Old Acer Desktop .......Game Over......Motherboard, SSD Or PSU Fault ?

[What_am_i_gonna_do]

hi,

 

i'm getting a new budget desktop but just curious about what's at fault........my 9yo old Acer desktop just died......

 

it was fine when i shut it off for the night but when i tried to power it on in the morning, the light came on for a few seconds (after the beep) then went out..........same thing despite several tries......

 

i opened up the PC.......switched the SSD's SATA cable and used the DVD-ROM's power cable and still the same thing........

 

i then connected the old HDD using just the DVD-ROM's power cable and the CPU fan then started going at FULL-SPEED non-stop !.......i've never had the CPU fan run that fast before......

 

i'm afraid of re-connecting my SSD to the motherboard again in case the SSD gets damaged......

[WaggishOhio383]

Specs of the PC?

 

If it has a GPU, try booting without it

 

If it has multiple sticks of RAM, try booting with only one inserted (testing each individual stick). If it only has one stick, see if you can get your hands on another and boot with that one instead.

 

Try clearing the motherboard CMOS by removing the little battery on the motherboard (after unplugging the PC). Then hold the power button down for 30 seconds while the PC is unplugged with the battery out, and then let it sit unplugged for 30 minutes before reinserting the battery and attempting to power the PC back on. If that doesn't work, the CMOS battery could be dead. Try buying a new one. It's a CR 2032 cell battery, and you should be able to pick one up at a store nearby if you don't want to buy it online.

 

If none of those steps work, my guess would be that the motherboard is dead. Could also be the CPU, but I'm more inclined to say it's the motherboard. If the PSU died the thing probably wouldn't even light up or spin the fans.

[What_am_i_gonna_do]

15 hours ago, WaggishOhio383 said:

Specs of the PC?

 

If it has a GPU, try booting without it

 

If it has multiple sticks of RAM, try booting with only one inserted (testing each individual stick). If it only has one stick, see if you can get your hands on another and boot with that one instead.

 

Try clearing the motherboard CMOS by removing the little battery on the motherboard (after unplugging the PC). Then hold the power button down for 30 seconds while the PC is unplugged with the battery out, and then let it sit unplugged for 30 minutes before reinserting the battery and attempting to power the PC back on. If that doesn't work, the CMOS battery could be dead. Try buying a new one. It's a CR 2032 cell battery, and you should be able to pick one up at a store nearby if you don't want to buy it online.

 

If none of those steps work, my guess would be that the motherboard is dead. Could also be the CPU, but I'm more inclined to say it's the motherboard. If the PSU died the thing probably wouldn't even light up or spin the fans.

 

 

many many thanks indeed for your detailed reply........

 

 

Specs of the PC.........(9 years old already)

 

embarrassing to say the least.......a Single-Core AMD Athlon CPU.......1GB + 2GB RAM.......no graphic card.......had a 320GB HDD but ''upgraded'' to a 500GB SSD........

 

 

the CMOS battery has been dead for years.......LOL.......i only need to adjust the time + date every day so i didn't bother getting a new battery........

 

 

i only suspected the PSU like maybe the power cable for the SSD was broken......i tried it using the DVD-ROM power cable but didn't work with the SSD........but connecting the DVD-ROM power cable to the old HDD sent the CPU fan spinning like crazy.......,,(hope my SSD is still working)

 

## is it possible to connect my SSD using a SATA-USB adaptor to a laptop to see if SSD is working and access the data in it ?........the SSD is on Windows7 but laptop on Windows10