Think Ive borked my PC.. :/

[marcus]

First time for everything as they say, and I reckon Ive ruined my mobo and CPU on my games rig, see what you think..

Ive the following hardware

a8n-sli premium mobo
2gb corsair ram
A64 3500 CPU W/Zalman flower HS
Geforce 7800GTX w Zalman cooler
Raptor SATA HDD
Tagan 580W PSU

Basically, I have two PC and I wanted to swap over the cases. I successfully transferred the components to one PC which I use for storage, but my 'performance' PC refuses to do anything when I try to boot.

I always thought you were meant to disconnect any electrical equipment from the mains before working on components, Ive since realised that you are supposed to leave the power cable plugged in, and the system off so that its eathed. I am thinking its this static which might of killed my mobo..

Upon powering on, nothing at all appears on my monitor (Ive tried two), no POST or anything, I get the 'no signal' message which suggests to me there is no communication with the monitor at all. The 7800 is DVI to my monitor.

Ive checked, and rechecked all connections. There are no bios beeps at all, even when I removed the ram, which worries me. Being unable to see anything at all when booting makes this really difficult to diagnose.

Reset the BIOS using the jumper/battery removal.

Unplugged everything but the GFX card, 1 ram module, HDD and minimal case fans.

Tried a old GFX card I had via VGA, still nothing at all.

Holding down the reset switch does not power off the PC.

I took the heatsink off (big mistake, ill say why later) and ran it for 30 mins, the CPU wasnt even warm.

I also think Ive broken my CPU, there are a number of bent pins which for the most part I straightened, but one is in such a state that I cant seem to bend it back. Chances of this working are slim, kiss goodbye to a ?170 CPU methinks..

I should be able to get the mobo replaced, but the CPU is a year old now.


:/

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[oblivion_6]

Have you tried another PSU?

From past experience its very difficult to actually fry your board with static, its one of these old wifey tales that hardware guys go on about

[marcus]

Ive not tried another PSU, Id assume its ok as the power light is lit on the mobo, the fans etc all are working too.

[charlesr]

is there a digital readout on the mobo? like a 2 digit bios error thingy? clutching at straws here. I guess if it was there you would have seen it.

[marcus]

Nope, nothing so helpful :/

[SubparMario]

Just to check, the motherboard isn't shorting out on the case anywhere? Could be some metal to metal contact.

[marcus]

I did notice one loose screw in the case, whether it was there before or after I replaced the mobo I cant be sure. Ive spoken to OCUK and they are going to accept it back, and hopefully will replace it for me.

If I can get my CPU to work once I get the mobo back Ill be very pleased. I need to straighten the bent pin without breaking it off, in most cases the CPU will still work as they are quite robust but I wouldnt give much hope were the pins to of broken to it.

[NeilMcRae]

leave it a while, you might have tripped an overload safe jumper on the mb or psu.

Neil.

[marcus]

Id left it from the time I found it to be broken, which was Sat night, through to Sunday morning and there was no change. I hope the RAM/Gfx card are still ok, 9 times out of 10 its the motherboard.

Annoyingly, I think I damaged the CPU pins by transporting it to a friends house to test out with the mobo and CPU on his PC, the irony..

[oblivion_6]

Sounds like it must be the mobo m8

If youve got a voltmeter test the power connections on it and if theres no reading then its gone

[marcus]

So that when I get this back from OCUK I dont go and screw it up again, am I worth buying an anti-static strip, or should -

- leaving the pc plugged into the mains but powered down whilst working

- before starting work, make sure I earth myself to the PC by holding the metal bar on the case

- ensuring theres no stray screws etc that could contact the mobo

be enough?

[kernow]

I never bothered with anti static strips, is this the first pc you've built?

just make sure the motherboards not shorting in the case, and everythings connected firmly.

"before starting work, make sure I earth myself to the PC by holding the metal bar on the case"

uhm, heh, I've built over 30 pc's and never bothered doing that. never had a component die due to static either.

had a cpu catch on fire once though, it was the motherboards fault.

[babs]

I've never had a static fry either. If you want to ground yourself to be sure though, as you say touch the chassis with the kettle lead in, or touch a radiator etc.

I've never even heard of anyone I know frying anything that way either.

[marcus]

Ive built several and never had a problem either, Im assuming it was static that caused the problems Ive had, but it might not be, but Ive never had this problem before so can really only make assumptions at this point. Tonight Im going to try and revive my CPU, Im hoping I can get those pins back into a working state again.

[kernow]

Weren't you just changing the cases over (checks original post) why would you need to take the CPU out at all?

I think the bent pins arent helping heh.