PC is fubar'd

[luv2luvlong]

Are the switches, by chance connected too a small circuit board? If so i'ld recomend metering the switches if you know how. The area of impact is usually where the problem is found, if not that, did it fall or was it just a hard hit that jostled the chasis?

[Cerveza]

I'll do the PS later this evening after everyone's asleep. The switches are just push button -> header on the mother board, the only circuit board in the front is for the audio, and I discon'd it early on.

After everyone's out, I'll try the fans. Putting a known good fan on the CPU FAN header and see if it's an RPM issue. I kinda doubt that. Then I'll open up this PC and just plug in my MB to this PS and see if it's my PS that failed.

The impact might have jarred something loose in the PS. I remember it going into alarm a couple times in the middle of the night, but it reset just fine each time. It could be that the PS was faulting then and the soccer ball just finished the job.

[Cerveza]

Fans were no change.

PS was no change.

Looks like I'll be needing a new MB for sure, and hopefully I can find a 939, else I'll have to get a full array of gear.

[TrailMyx]

I just bought a spare 939 motherboard at www.geeks.com for $29.99

http://www.geeks.com/details.asp?invtid=NF4K8AC-RS-10&cat=MBB

I goto the Geeks here just because I can drive to Oceanside to pick stuff up. 

[Cerveza]

Well.... as a last ditch, and to check a suspicion I had...

I pulled the MB. I knew I'd have to anyways and with everything disconnected it was a snap.

I put it on a cardboard box and took out the power switch, connected it and the power supply and fired it up.

It ran through a ton of numbers NOT STOPPING AND BEEPING!

I had a last hunch that maybe the shock to the case moved the MB enough to short/ground something. I noticed that all the standoffs except one were loose.

I'll get some small rubber washers tomorrow and isolate the standoffs. I also have to make sure the back side isn't coming in contact with anything there. Then I'll fire it back up in the case and see what happens.

[TrailMyx]

Hmm, methinks desperation has set in. 

[Cerveza]

Typing this from my PC.

I put a double level of electrical tape on all the standoffs and put a strip of tape along the back edge (where the MB is close to the back) just in case there was something touching there. I also taped the bottom side of the metal "frame" where the USB, sound, LAN stuff goes.

Put the MB back in and it ran through a BUNCH of codes, not stopping and beeping at the beginning.

Reassembled everything, rerouted some stuff, taped some stuff together, and put it all back in and it's working great.

I figure the MB slipped enough to short against the back someplace. I don't think it's a standoff, but to be sure I taped them anyways. Why do they make metal standoffs anyways?

SO... dodged a bullet this time. I need to keep my eyes open on a new MB/CPU/FAN/RAM set though, never know when the next GOAL might go astray. 

[Xclio]

Glad you got it fixed, at least you don't have to buy something new unexpectedly this time

[TrailMyx]

Wow, sometimes desperate measures are required!  You did miss the golden excuse for a new computer, though!  I woulda taken that one all the way to the bank.  heh.

[Masscre]

The metal standoffs are for grounding of cetain points on the MB.  It does not need all metal standoffs just certain ones, but the manufacturer instead of making a few metal and a few plastic makes all them the same