[GTALUG] [OT] Dead motherboard or dead CPU?

[Kevin Cozens]

Greetings, all.

Someone recently reported a problem booting their computer. I've had my 
first ever major failure of a system where I can't boot my machine. My 
situation is a little different than in the previous thread about a boot 
problem. FYI, my machine is an HP m7680n with an Intel Core 2 Duo CPU that I 
have had for several years and gets a lot of use every day.

When the machine powers up all the fans start spinning and the drives do 
their initial power on reset activities. The CPU doesn't seem to warm up 
AFAICT (unless I haven't let the system run long enough for it to warm up).

The first time I had a problem starting up the system I power cycled the 
machine a few times and got it to boot. I did that on three consecutive days 
but starting with the fourth day power cycling the machine is no longer able 
to kick the machine in to showing signs of life.

A POST card shows ---- instead of any actual code. All the LEDs on the POST 
card light that are related to power supply voltages. CLK is also lit up and 
the RESET LED comes on briefly at power up and power down. The IRDY and 
FRAME lights are always off.

I have tried to boot after pulling all plug-in cards and even after also 
pulling the RAM and disconnecting the SATA drives. The power supply is a 
Corsair TX650M that is only a few months old. The separate four pin 12V 
connector to the MB is reading within tolerance.

There are no signs of bad capacitors on the MB (ie. none that have bulges on 
the top). I don't have an ESR meter to propery test the individual capacitors.

Am I looking at a motherboard failure or is it possible the CPU has died? I 
read the C2D is quite reliable so CPU failure seems less likely than an MB 
failure but anything is possible when dealing with electronics.

-- 
Cheers!

Kevin.

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