Maximum PC

A friend of my mothers had some PC problems lately and wanted me to do the work, instead of hiring a company. I know a modest amount, but I'm not an expert.

It's a Compaq Presario SR2173WM Desktop:
http://h10025.www1.hp.com/ewfrf/wc/docu ... 352589#N65

I have come to the conclusion that her Motherboard is the culprit and I would like some help getting one, for cheap. I have been out of the PC world for a few years, so not sure the best place to shop anymore. I would love it if you guys could post some links on a new one that would be compatible, for less than $75USD, cheaper the better. She doesn't want anything fancy, no games or anything, just browsing the Internet.

Let me tell you about what's going on with the PC. A couple days ago she was getting no signal to her monitor, she called me over and I unplugged the monitor and PC, it booted right up afterwards. A few weeks later she called me about the same thing, this time unplugging didn't help, it would not POST. I grabbed a working monitor from my house, that didn't work either. I then took the PC to my house and tried various things, nothing helped.

The only hardware change that was made to this PC, was a few months ago I installed 4gb of RAM over her 1gb.
She uses onboard Video btw
Here are the things I have tried so far:

Different PSU
Clearing CMOS, Jumpers & Battery
Different Monitor
Changing RAM around
Tried with no HDD, tried it with a different HD
Tried with a PCI GPU
Used different power/monitor cables
Tried a Barebones boot
Reseated CPU/made sure everything was pushed in completely

The PC turns on..Lights, Fans, HDD Lights - but no signal on Monitor. This PC doesn't have a Speaker to hear POST Beeps, so the only thing I can think of is the MoBo is bad.

Thanks in advance for any insight you can offer, sooner the better!!!

~Mike.

Question: is the motherboard mounted on the left side or right side, in relation to the front? And if left side, are the expansion slots on the bottom?

If this is the case, the computer is using a BTX formfactor motherboard, which you won't find anywhere. Even a MicroATX motherboard wouldn't be physically compatible (the I/O would be in the wrong place).

PSU is up top and Slots are at the bottom. ...so Left yea.

Guess I'll need to get a case then?!

The CPU is in the Link. Only going to be used to browsing the Internet. Has vista on it.

I guess since the BTX Board isn't going to work, would be be a better bet to buy new parts in total, new Case, MoBo, CPU? I thought this would be a fast and easy fix, lol.

He needs a new case. BTX cases will not fit an ATX motherboard without modification.

Any insight as to whether I'm correct about this being the MoBo?

If it resembles this (note where the IO panel and expansion slots are), then it's BTX.

I also had a herp-derp moment, I took a closer link provided. The picture provided looks like an ATX motherboard. But I want to be sure what the form factor really is.

It doesn't look like the Pic you provided....so I guess mines an Micro-ATX then, lol.


Also, looking for advice on another way to check that the MoBo is failing...I got to thinking, maybe the CPU is the problem....I don't know anymore..sigh

Well the only way you can is to get another CPU that fits the socket. If you have $20 to spare, you can buy one of these many refurbs from Newegg

It sounds like you did a bunch of testing already, but without a working PC that you can swap parts into, I don't know if you will be able to find the culprit. From your tests thus far, it's probably not the PSU, monitor, HDD or cables. Therefore, one or more issues could exist with the CPU, one of more RAM modules (unless you tried each and every one in different slots), the on-board video or something else on the mobo.

If you are at your wits end, I concur with kleinkinstein - perhaps a new PC is in order. Athlon 64 is probably not as old as BTX though, but dinosaur enough lol. I could be wrong.

If your helpee is a senior, a laptop might not be suitable - small screen size, awkward kb, etc. Perhaps a Dell-like so-called custom PC? If budget is an issue, maybe a newer open box PC on the Egg that you could troubleshoot better if necessary? Or a custom build by you, of course, if you have the time and energy

Well, guess I'll talk to her to see what she wants to do. I do know that she doesn't want to spend a lot, as she uses a Tablet mostly. Yea, I tried every combo of RAM-Swapping possible. Might just order one of the cheap CPU's first to test that out, if they allow returns on it?!

That is clearly a micro-ATX AM2 MB from the image and the linked spec states so, but it lists a socket 939 CPU. Here is the correct broken link. You may have to buy used/reconditioned off of eBay/Craigslist.

Not worth doing.

A new MB must support DDR2, and the current CPU and use nVidia graphics to likely allow just a swap without reinstalling the OS (from a retail/OEM) not HP/Compaq disk. Even then the graphics chip would likely have to be series 7 or 8 just to get enough boot to allow updating the graphics driver. You could try booting in safe mode and hope its low rez VGA graphics allows uninstalling the nVidia graphics driver...but I would not be optimistic.

Depending upon which of 7 models of CPU that is, this MB should work (CPU support list), but it only has 2 DDR2 slots and it uses AMD graphics not nVidia so either a safe mode entry to remove the nVidia driver or a clean install with the same version of the OS as the product key on the case would be needed.