> > A Gentoo desktop of mine won't turn on anymore. I was hoping it was
> > the power supply but I've installed a new one which doesn't fix the
> > problem. Is there a sure way to know if the motherboard needs
> > replacement or if I have two dead power supplies?
>
> Hi there,
>
> I work on PCs for a living, mostly peoples' home computers, and in
> the case of a "dead pc" the cause is nearly as often something else
> as it is a dead PSU.
>
> Causes such as a duff CD-ROM drive or a damaged USB connector are
> surprising but not uncommon, so reset the BIOS (using the method
> described by Volker) and if that doesn't work unplug as much as
> possible from the motherboard - you'll surely need the CPU & RAM for
> it to post, but you may wish to swap out the RAM at some point in
> your diagnostics - and unplug most everything else. That means
> drives, PCI cards, USB devices, stuff connected to the USB & serial
> headers, graphics card if possible. Also don't connect the power
> supply to any of the drives, or anything else that you're not
> currently using.
>
> I've seen cheap power supplies take out the motherboard when they go.
> Sorry if you find that to be the case.

I removed everything from the motherboard and even tried another CPU
that used to run on that same motherboard. No luck. I can't test the
power supply in my P3 router because the CPU power plug is different.

I should have said before that every couple times I try to turn it on,
the CPU fan spins about 2% of a full rotation and some of the LEDs
along the back light up for a second.

Would you guys say it is most likely the motherboard at this point?

- Grant
--
gentoo-user@(protected)