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Motherboard/CPU Troubleshooting

BarackOBatman
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Last year, a friend was playing some DOTA 2 during a rainstorm on a PC I sold him for 100 bucks or so when lightning struck. After that the PC didn't boot, after some basic troubleshooting I came to the conclusion that it was just not worth the time to fix such a cheap PC. I verified that the video card and RAM still worked so I chucked them into another PC and got him up and running with that. The hard drive would not detect when I plugged it into my PC (though it would spin and get warm) I did not try turning on the power supply due the potential hazard and instead threw it in the trash. I then replaced the PSU with another one I had laying around for troubleshooting purposes. I removed the motherboard and removed all components from it (heatsinks included) After inspection, I found no visible evidence of physical damage.

 

When I power the zapped system on, the fans spin up, I get a Post screen that says something like: BIOS AUTHORIZED FOR ACER AMERICA ONLY, but nothing else. NOTE: I cannot actually go into the BIOS, I just get a POST screen.

Past that, I have tried cleaning the motherboard, changing RAM, removing ram (results in endless beeping as it should.) One other thing worth mentioning is that I can only get a video signal out the motherboard, if I plug in a dGPU the fans spin up, but no video out.

 

My suspicion is that the CPU is toast, but the motherboard is OK and that the reason the video card turns on, but has no video out is because the motherboard is powering it, but cannot display anything because the cpu is needed to send data to the gpu. Also, the motherboard seems to behave normally to things like missing RAM or missing CPU. I can buy a replacement CPU for just 9 bucks. 

 

Thoughts?

 

Specs:

AMD A6 3620

ACER OEM Motherboard

8GB generic DDR3 RAM

GTX 750 ti (optional)

DELL OEM 265 Watt PSU

 

I'm only trying to fix this for fun, I don't actually need this system to run, as I have several others.

Share any interests with me? Feel free to message me just to chit chat about whatever. 

(Music) Depeche Mode, The Cure, Pink Floyd, Nick Cave and the Bad Seeds, Cocteau Twins, MGMT, Boy Harsher, The Smiths, Drab Majesty, Chelsea Wolfe, Carly Rae Jepsen, The Smashing Pumpkins, Virgin Prunes, Sky Ferreira, London After Midnight, Jonathan Coulton, Alvvays, Clan of Xymox, Bauhaus, Siouxsie and the Banshees, Anna Von Hausswolff, Joy Division, Sisters of Mercy, She Wants Revenge, The Frozen Autumn, My Bloody Valentine, Type O Negative, The Birthday Party, Leonard Cohen, Switchblade Symphony, Metallica, Creedance Clearwater Revival, Eagles, Elton John, Billy Joel.

(Games) PUBG, Metro Series, Command and Conquer games, Warhammer 40,000 games, Company of Heroes (2), RDR2, CoD4

(Other) Going to the goth club, Firearms, Building PCs (Especially budget PC builds), Playing instruments (Guitar, Piano APP for PC, Otamatone, Trombone) Camping, Board Games

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Sounds like there may be a short to ground on one of the rails responsible for the BIOS. It's possible that the system halts when the BIOS can't perform its self check before continuing to Windows.

 

I'd think inspecting the traces on the back of the board leading from the 24pin to the BIOS could give you a good idea if there is any charring around there. Then again, I wouldn't put it past Acer, they do manufacture pretty crappy boards to begin with.

"The only thing that matters right now is that you're here, and you're safe."

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24 minutes ago, Hiitchy said:

Sounds like there may be a short to ground on one of the rails responsible for the BIOS. It's possible that the system halts when the BIOS can't perform its self check before continuing to Windows.

 

I'd think inspecting the traces on the back of the board leading from the 24pin to the BIOS could give you a good idea if there is any charring around there. Then again, I wouldn't put it past Acer, they do manufacture pretty crappy boards to begin with.

Hmm. Possibly in an internal layer. Not seeing anything if I follow the traces from the 24 pin.

 

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Share any interests with me? Feel free to message me just to chit chat about whatever. 

(Music) Depeche Mode, The Cure, Pink Floyd, Nick Cave and the Bad Seeds, Cocteau Twins, MGMT, Boy Harsher, The Smiths, Drab Majesty, Chelsea Wolfe, Carly Rae Jepsen, The Smashing Pumpkins, Virgin Prunes, Sky Ferreira, London After Midnight, Jonathan Coulton, Alvvays, Clan of Xymox, Bauhaus, Siouxsie and the Banshees, Anna Von Hausswolff, Joy Division, Sisters of Mercy, She Wants Revenge, The Frozen Autumn, My Bloody Valentine, Type O Negative, The Birthday Party, Leonard Cohen, Switchblade Symphony, Metallica, Creedance Clearwater Revival, Eagles, Elton John, Billy Joel.

(Games) PUBG, Metro Series, Command and Conquer games, Warhammer 40,000 games, Company of Heroes (2), RDR2, CoD4

(Other) Going to the goth club, Firearms, Building PCs (Especially budget PC builds), Playing instruments (Guitar, Piano APP for PC, Otamatone, Trombone) Camping, Board Games

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I  think ill just toss the PC in the trash.

Share any interests with me? Feel free to message me just to chit chat about whatever. 

(Music) Depeche Mode, The Cure, Pink Floyd, Nick Cave and the Bad Seeds, Cocteau Twins, MGMT, Boy Harsher, The Smiths, Drab Majesty, Chelsea Wolfe, Carly Rae Jepsen, The Smashing Pumpkins, Virgin Prunes, Sky Ferreira, London After Midnight, Jonathan Coulton, Alvvays, Clan of Xymox, Bauhaus, Siouxsie and the Banshees, Anna Von Hausswolff, Joy Division, Sisters of Mercy, She Wants Revenge, The Frozen Autumn, My Bloody Valentine, Type O Negative, The Birthday Party, Leonard Cohen, Switchblade Symphony, Metallica, Creedance Clearwater Revival, Eagles, Elton John, Billy Joel.

(Games) PUBG, Metro Series, Command and Conquer games, Warhammer 40,000 games, Company of Heroes (2), RDR2, CoD4

(Other) Going to the goth club, Firearms, Building PCs (Especially budget PC builds), Playing instruments (Guitar, Piano APP for PC, Otamatone, Trombone) Camping, Board Games

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