29 Aug
2011
29 Aug
'11
5:34 p.m.
--- On Mon, 8/29/11, Mike van Bokhoven <mike at fenz.net> wrote:
This one has a pretty obvious fault, it sinks too
much
current on a
yet-to-be-determined power supply line. Starting it up, the
PSU goes into a
startup/shutdown loop.
You can just use a multimeter to check the resistance of the power inputs to ground, to
isolate which rail is shorted out.
I'd definitely start by yanking out the RAM. RAM chips are common failures, and
they're easy to plug in backwards too. Also, check to make sure nobody plugged in the
CPU backwards or something.
In most cases of shorted boards, it's definitely possible to find the problem without
having to power up the board, by simply checking the resistance between power and ground.
Fortunately, all the chips on the motherboard are socketed...
-Ian