No Power to Mouse or Keyboard, Monitor Blank

[JPH]

No Power to Mouse or Keyboard, Monitor stuck in Power Save Mode (Amber Light)

Hello all,

My G/F's computer recently quit working all of a sudden. It's an old Gateway computer that she bought years ago, the CPU is a 1.2Ghz Celeron (I know). I'm not sure of the exact model of the mobo but I think it's an Intel Desktop Board. Anyway, it was working fine the night before and then the next morning when she turned it on there was no power to the mouse or keyboard and the monitor was stuck in power save mode (amber light). The monitor itself is a Dell flat screen that I gave her. The machine is pretty much the way it came from Gateway except for a few things I've installed. Those things being a CD/DVD burner, a Linksys PCI card and a GeForce FX 5500 128MB PCI vid card (No AGP on this thing) so that she could play a few less demanding games.

Searching for information about the problem always leads me to a forum where someone had the same symptoms and the common answer was, "Sounds like the PSU." Her PSU however is working properly, it even has a little green light on it and a test switch. All the fans are running (CPU, PSU, Vid Card) and the machine boots up fine (green lights) but there is no POST beep. In fact, this thing never had a post beep since I've known her that I or she can remember. The hard drive doesn't sound like it's spinning either. I have pulled out the PCI cards and got the same result, I've also re-seated the RAM. Other than attempting to figure out what's wrong now, we have not made any changes to this computer since installing the vid card months ago. I was going to try clearing the CMOS but I wanted to post here first. I personally think that the mobo is fried but I hope that I'm wrong. Any help would be greatly appreciated. Thank you for taking the time to read this.

Windows XP Home, SP2
Gateway PC Model # MFATXSTL KTH 300SE
Intel Desktop Mobo (?)
1.2Ghz Celeron
256MB RAM
40GB Seagate Barracuda
eVGA e-GeForce FX 5500 128MB Graphics Card
Linksys Wireless-B WMP11 PCI Card

[GX1_Man]

Whether the power supply works at all or works correctly are two different things. How old and what wattage does it claimn to have? Can you put another PSU in there to test? Did this all happen after the new video card? That may have been enough extra drain to speed up it's demise.

[JPH]

Hi GX1_Man,

Thanks for responding. The power supply came with the PC so it's from 2002. It claims to be only 200W, not enough. I put in the video card more than 3 months ago but as you said it probably has been draining it this whole time. I'm going to pull a PSU from another computer and I'll post the results. Thanks again!

[GX1_Man]

Keep us posted!  

[JPH]

Ok, I tried four different PSU's all with the same results. Two 250W and two more 200W units. (That's all I had to work with unfortunately) As you probably guessed I have lots of old PCs with spare parts laying around. I'm writing this from my notebook, if this were a desktop I would have taken the PSU out of this too.  So any ideas where I should go from here? Thanks in advance.

[Backdated]

Have you substituted the gfx card, memory etc as a test? Have you disconnected all peripherals such as drives etc (Remove power and data cables)?

[JPH]

Yes I have substituted the gfx card, I have also removed both PCI cards altogether. I've also removed the HDD, the memory and the CD/DVD burner & CD-Rom drive.

[Backdated]

If everything has been disconnected or substituted then it looks like a motherboard/processor failure.
ATX PSUs can be tested "out of the box" by connecting the green wire to any of the black wires.

[JPH]

That's what I was afraid of, is there any way that I can test if it is one or the other? I don't have an extra mobo that this CPU will fit and I don't have an extra CPU that fits this mobo.

[Backdated]

Not that I know of without utilising some pretty expensive equipment. Maybe a local computer shop will help out?

[JPH]

OK, thank you both very much for you help.

[Backdated]

Just a thought and sorry if you've mentioned it but have you substituted the monitor or even simply unplugged it from the gfx card?

[JPH]

Yes, I tried a different monitor which went into power save mode also (amber light) and out of desperation in the beginning I tried unplugging the monitor from the gfx card to see if the keyboard and mouse would get power.
No luck of course.