(PeteCresswell) wrote:
> Northbridge chip went up in smoke.
>
> Went to eBay, bought a replacement board from some guy in China.
>
> Clearly, it's used.
>
> ******* it into the case, plugged in the memory and cards, I
> *think* I plugged all the power and other connections correctly.
>
> Still, my first suspicion is RCI on the part of Yours Truly.
>
> Trying to fire it up: I can hear the HD spinning up, CPU fan
> comes on, all the other fans come on..... but nada on the screen.
>
> Tried disconnecting the SATA drive and inserting a DOS boot disk,
> but still nothing.
>
> There's a little green LED lit at the bottom of the PCI cards.
>
> Can anybody suggest an approach to narrow the problem down?
>
> Maybe some way to force a BIOS screen without any sort of boot
> media present?
Take motherboard, install CPU and heatsink, plug in CPU
fan, don't install RAM or video card, connect computer
case speaker to PANEL header, connect Power switch to
PANEL header, ensure ATX12V 2x2 connector is in place,
and the main power connector in place. Then test...
Expected result would be
1) Fan spinning - proves there is some +12V and that
power supply listens to PS_ON#.
2) Computer case speaker beeps the "missing RAM" pattern.
Receiving the missing RAM pattern is a good result, because
it means the CPU is able to read BIOS code, and program the
chip that creates the beep. If it won't beep, with CPU only
installed on the motherboard, suspect motherboard, contents
of BIOS chip versus processor type, or a power issue. Processors
are normally reliable, and blowing the Southbridge on the old
board shouldn't take out the processor. (A Northbridge issue
would be another matter, due to the large number of
signals between Northbridge and processor.)
If it'll beep, add RAM a stick at a time, add video and so
on. If it stops beeping, it could be the last component
added which caused the problem.
You can also try clearing the CMOS. Unplug the computer,
then follow the instructions in the downloadable
user manual.
Paul wrote:
> (PeteCresswell) wrote:
>> Northbridge chip went up in smoke.
>>
>> Went to eBay, bought a replacement board from some guy in China.
>>
>> Clearly, it's used.
>>
>> ******* it into the case, plugged in the memory and cards, I
>> *think* I plugged all the power and other connections correctly.
>>
>> Still, my first suspicion is RCI on the part of Yours Truly.
>>
>> Trying to fire it up: I can hear the HD spinning up, CPU fan
>> comes on, all the other fans come on..... but nada on the screen.
>>
>> Tried disconnecting the SATA drive and inserting a DOS boot disk,
>> but still nothing.
>>
>> There's a little green LED lit at the bottom of the PCI cards.
>>
>> Can anybody suggest an approach to narrow the problem down?
>>
>> Maybe some way to force a BIOS screen without any sort of boot
>> media present?
>
> Take motherboard, install CPU and heatsink, plug in CPU
> fan, don't install RAM or video card, connect computer
> case speaker to PANEL header, connect Power switch to
> PANEL header, ensure ATX12V 2x2 connector is in place,
> and the main power connector in place. Then test...
>
> Expected result would be
>
> 1) Fan spinning - proves there is some +12V and that
> power supply listens to PS_ON#.
> 2) Computer case speaker beeps the "missing RAM" pattern.
>
> Receiving the missing RAM pattern is a good result, because
> it means the CPU is able to read BIOS code, and program the
> chip that creates the beep. If it won't beep, with CPU only
> installed on the motherboard, suspect motherboard, contents
> of BIOS chip versus processor type, or a power issue. Processors
> are normally reliable, and blowing the Southbridge on the old
> board shouldn't take out the processor. (A Northbridge issue
> would be another matter, due to the large number of
> signals between Northbridge and processor.)
>
The OP claimed it was the Northbridge chip that went up in smoke. I
understand this is quite unusual for this board where the Southbridge
chip is the sensitive part and you can really see the physical damage on
the chip in most cases. Hopefully the OP has made a wrong diagnosis.
Per th:
>The OP claimed it was the Northbridge chip that went up in smoke. I
>understand this is quite unusual for this board where the Southbridge
>chip is the sensitive part and you can really see the physical damage on
>the chip in most cases. Hopefully the OP has made a wrong diagnosis.
The OP doesn't really know what he's talking about.
He compared a pic of his fried/melted chip to something he found
on the web that was touted as a Northbridge chip failure and
assumed that was it.
He's gonna try Paul's procedure after work tomorrow.
On Dec 7, 4:35*pm, "(PeteCresswell)" <x...@y.Invalid> wrote:
> Northbridge chip went up in smoke.
>
Northbridge chip went up in smoke. That means something must totally
wrong. The faulty power supply may be one of the reasons.
Northbridge chip has heatsink, so they rarely see burning holes if
they get too hot.
I see many ich5 southbridge with holes,but no northbridge.
Make sure your power supply is not bad. A bad power supply can fry any
board.
Per Eric:
>The faulty power supply may be one of the reasons.
>Northbridge chip has heatsink, so they rarely see burning holes if
>they get too hot.
>I see many ich5 southbridge with holes,but no northbridge.
I think that clinches it then: I had identified the wrong chip
and it's the SouthBridge chip that went. This thing had no heat
sink on it.
--
PeteCresswell
P4P800-E: Troubleshooting? 
Linear Mode
