Did I kill the mobo?

[Asp]

I've been upgrading my PC, replacing hard disks.

All was going well till I replaced an IDE cable. (Yes, IDE, it's several years old.) Then when turning it on, no video, no beeps.

Fans are on, disks are spinning up.

I think that I didn't turn off the external main power the last time I plugged the IDE cable in to the mobo. The PC's front panel switch was turned off, but I the mobo was probably still live.

I've turned it off and on a dozen times, to no avail.

So: is it a write off?

Any other tests or advice? (Other than: replace the mobo, which is what I am hoping not to have to do.)

=================================

PS: one hour later; powered on with no expection of change, and I had video! (POST from BIOS).

I had unplugged all the drives, so couldn't do anything.

I'll plug and pray tomorrow (late night now.)

Is there some fuse/capacitor that has reset?

Any light anyone can throw on this, please advise.

I'd like to know WTF is going on.

I need this to be stable, I use it for my home office.

Edited May 8, 2012 by Asp

[jaclaz]

Is there some fuse/capacitor that has reset?

Any light anyone can throw on this, please advise.

I'd like to know WTF is going on.

Yes, it is possible.

A lot of circuits in a MB are protected by "electronic fuses" (they normally take 5 or 10 minutes to reset when completely UNpowered).

jaclaz

[puntoMX]

Most likely the RAM that needs to be reseated, I'm not joking. When you do this unplug the power-cord and push the start/power button a few times before re-seating the RAM. Also, check if pin 1 of the IDE cable is connected well; on most older motherboards it will not give you a boot/display when it's not correctly connected.

If this is a working tool I would have replaced it with something less old, 6 years and older is just a timebomb, sure new computer can fail as well but the risk is slimmer and you know you need a not-local backup too.

Why was the IDE cable replaced any way?

[Asp]

Most likely the RAM that needs to be reseated, I'm not joking. When you do this unplug the power-cord and push the start/power button a few times before re-seating the RAM.

If this is a working tool I would have replaced it with something less old, 6 years and older is just a timebomb, sure new computer can fail as well but the risk is slimmer and you know you need a not-local backup too.

Why was the IDE cable replaced any way?

Thanks.

Yeah, it's old. But cash is tight.

Backups on DVD and flash drives.

I was plugging in the old hard disk, on the secondary IDE with the optical drive, to try copying files back. I noticed that that had a plain 40 wire IDE cable, thought I might as well upgrade that to an 80 wire as I had one spare.

Yeah, "if it ain't broke".

Anyway, will cross my fingers and see how it is tomorrow.

[puntoMX]

Use the 80 wire one, much better performance.

If nothing helps, do a BIOS reset as well.

[Asp]

Connected the drives, killed a fatted calf, threw salt over my shoulder, and booted up.

Have now been formatting my new hard disk and copying files to it for the last hour.

Bullet dodged.

And the lesson learnt is: the only safe power off is the air gap. Pull the plug out before messing with the mother board.

[jaclaz]

And the lesson learnt is: the only safe power off is the air gap. Pull the plug out before messing with the mother board.

AND, the one you may learn (the hard way) the first time you open a power supply or an old monitor is: WAIT 15 minutes after having pulled the plug, as the biggish capacitors may hold a not-so-trifling charge for a few minutes .

jaclaz