Desktop will not boot, what am I missing??

[AZpro]

Working on a Pavillion p7-1510 desktop. Told that sometime after upgrading to win 10 from win 8 it would not boot. Symptom is power turns on, fans work, light on front of case come on but blank monitor. No bios screen and no post beeps. Hard drive light blinks for just a couple of seconds then stays off. I have done the following - installed known good video card to bypass onboard one, no joy. Used a known good psu, no joy. Replaced ram, no joy. Cleared the CMOS, no joy. Replace CPU with same model, no joy. Ordered used motherboard and replaced, no joy. Tried hard drive from another machine that was running same hardware, no joy. The only thing I can think of is that the replacement motherboard is bad, as is the one I am working with???? I have pulled the hard drive and it is readable slaved to a workbench machine. Any advice or ideas would be greatly appreciated.

 

[Porthos]

You have done more than I or most here would have done on a cheap HP consumer computer. You seem to have covered all your bases.

 

[AZpro]

so frustrating, have never had to return a computer not fixed.

 

[nlinecomputers]

Shorted to the chassis perhaps? Test the motherboard on the bench and not in the chassis.

 

[DataMedics]

Perhaps a stupid question, but you are making sure to connect the 4 pin CPU power from the power supply to the motherboard right? I know without it fans will spin up, but you'll be looking at a black screen.

 

[AZpro]

I like that idea, chassis is common thread but I just tried it and same thing again, no joy.

 

[AZpro]

DataMedics - yes I have the 4 pin connected. I thought the same thing and actually tried 2 psu's just to be sure.

 

[Slaters Kustum Machines]

If you have tried the boards outside of the chassis it sounds like you got a bad board. You seem to have covered about everything I could think of.

 

[AZpro]

This makes no sense. There is no way after replacing every single part it keeps doing this. On two motherboards.

 

[nlinecomputers]

This makes no sense. There is no way after replacing every single part it keeps doing this. On two motherboards.

It does if you have TWO bad components and one is frying the motherboard. It's likely your original CPU is also bad. You pop it in the new board and promptly cook it.

 

[kwest]

Jesus. Call it the motherboard and offer a new computer and data transfer and setup.

I usually do this after testing everything except the motherboard and processor.

 

[AZpro]

nlinecomputers - I came to the same conclusion, 2 bad components on original setup is the only scenario I can think of that makes sense.

 

[AZpro]

kwest - I don't usually spend this much time and effort chasing my tail. I think you have the right idea, upsell, offer a solid solution, make some money and move on.

 

[ComputerRepairTech]

leaving the hard drive in while testing is not something I do but I don't do a lot of hardware troubleshooting these days. the order you listed things seems a lil inefficient to me but I just wanted to double check, you did swap things back after trying them right? For example you put the video card in to see if that would work and when it didn't you took it right back out, you tried different ram in there and when it didnt work you put the old one back right right? I just wanted to be sure you didnt do something like slowly swap in new parts then finally replace motherboard and use the new parts without trying the old ones. You know like a scenario where maybe the old mb was bad but the new ram that you had put in isnt compatible so new mb doesnt boot with new ram.

 

[AZpro]

ComputerRepairTech - yes I did, the laundry list of things I have tried is just that, a laundry list and not in chronological order.

 

[ohio_grad_06]

Honestly, as stated, you've done what you can. When there are situations like that, just tell them you think the board is bad, and upsell a new computer. What I tell folks is that by the time they pay me or someone else to take the old board out, install a new one, plus the price of the board, the labor+parts are more than their machine is worth, and that it would be easier to migrate their data to a new machine with a warranty and move on with life.

 

[NETWizz]

It is almost certainly the motherboard. Does it have any bulging caps?

CPUs generally do not go bad... I have seen only one (1) in my entire career.

If you have just one (1) stick of RAM, motherboard, CPU/cooler, power supply, monitor, and keyboard plugged in on your bench, and it does not POST with the BIOS screen... AND you are certain the PSU is good, monitor is good, and ram is good, you can call it the Motherboard after resetting CMOS.

 

[cypress]

Honestly, as stated, you've done what you can. When there are situations like that, just tell them you think the board is bad, and upsell a new computer. What I tell folks is that by the time they pay me or someone else to take the old board out, install a new one, plus the price of the board, the labor+parts are more than their machine is worth, and that it would be easier to migrate their data to a new machine with a warranty and move on with life.

Yup pretty much this.

 

[AZpro]

Just to tie a ribbon on this thread the issue turned out to be a second bad motherboard. The one ordered to replace the first was also bad. I purchased a cheap motherboard on ebay and installed it - success. RMA'd the bad mobo I had ordered previous, got paid for parts and a little labor and managed to make customer happy. I realize what a ridiculous amount of effort went into this but I really wanted to know what the issue was. Thanks to all that provided their thoughts on this cluster.

 

[brandonkick]

Some people scoff at the idea, but it's very possible that your "new" part isn't good.... as you've seen.

A new part isn't always a good part.