Motherboard Died
 

Hello everyone! Funny thing was I got another computer up and running and ended up using it to fix my computer that just crashed.

I have ubuntu lucid 64bit install with
9500gt nvidia graphics
amdx2 64 58Ghz processor
and Asus Mobo m2a-VM

Now my computer was idle and I noticed it was froze on the screen saver and wouldn't respond so I hard restarted the computer and It booted to the bios and froze then I restarted again and it wouldn't even load to the bios. Is there anything in ubuntu that I might have messed with to cause my mobo to crash and not work again. My processor, ram, and all my other accessories still work with a different (older) asus mobo m2n-tvm?

Thanks

Hi -

If it won't even boot to the BIOS, it sounds like you're kind of S.O.L....

Please try the following (obvious, I'm sure, but...):

1. Reset the BIOS (most motherboards have a jumper for this purpose)

2. Check the power supply

3. Remove individual components (including RAM, and the keyboard!) and restore them one at a time until you get a boot (or give up and buy a new motherboard)

Are you sure that it is the motherboard? Freezes can (and in my experience mostly are) caused by a faulty PSU. I would try that to be sure. Otherwise I would assume that it is pure coincidence, I don't think it was your Ubuntu that made the error. But to exclude the very rare case that it might be, have you tried to reset your BIOS?

Yes I did all this prior to posting. My PSU is hooked up to a different mobo right now and it works just fine with all my ram, cpu and hard drives. so as far as I can tell they seem to be fine. My old motherboard is hooked up to a scrap atx case with only the psu and a monitor hooked up and the only response I get is the cpu fan starts up and black screen then the monitor gets the no signal. So yea I believe I am S.O.L lol. By the way does anybody know any makers who make linux certified boards. I've never seen them.

Just an update Further testing but still unsure, I think it might the PSU. I hooked another mother board up to the PSU and got the same problem. But the motherboard wouldn't boot back to bios even with a different PSU. I reset checksum and put multiple Ram sticks in their and test all the ram. Once I got a bad test with memtest with 1 ram stick but I reseated and ran the test again and it cleared. So After screwing with all my CMOS, Ram and PSU(S), I think my conclusion is a faulty PSU. I guess I just have to wait to get a PSU test to confirm that though. I am using a different PSU now with my orginal mobo that I thought died. So In time will tell.

Just let this post be a lesson to some. Just because a PSU, Ram, may be quality cheap it may be better off going with your mobo recommendations and a more expensive PSU.