My amd athlon 3200 system quit on me a week and a half ago. 1.5 gb ram, nvidia 6800gt, 600watt psu, 1sataHD, cdrom, floppy etc. Ive read a few dozen threads on general failures and have tried everything I've seen suggested. I guess I'm just posting because I refuse to give up on this computer which worked so well just days ago.

The system shut down while using it and wouldnt boot back up. Suspected psu so took it out and sniffed the case :lol:. No real smell no obvious problem inside or out of my ultra 600watt psu. Plugged back in and I got the what seems to be classic component failure symptoms where the lights and fans spin, as well as the HD, but no POST - beeps etc (and the power comes on without using the case power and reset).

I happened to have multiple components for everything between myself and friends and I did the following:

Reseated all rams, cards etc. Took all hardware off gigabyte mb and placed on Asus mb. Still symptoms persisted. Switched multiple psu (3). Switched out 3 agp video cards. Rotated the ram individually through all slots. Tried everything with and without all fans, media drives and so forth.

Repeated this all back on the gigabyte. Finally I bought another cpu off newegg suspecting the amd 3200 cpu crapped out. Same problem with new 3200 on my socket 754 boards! I even built the computer on a table barebones with the VERY minimal hardware. Now Im just desperate. Im switching the connection cables out trying different sata outlets on the board... anything. I've reset the cmos by taking out the battery while unplugged for 30 minutes. The only thing I havent switched from off the original system is ram but I have tried both sticks individually guessing both werent shot at once somehow. Also I havent tried another hard drive (if that matters with boot and POST issues - ???) because I can still hear mine powering up and spinning. Please tell me I have missed something else.

The only thing I've been able to do to alter the symptoms at all was to detach certain components (one at a time while the system is off) and cause the fans to turn off after a few seconds while the psu continues to run w/ fans. This seems to be the only clue (if it is a clue - ???) and I have gotten NO BEEPS at all.

The saddest thing is I was just in the process of finishing a new system and cleaning this one up for a friend when it quit. Now I refuse to even start my new intel c2d w/8800gtx until I FIX MY OLD ONE. Hope this doesnt baffle anyone too badly.

The "snif" test is unreliable.
Remove ALL components, i.e. hard drives, floppy, cd, etc. and start from scratch, slowly. (Don't add any devices until you've gotten a successful boot (complete post) at the most basic point.)
Bad, wrong RAM modules do not usually cause a NO POST scenario. Incomplete post yes, no post no.
If you're not POSTing then what may or may not be on the HD is not an issue, you apparently aren't getting that far (to the HD).
Removing the battery for reset only takes a few seconds. That happens in just the amount of time that the batt. is out.
DO NOT add/remove any device while the psu POWER is on.
The PSU fan runs on 12vDC, at least one of the power leads off of the mb power headder is about 12vAC which is REQUIRED for some mb functions.

The computer powering up without using the power button makes me wonder about your motherboard. The PSU shouldn't come on unless the motherboard makes the connection between the power supply on wire (green wire in 20/24 pin connector) and ground.

Both motherboards I had were bad. New one fixed problem.

Glad to hear you solved your problem.