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[PsiFire]

So I have a patient on the table (see what happens when you combine medic and geek?). It's a Pavilion s3100n. Client said it stopped working - "the kids did something to it".

Of course the first thing I do when I start working on it is plug it in. It seems to turn on immediately after getting power from Edison. No press of the power button needed. No POST unfortunately. Some quick googling shows issues in the past with this model and loose power cords from the PS at the mobo. I finally got a pulse and POST when I pulled and played with the power cord a bit.

System still seems to power on the second I plug it in tho. Is this normal? It powers off when you hold the power switch for 4 seconds. And behaves normally otherwise. It's basically an Asus M2NC51-AR motherboard in disguise.

http://h10025.www1.hp.com/ewfrf/wc/document?lc=en&cc=us&docname=c00910076&dlc=en

Input?

[PsiFire]

Right now I'm doing a virus scan on the drive in a second computer (found several - swap file, restore file, bunch of temp internet files, etc). Once done I'll slap it back in the box and see if she boots.

[AMDinside]

That is definitely strange that it turns on upon receiving power.  It may be a BIOS setting, like the one that makes it turn turn itself on again should it lose power.

[PsiFire]

Turns out it is a known issue with this particular motherboard. It POSTs when it wants to. I can't seem to find any particular action that makes it POST/not-POST. I've told the client that it might be a better idea to just buy a new machine since she can get an HP slimline that has better specs than this one (albiet only a Sempron) for about $300. A "new" motherboard from ebay would cost her about $110 plus whatever I charge her for the job. That's more than half the cost of a new machine. I think the decision is an easy one, but not mine to make. Waiting on her decision.

[GenTsoChiken]

its great how most problems are solved by "getting a new computer"

[PsiFire]

It's sad that HP uses Asus motherboards. Again it highlights the lack of quality being pushed out by Asus nowadays. If they want another HP, I'll likely call HP first and make sure they're NOT using an Asus motherboard. Else they get a Dell.

[AMDinside]

It isn't a lack of quality by Asus, but restrictions applied by HP.  They have Asus build the cheapest mobo's possible, so it isn't surprising they are crap.  The boards are probably only worth $30.

[PsiFire]

It's not just the ones that are used in HP machines. I've had multiple issues with multiple regular Asus board as well. So has Popsikle - ask him how many dead asus boards he has tossed in a closet.

[Popsikle]

I used to love Asus, I recently tossed about 15 of the boards form my own collection and we have send back hundreds for RMA at my job.

[PsiFire]

It's called Capacitor Plague and is a rather common problem. Tho it does seem Asus is more prone to it that other manufacturers. Some of it had to do with corporate espionage. One company stole a formula from a competitor and made caps with it not knowing the formula was faulty.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Capacitor_plague

In one case, the cause of failing electrolytic capacitors was industrial espionage gone wrong. Several Taiwanese electrolyte manufacturers began using a stolen formula that was incomplete, and lacked ingredients needed to produce a stable capacitor.(An anti-corrosion ingredient was not documented, reported in comp.risks.)