Hello, now I'm getting fairly desperate. I power on the PC and the light comes on the tower case, the HDD access light comes on, but nothing appears on the screen. No BIOS startup, no beeps, nothing. If I leave it, it stays like that forever. It's a 2006 vintage desktop running XP that has been misbehaving for a while now. This morning it gave me an error during the BIOS startup ( which I can't remember now ) but I looked it up and the solution was to replace the motherboard battery. So I did. And now I don't even get the error. I tested the voltage of the old battery against the new and they are both the same ( about 3.16 volts ), so ow I don't believe it's a problem with the battery. The mobo is a ECS C51GM-M. There are no signs of a burn-out that I can see. I just have no idea where to begin to fix this. Does anyone have any ideas ? Other than chuck it away and buy a new one. Hope to hear, cheers Rob
Since I've had no replies so far. I'll let you all know that I've tested the power supply with my DMM. All sockets are producing the correct voltage. Other sources suggest it's the Mobo ! And since I changed the battery on the Mobo it's possible I've shorted something as I forgot to ground myself before touching it. Problem is they no longer produce the ECS C51GM-M which is in my system. So now the task of finding an equivelent replacement ! Any ideas ? Rob
So any Mobo of that type would do ? All components ( RAM graphics card etc ) would all just slot back in ? excuse my ignorance.
You will have to match up your Motherboard to another Socket AM2 mATX motherboard... What CPU /Processor do you have ??? Of course this means stating all over with your OS...
2.4 GHz AMD Athlon 64 X2 Dual Core Windows XP sp3 NVIDIA GeForce7900GT graphics card 2 GB RAM Why would I need to reinstall my OS ? Would I also have to reformat the C Drive ? cheers Rob
When you change your Motherboard to another one, Your drivers will ALL be different..Yes ! you will have to reformat C: drive.. UNLESS YOU GET THE EXACT SAME MOTHERBOARD..
Holy crap ! I really hope I can track down an identical Mobo. Any ideas ? I have already emailed ECS ( Mobo manufacturers ), but who knows if I'll get an answer ?
The AM2 motherboard is out of date, the newer AM3 is most used now days.. but look here.. http://www.outletpc.com/sm5761.html
So the Biostar from PCOutlet would do the job ? ( no stock ) Would the AM3 Mobos not work with my system ? I'm in the UK, not sure if they ship overseas !
You can do a Google search for that Motherboard socket AM2, just make sure it will take your memory, it has to be the same ... If you look hard enough you might fine a used one, the same thing... But if it was me, I would buy a new AM2 board..
And then just reinstall XP with all the upgrades and Sps and lose my data ! Hells teeth. This is a much more serious problem than I 1st thought. Cheers for the help all the same.
You must have computer shops over there...just do allot of looking/research first.. NO ON THE AM3 BOARD..UNLESS you buy a motherboard combo... When you upgrade to the AM3 board, you will need the AM3 board with Matching CPU and Ram...
You can back up all your stuff to either DVD or a flash drive...If you have access to anther desktop, you can piggy back your hard drive to remove all your important stuff..
OK I'm resigned to the task. It's never simple. I'm not even 100% sure it's the Mobo. But I don't see what else it could be. Yeah we have Maplin, rather than Radioshack as well as online outlets. (8-((
I believe this Motherboard will work for you.. http://www.ebuyer.com/394513-biosta...2-vga-6-channel-audio-matx-motherboard-a780lb
Thanks for finding it, I'll take a look. Seems nice and cheap. Just wish I could avoid all the re-installation aggro !
