 3032 - I think I found the issue, as you say, with the motherboard. one or two capacitors/whatever they are... they look like caps... don't seem to be doing so well. 

I guess I'm gonna have to buy a new board to test if the other stuff works? Or is it pointless at this point?
I know the GTX280 is pretty pointless - even my old 780 had a rough time in some titles

But thanks! Unfortunatly I live in Denmark, where there's very little abundance of old hardware. On our equivalent site to Ebay (no, we don't have Amazon yet), I only found an I7 and a Xeon CPU, when searching for the board.But maybe I'll have better luck on a German site
I don't wanna spend a ton of money on it - but it could be fun to get it working for as you say 150-200 DKK (20-30) dollars. 

[Kasper_MC]

Also, thanks TempestCatto - didn't see your post till now. 

 

The inside of the chassis was very dusty (that was the reason for the "OLD!" comment) and also, the CPU-cooler is something air -midteer from CM- could be a Hyper212, no idea to tell them apart correctly and there was only 1 fan in the chassis, a 120 exhaust. So I'm guessing it was running very hot

[Slayer3032]

Ouch, yeah well unfortunately the best way to get X58 stuff is when it's free or cheap. I wouldn't go out searching for expensive X58 hardware unless you really want to just overclock X58 for some reason. There's better platforms which you can find used for similar money that might not have the same "potential" but should be easier to use, more efficient and have more features. X79. X99, Ivy Bridge, Haswell or even the crazy Z170 stuff where you can patch in microcodes and run like a 9900k are all ideas. AMD stuff can be pretty fun too but it's often overpriced since the cpus actually come down in price and never seem to go out of stock.

 

Nehalem i7's aren't really worth much, you can find similar spec Xeons for $5 off Aliexpress which is where I would probably suggest to get cpus.

https://www.aliexpress.com/item/INTEL-Xeon-W3550-Processor-Quad-Core-3-06GHZ-8M-4-8-GT-s-LGA1366-close-to/32602606507.html

 

Westmere stuff is a die shrink, it usually clocks higher and uses less power but you'll generally need a Nehalem to update the bios for Westmere support.

https://www.aliexpress.com/item/For-lntel-X5675-CPU-Processor-Six-Core-3-06Ghz-L3-12M-95W-Socket-LGA-1366-Desktop/32696344917.html

https://www.aliexpress.com/item/Intel-Xeon-E5649-2-53GHz-5-86GT-s-6-Core12MB-LGA1366-SLBZ8-CPU-Processor/32796550520.html

https://www.aliexpress.com/item/Intel-Xeon-E5640-2-6-GHz-Quad-Core-Eight-Thread-CPU-Processor-12M-80W-LGA-1366/32956075472.html

 

Aliexpress doesn't really have great deals on DDR3 but locally to me I can get 4gb sticks of PC3-10600U for $5 each or a 3x4gb triple channel kit of 1600mhz for like $30-40. I got my 1866mhz Mac Pro Micron ECC 6x4GB ram, which I don't recommend for $8.99 for each off ebay. Unfortunately Intel doesn't support ECC on consumer chipsets so you'd have to get X79 or any AMD platform if you could get a good deal on used DDR3 ECC, otherwise you'd just need standard memory which DDR4 seems to be a better deal in most cases than DDR3.

 

As far as fixing the board, I would disassemble everything and give it a good cleaning, remove the heatsinks and if you wanted you could even give it the dishwasher treatment. Anything is fixable provided you can get parts, have the tools to fix it and know exactly what is broken. I'm not well versed in electronics repair and all of the components so I have no idea what the coil thing is but it looks burnt to me and almost like it was bent over and shorted on the stuff under it.

 

If you clean it all up and get some decent pictures of any damage I'm sure someone on here would be able to tell you if it would be worth your while to repair. Maybe someone would even be interested in fixing it themselves since X58 stuff is still worth a decent bit so I wouldn't just toss it.