Tech Torment

 It can be a bummer being the "IT Guy" to friends (or family) sometimes. I mean, I don't like being responsible for other people and their things, but mostly I'm really frustrated when I can't solve a problem. It feels like I'm letting down someone close on top of the basic annoyance of failure.

My friend's computer really has me stumped.

She got components for Christmas and put them together, but nothing powered on. I looked at it without much luck. The motherboard has actually been replaced twice now and it still doesn't work, but I cannot fathom what the issue is.

Normally, when a computer won't turn on, I first blame the PSU. That seems one of the more failure-prone components in a computer.

What happens?

When all connected and the PSU switch turned on, there's an RGB light on the motherboard that comes on, but that's it. The computer itself cannot be switched on with the power button, the diagnostic error lights on the motherboard do not come on, no fans spin up.

Is it the PSU? 

Well, I don't think so. The PSU itself will come on if doing a "paperclip test" connecting the power and ground wires on the main ATX connector. Doing that causes the PSU fan to spin up. Other fans plugged into the power come on. I've tested the voltage on the 24-pin ATX connector and all pins seemed fine. The 4+4 pin connectors for the CPU seem okay to me, though I didn't voltage test those. With connections other than the 24-pin attached, power gets through the motherboard to the CPU cooler, which lights up.

Could it be the case?

The connection from the case switches/lights to the CPU are tiny things, easy to connect to the wrong pins. But you should be able to bypass that by connecting the power button and ground pins on the motherboard. Tried that both with metal screwdriver and piece of wire to no effect. I think that lets me rule out the case, at least.

Is it the CPU?

Again, I don't think so. If the CPU were completely wrong, it wouldn't fit. Even if it used the same pin layout but was incompatible with the board or otherwise bad, I believe the computer should power up enough for fans to come on and the motherboard should light the diagnostic LED on it marked "CPU." That does not happen.

Is it the RAM? Or the graphics card?

In both cases, I believe the same thing should happen as the CPU - the computer really should power on further and the motherboard should show the corresponding error light as there are lights for both those components. I believe I did try booting with only one stick of RAM, or no RAM and no graphics card. none of that made a difference.

What does that leave?

Well, the motherboard and the connections? We've both redone the connections numerous times and I'm as close as I can be to certain we didn't miss anything. Yet I find it unfathomable that three motherboards in a row would be faulty in some way that prevents booting.

What's next?

F- if I know? If I had a stockpile of compatible components, I could start swapping out to try to narrow things down, but I don't. And exchanging anything this far after the purchase date is now difficult and uncertain. I don't believe I have encounter a computer issue this hard to pin down, though. They can be mysterious, but usually not this stupifying.


P.S. I'm told the CPU was removed and found to be missing a pin, so that is believed the source of the problem.

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