PC hardware forum: component failure?

Do you still have that book that came with your motherboard? ehh, probably not. that should have some generic help information about this sort of thing.

Also, You probably have more memory than 2 mb. Maybe 2 Gigs? Your mother board isn't a VIA PM 800-2. That is the chipset.

I would personally start with general diagnostics. are all the plugs (ac 115 or whathave you) getting juice? cause if your son kicked the cord or the socket and it broke, you might not feel so great about getting out a multi meter and checking for voltage.

speaking of multi meter, that may be your next step. i am fairly sure one of the 12 v + coming off the powersupply should be getting constant voltage. take a multimeter and test each of the different wires. obviosly black is ground, so keep one connecter grounded and check the others. the multi meter should be set to check for current between 3v and 12v dc.

If there is power, I want to say that the mobo is dead. (Oh, also check the wires between the board and the case powere button. try shorting these two with a screwdriver. if the beast powers up, you have some soldering to do on the power button.) But just in case, switch around the ram a couple few times (this works sometimes. No effing clue why...). by swith the ram i mean move the modules to open spaces, take out some modules, and try all combinations. repeat.

If this hasn't worked thus far, you may be fighting a losing battle. Look on the board for little burn marks. look for blown capasiters. or just buy a new board.

I believe that the speaker will give some type of beep if the cpu is dead. I can't remember exacly what type of trouble shooting to use to check for bad cpu.

Good luck

chris