My PC is on it's way out, and I'm stumped

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adam_d
Posts: 39
Joined: Tue Sep 11, 2007 9:12 am

My PC is on it's way out, and I'm stumped

Post by adam_d »

Hey guys, my main PC is having a very strange death. It's a Gateway GM5024b with Foxconn C51GU01 motherboard. I shut it off one night, went to turn it on the next day, and I got lights, full speed fans, no display, no beeps, nothing. It kept doing this when I rebooted, so I tried disconnecting everything inside, replacing CMOS battery and reseating the RAM/video cards. Still did the same, so I had a google, apparently this board failing completely is a common problem, and a replacement is expensive (it seems like all you can get is a reconditioned board, even that is more than a brand new board) and it's a BTX case and board, which makes it more difficult. I thought it'd be a good idea to go for a rebuild, but today I powered it up, and it did a strained beep and locked up at the BIOS screen. I tried rebooting, but it went back to the old fans and lights state.
I've found out if I leave it for a while, it will power up, fans will settle, but it will jam at the BIOS screen. If I immediately reboot, it goes into the fans and lights state, and I have to wait again. All of the fans work, and it has never suffered any problems in the past, it was just a sudden failure.

Might there be any life left, or am I just being too hopeful, and the board is gone? :(

Edit: Sorry, just noticed I posted this in the wrong forum :oops:
timmeh87
Senior Member
Posts: 3047
Joined: Mon Nov 14, 2005 10:19 pm
Location: Ontario, Canada

Re: My PC is on it's way out, and I'm stumped

Post by timmeh87 »

Sounds like you gone one of the bad Nvidia chips. They had a huge scandal like... a year ago. two years. They shipped a ton of bad chips and/or chipsets that eventually fail due to heat stresses. Some manufacturers did limited recalls but mostly consumers got shafted.

A few of the contacts on one of the chips on the board are could be cracked and not making good contact. the chip rests on top of thousands of balls of solder and its glued down. You cant do anything.

Don't bother buying a replacement motherboard if you determine you have the problem I'm talking about, it will have the same problem.
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