On Sep 28, 10:24*pm, Dave Headley wrote:

I know this is OT for the DIYers but there's some brilliant computer
gurus in there and I need all the help I can get as I'm losing my hair
on this one.

Right, a friend rang me to say that there had been a burning smell from
the computer (Packard Bell iMedia X2416 running Windows Vista). When I
got it there were no signs of life whatsoever - no fans or drives
spinning, no BIOS beeps, nothing. Previous experience led me to think
the PSU had died but it tested OK with all voltages being within range.
As a 'belt and braces' test I also put it into my own machine and it did
indeed power up my computer and worked well. I also tried a known good
PSU in his machine but still no life there at all.

Next I took his RAM, put it in my machine, and ran Memtest86+. I let it
complete one pass and there were no errors, so I let it continue to run
(actually left it running overnight with no errors) while I hooked his
hard drive to another spare computer I have here. It booted OK but of
course it didn't have my motherboard (or any other) drivers installed so
it complained about that but it did spin up and boot, so that's OK.

So now it's either motherboard or processor and from what I know,
processors very rarely give any trouble, so I plumped for a faulty
motherboard. I found one available on Ebay, used but tested and with
warranty (it's a MCP73PVT-PM by the way) so I got it.

I put it all together on the bench, powered up, and we now have signs of
life - but it's now in a BSOD loop. It POSTs OK and it gives one BIOS
beep as it normally would but then blue screens and reboots ad
infinitum, with an odd different BSOD thrown in for good measure. I sent
that mobo back under warranty and got another one, but this one also
displays EXACTLY the same symptoms, leading me to believe that the first
mobo I got from him wasn't actually faulty after all.

That would imply that it's the CPU at fault but I don't have a spare
Intel Core 2 Quad Q8200 lying around to test it with, and the cheapest I
can find is 65 quid for a used one on Ebay (brand new ones are over 100)
so I don't particularly want to go down that route.

Plus the fact that I've now got some diagnostic software (PC Check) and,
as you'll see in these photos here, the motherboard and processor pass
all tests

http://s137.photobucket.com/albums/q...ackard%20Bell/

So, where do I go from here? Is the diagnostic software accurate or
could there still be problems with mobo/CPU? What can I do now? Please
help before I tear all my hair out *:-)

Cheers

The problem is with windows, not with the hardware. As said, fire it
up with a linux cd, should work perfectly. Note not all linux cds
run on al machines, if one wont boot try a couple of others.


NT