Non-booting situation

basilmarket.com forums : Tech Talk | 5 posts archived

thread starter walridge3 Jun 28 2009 + PM | QUOTE | PERMALINK | REPORT

I think I got this settled, but I'd like some second opinions while I'm waiting for the processor to arrive... Situation is: I have a Dell Inspiron 531 that I'm repairing for someone; it seems to not pass POST. Basically after you turn it on, you hear a single beep, and then you see the Dell logo (along with something that says press F2 for setup or F12 for boot options). However, this is all you see, as it freezes there. Things I have tried: Ruled out any PCI/expansion cards, RAM is all fine, I cleared the CMOS, reset BIOS, and bought a refurbished motherboard after concluding that the mobo at the time was damaged. However that seems to not be the case, as it is still not booting. It seems that either the refurbished mobo I ordered is defective in the exact same way as the one I was repairing, or the processor (the only thing I can't test) is broken. Now, you techies of Basil: What do you think is more probable, a second motherboard defect, or a defective processor? Or is it something else? To be honest I never expected or considered that the processor could've been defective.

skye09 06/28/09 + PM | QUOTE | PERMALINK | REPORT

Hmm....I dont really know. That one beeps is kind of consfusing, since most BIOSes give off one beep after POST to say that everything is order... I would hope you are right and the processor is defective, since after the board is refurbished, it should be tested to make sure it works. My vote is on the defective processor.

walridge3 06/28/09 + PM | QUOTE | PERMALINK | REPORT

skye09 said: "Hmm....I dont really know. That one beeps is kind of consfusing, since most BIOSes give off one beep after POST to say that everything is order... I would hope you are right and the processor is defective, since after the board is refurbished, it should be tested to make sure it works. My vote is on the defective processor." Yeah, I figured the one beep was to signify that POST was all set. I know that it can do POST, or at least part of it; I took out all the RAM and it gave repeating two beeps (signifies to check RAM). Either the board is defective and I'll have to return it in for a replacement, or the processor will fix things... in any case, I've never ever heard of a defective processor in my experiences with computers (at least personally).

skye09 06/28/09 + PM | QUOTE | PERMALINK | REPORT

If one of the pins were messed up that could be why. I know my friend bent a pin on his pentium 4, and thought it would be fixed if he bend it back.

walridge3 07/02/09 + PM | QUOTE | PERMALINK | REPORT

Final update: Turns out that the power supply was defective. I ordered the new processor and that refurbished mobo, both seemed fine; I plugged in another PSU from an existing computer and it worked fine. I had tested the PSU with a multimeter on the SATA power connector, that seemed fine, but thanks to Enwove's suggestion, that and the motherboard's power are probably on different rails, which I neglected to consider.