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No Boot. No Lights, Nothing

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by dapnac3

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I have a Soyo K7VTA Pro in a Generic case. 900Mhz Athlon CPU 768Mb PC-133 RAM too many programs to remember printer scanner dsl connection. Running uneventfull since 14 months. I cvome home one day and it won't start. No POST, no motors running, nolights, nothing. I would guess the power supply but I have no way of testing to get a satisfying answer. I have the skeletons of some old machines in the house but one has a different P/S connection that what's on the Soyo P/S and the other one won't start up no matter what P/S I use. The same can be said of the Soyo. What is the next step in troubleshoooting?

15 replies

by phildavis516

Do you have another power cord you could swap to check the integrity of the cord. Many monitors use the same power cord that could be swapped. Also did the power switch on the back of the power supply possibly get bumped, turn that switch on and off several times and then try again.

by still_learning

To get a better idea of what may be the problem, unplug the computer, then while plugging it in, observe the cooling fan. If it tries to spin a little, then the power cord and power supply are probably fine and your problem is most likely your processor. Hope this helps.

by thechas

Yes, it might be the power supply itself.

Is it at least a 300 Watt supply?

If not, you will not be wasting money if you get a new larger supply.

Another possibility, is that you have a motherboard with capacitors from a bad lot.

A number of motherboards from several manufactures were built with electrolytic capacitors that had unstable electrolyte in them.

Look at the large aluminum topped cylindrical capacitors on the board.
If any of them are bulged, or have signs of liquid leakage at the base, they are the problem.

Contact Soyo, and see if they have any replacement options.

Chas

by dapnac3

I finally was able to check the power supply and it's
just fine. Since I do have one bulging capacior I would
think that's the problem. I still want to check the processor
but I'm inclined to believe it's the mobo. Thanks a lot.

by cg it

for about $16.00 plus shipping, you can get a power supply tester. Antec has one for about that much.

300 watt power supplies go for about $40.00. 350 watt from $50.00 to $60.00. Try a new one. If your computer doesn boot up after trying a new power supply, then the problem may be the processor or the mainboard. New Athlon XP 1.4 ghz processors run about $55.00 at Newegg.com. DDR memory is at an all time low with Kingston Valueram 512 MB PC2100 at $54.00 and a Soyo Dragon SY KT333 mainboardat $89.00. All these prices are from Newegg.com [which has almost godlike shipping and server, not to mention really decent prices.]. A DDR mainboard and a new XP processor just might be a better way to go. Far faster and better than PC-133 based [you'll be amazed at the speed difference with DDR.

by cg it

for about $252.00 [plus another $40.00 or $50.00 for the new power supply] and you've got a brand new, much faster computer than what you have now. I personally don't like Soyo boards [far to many problems with Chipset/add on card driver compatibility and IRQ sharing. TheChas likes Asus or Abit and I'm a MSI fan. Might be time to upgrade your system.

by cg it

one way to check your power supply with a volt meter is that there is a 5 volt always on line. TheChas can probably give you the pin # on the ATX connector [ The ATX connector that connects to the mainboard has little #s molded in [or should have] for pins 1 through pin 20. I'll look up which pin should have 5 volts always on and post again]. This 5 volt always on line supplies the mainboard with power even after the computer shuts off. You can use a standard old volt meter [DC] to check that line. If you have 5 volts on the line then chances are the power supply is still good and it's a problem on the mainboard or the processor.

by tascamoeagle

Another solution is to look on the back of the pc to make sure that if there is a 120v/220v switch that it is switched to the proper voltage. It is possible they could get switched. Very rare but possible.

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