SHHOULD I SUSPECT A DEAD CPU?

[dhar25]

My son's labtop quit all of a sudden. Nothing comes up except for the power-light indicator. And no fan is running.


Should I suspect the CPU is dead? It a AMD Athlon 64 3400 MHz and I think it has 1024 MB RAM.

Need your experince and help to trouble shoot this and fix this one.

Thank you in advance

 

[kmcferrin]

Have you tried running it without a battery (but plugged in) or on battery only? You could have something wrong int he power system. You could also have a faulty part on the system board.

I would expect that if the CPU itself were dead then you would still have the fan spinning up.

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[kjv1611]

1. Try without battery, just plugged into AC power as kmcferrin mentioned.
2. Try without hard drive. I've seen laptops totally stall b/c of a bad hard drive.
3. Try without optical drive - there's another thread here where someone's laptop won't boot with a optical (cd/dvd) drive attached.
4. Try without RAM - will it then give a bunch of warning beeps, or nothing? Of course, it won't boot w/o RAM.

Based on your symptoms so far, I would likely lean towards it being a portion of the motherboard. If you have ANY other add-ons plugged up to the laptop, I'd unplug those too, for testing. So, no USB mouse or keyboard - just use built-in inputs.

You basically want to narrow it down as far as you can without having to open the thing up (unless you just want to).

 

[dhar25]

Thank you for all your valuable response.
I removed the battery and also optical drive last night, but the labtop remained the same, power light only and no fan running.

I may try to remove the hard drive and also the RAM both insede the case. If these fails, may be I might consider replacing the CPU.

May be in the worse case, I will look into replacing rhe Mother board. It seem regular stores do not carry single core CPU anymore.So will consider buying it from the EBAY.

Thank you again.

 

[robmazco]

A small trick Ive always banked on..
Remove battery and power supply.
Press and hold the power button for like 30-40 seconds.
Put battery and power supply back in place and and try to fire it up

 

[kjv1611]

Oh, one other thing as well. I suppose it could be the fan is gone? I believe that at least some mainboards will not start if the CPU fan is disconnected, or suspected as failed. If so, it'd be cheaper than the mainboard or CPU. Though, I'm doubting it's the fan right now from what you've told us.

 

[dhar25]

Now my second labtop also dead now with same symptoms.
Only the power light is on,no fan is running , it does not turn on. I replaced the CPU and still noting happeens.

I at loss. please advise if you experienced this problem.
The only thing I can think of is, my son leaves the labtop on 24/7 , did it get hot and killed the Mother Board?

Thank you in advance

 

[kmcferrin]

It could be, especially if he is leaving it powered on and sets in on a soft surface. Most laptops pull in cool air from under the laptop and exhaust hot air out the side. If your rest a running laptop on a pillow, cushion, carpet, or anything else that is soft enough to conform to the shape around the air intake you will fry it in a hurry.

Did you buy the exact same model again? It could be a defect.

________________________________________
CompTIA A+, Network+, Server+, Security+
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MCSE:Security 2003
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[G0AOZ]

Although unlikely, you should try and check out the PSU. Are you using the same PSU for both laptops? See if you can check that the PSU is putting out the correct dc voltage but testing it with a voltmeter or multimeter.

As to why both machines suddenly appear to present the same fault symptoms, have you had a recent mains power outage, local lightning strike, etc?

ROGER - G0AOZ.

 

[dhar25]

GOAZ,

I was suspecting that too . Both labtops are from diferent manufacturers, one is a Emachine and the other is a Gateway with two didderent types of pins on the DC side of the adaptor.

I think I can test them with volt meter.

Thank you.

 

[firewolfrl]

well a computer can power up the fans with a dead CPU.
sounds like your power from your electrical outlet is bad and either brown out or over voltage the computers (either is bad)

do light bulbs burn out fast in your place?


usually in this type scenario its not the CPU that dies
... the motherboard or the psu internal in the case has a tendency to blow..

try this flip one of the computers over and pull the hard drive and the DVD/CD drives then try to boot
sometimes those short due to power fluctuations

 

[dhar25]

Bases on my experience with Desktops, any time the power supply dies, no fans will run. I will try to measure the voltage across the power supply or buy a new one.

The worse case senerio may be the mother board died.

Thank you.

 

[kjv1611]

Well, a power supply can be bad without going totally dead. It is possible for one to feed out enough juice to spin the fans, but not enough to support the whole system - ESPECIALLY in a desktop.

So, where were the laptops usually set when running 24/7?

Have you tried either without the hard drive and/or optical drive attached, as firewolfrl recommended?

 

[dhar25]

Yes I have tried without Hard Drive and Optical Drives according to earlier post. There was no difference in the results. The labtops are usually left on a table.

 

[kjv1611]

What about ambient temperature? How are the normal temps in the house? Some environments are harsher than others. However, I'd be leaning more towards an electrical issue by this point, as already mentioned by at least one other.

 

[BadBigBen]

May be in the worse case, I will look into replacing rhe Mother board.

Too expensive and the Laptops are TOO old for it to be worth it...

in my opinion, I would suggest to look into a newer Laptop from the onset instead...


Ben
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