Acer Aspire -

[bodminman]

Good morning all,

 

my nephew has decided to upgrade his PC for gaming purposes and it looks as though he has screwed things up but I thought I'd run it by the bright sparks on here before suggesting he needs to save up more of his pocket money to purchase a new motherboard.

 

He had purchased a new graphics card and PSU and decided to install them. Now althought the Acer motherboard has a proprietory 12 pin connector, he thought it was OK to try and plug in the standard ATX plug into it and power it on! Now straght away I'm thinking that although part of the plug fits and the rest hangs over, the actual pin config is likely to differ and he's fried the board. So as nothing worked when he switched it on, he went online and purchased a adapter for the PSU connector to fit onto the Acer board properly. He said this hasn't made a difference.

 

There are no POST beeps, no lights, just the whirling of fans and HDD noise but nothing happening.

 

Would you agree that the board is dead?

[Oaktech]

I'm going to chance my arm and suggest his PC upgrade may now also include a Motherboard and processor, and RAM and...

 

Perhaps it's actually just time for a new computer!

[bodminman]

Certainly doesn't look good. I've been speaking to him over the phone and he's distraught!

[dry]

Might want to try removing the CMOS battery and leave it a few minutes to remove any residual power, and/or use the reset jumpers to reset the BIOS and see what happens?

 

If you're feeling a particularly charitable aunt/uncle you might consider buying a cheap motherboard tester and see if it spits any fault codes out.

Edited January 18, 2016 by dry

[difinity]

I'd want to test the new power supply with a power supply tester to rule that out first. Is the P4 connector plugged in too ?

 

Rarely are motherboards completely dead unless they are seriously burnt. It depends on time/patience/interest as to if you want to try and find and fix the fault

Just like cars after an accident you have to weigh up if it's an economical repair or not.

 

It's possible the Acer motherboard is a silly size, so a new case would be required and an OS install (cool uncle time).

[bodminman]

Thanks for the replies. I managed to meet up with him yesterday and so we had a look at the PC.

 

PSU tests fine and all the components work when placed into another PC.

We did remove the CMOS battery for a while whilst everything was unplugged from the board. Re inserted the battery and the original PSU, switched on and still no joy. No beeps, nothing flickering onto a monitor connected via the onboard port. We just have fans whirling away.

 

Completely dead me thinks. Told him if he has any chance of gaming with his mates this weekend then he needs to just get on with getting a replacement board. In the end I got him one off eBay and told him it's his next birthday and christmas present! Saying he's chuffed is an understatement!