BleepingComputer.com: New computer troubleshooting

First let me say hello. Im joseph. I have am a consistent member of some other forums so I thought I would try a new place. I have lots of computer experience so don;t worry about confusing me. Yesterday, I made the mistake of taking apart an old computer and putting it back together. i wanted to gain that experience so that when I come to building my own box from scratch I will understand how. Well I took everything apart and cleared all the dust, and then i put it back together and to my sunrise...it didn't work. I took another look inside all looked for mistakes but couldn't find anything. I did see that I had put the led light cables on the wrong spot on the mobo so I fixed it and tried again. Nothing. So I was wondering if someone could give me a checklist of things that could have gone wrong. When I pres the power button i don't even get a beep. All wires are plugged in. I did remove the fan from the heat sink over the CPU and then put it back in. Could I have messed something up? I have never seen the latching mechanism for the heat sink so maybe it isn't secured. I appreciate the help.

(PS: This is a very good looking site. It looks very similar to the forum I am at right now where I have 3000 posts.)

Welcome.

You did not make a mistake taking an old computer apart to learn.
That is actually the smartest way to learn computers.
Usually if you make mistakes there is not much lost.

" I did remove the fan from the heat sink over the CPU and then put it back in. Could I have messed something up? I have never seen the latching mechanism for the heat sink so maybe it isn't secured"

If you didn't see the latch for the CPU heatsink what is holding it on ?
If you do not have it properly fastened down ,depending on what CPU it is, you may have burned the CPU as soon as you hit the power button.

If nothing happens when you push the on bitton, no light,fans, or anything comes on you may have saved the CPU.

You need to mount the heatsink properly.
What kind of CPU is it ?

" I did remove the fan from the heat sink over the CPU and then put it back in. Could I have messed something up? I have never seen the latching mechanism for the heat sink so maybe it isn't secured"

I meant I have never seen one like that.
The computer is about 5 years old and it has a 2.2ghz intel celeron processor.

Sounds like a socket 478.

Are you SURE you put the on button connector on the right pins for the front panel connector ?

If you had the power supply completely disconnected & the unit has a floppy drive check to make sure the power lead is connected to it properly.

Make sure you connected the "square" 4 wire connector [CPU power] lead.

Not trying to be a smart aleck, check the power supply for a on/off switch.

This post has been edited by fairjoeblue: 14 May 2009 - 06:32 PM

fairjoeblue, on May 14 2009, 06:31 PM, said:

Im actually not sure if I connected the on button correctly. What does the wire look like? And where does it go?

Actually the computer has a floppy drive but I took it out. Does it need to be in for the computer to work?

And this particular power supply does not have an on/off switch. Is the switch internal?

Bump.

..."old computer"...

What makes you think that it's functional?

If it was dead to begin with...it could have been any number ot things..or combination thereof.

No Beep No Video - The PC Guide Discussion Forums - http://www.pcguide.com/vb/showthread.php?t=39685

No POST - No Video - http://support.gateway.com/s/Checklists/BP...007050376.shtml

Louis

But It was functional before cause I had been using. And since I took it apart and put it back together it hasnt been working. I should have taken note how I took it apart and then reversed it.

You said you put the LED wires on the wrong connectors.
The on/off switch should have a 2 wire connector like the lights.
It should be marked on the connector, probably PWR .

There should be a group of connectors on the motherboard for the front panel connectors.
The on button wires will go on 2 of the pins.

Look on the motherboard for a brand/model
It is usually found between the add-in card slots or on the outsode edge of the motherboard.
Once you have it go to the manufacturers web site & download the manual for it.
The manual will show all of the connectors on the board & what goes where.

Im not sure which part is the bran and which part is the model but it says

Mot, NO: 137001 IMPERIAL_GL_VE 20021218

Well I google and looked around and it appears that a lot of other people are having trouble finding the 2 pin thing that you plug the power switch into. And none of them could find a manual either.

This post has been edited by josephbc: 16 May 2009 - 01:50 PM

I think its broken...Im real bummed....

" 137001 IMPERIAL_GL_VE 20021218"

That is a motherboard for a brand name computer, Emachine, Gateway, HP, etc. .

The front panel connectors should be in the lower right corner if you are looking in to the computer with the bottom facing you.
The front panel connectors should be marked

If it comes down to it put the PWR connector on 2 of the pins & try, keep doing that until it comes on.

I tried putting it in every pair of two pins. None worked.

you should have 2 rows of pins,

Example: ::::::::

You can't just go this way : with the connector.

Try it .. also .

I hope that makes sense.

This motherboard only has one row of pins for the header.

If you look at the motherboard with the HDD1 letters facing straight up, the header pin will be located in the lower left corner of the board.

you should see some small letters pepicting where each jumper wire should go.



This is the header pin, and I have marked where the jumper wires connect: (normally the first column of header pins is on the left, and the second column is on the right. Since this mother board has the first column of pins omitted, we only have the right column to work with.

o <power - wire colors do not matter use this pin and the one below it for the soft power switch
o <power - wire colors do not matter - use this pin and the pin above it for the soft power switch
o <HD LED - if the LED light doesn't light when the hard drive is being accessed, turn the connector around
o <HD LED - See above
< blank pin space
o < power LED - probaly uses a tri-pin LED
o < Power LED - probably uses a tri-pin LED
o <power LED - probably uses a tri-pin LED

The above header will be directly to the left of the primary (bottom blue)and secondary Top black) 40 pin IDE connectors.

make sure your main 20 pin ATX power conector is seated correcetly, as well as the 4 pin cpu power conector.