I did hook up a known good psu to his mobo and used my voltmeter to check it. The mobo would show a red light blink on and the cpu fan as well as the psu fan would spin for a second, then the light would go out and the fan would stop spinning, then start up and stop again indefinitely. While the known good psu is hooked up to it, it shows volts are way out of spec and actually go into the negative while it tries to spin up. Do you think it is safe to assume that the mobo is toast but the cpu is still good? Or if the mobo is still good but the cpu is toast? Or just that both are fried? I don't want to waste time and money trying to find a replacement mobo that can use his cpu, nor a cpu for the existing mobo if both are toast anyway, or he can get a faster mobo/cpu combo for the same amount or less anyway. I guess he really doesn't even have to stay with Intel if both need to be replaced I could go with an amd setup that is at least as fast as what he had.
Here are the specs to his computer, it looks like a crappy little off brand (systemax maybe?) that he bought directly off the internet because the only info I can find for it was on supportforyourpc.com. It doesn't even have a COA on the case so I will probably have to find an OS for him to use as well.
Knowing all this, anybody have any suggestions on the best (cheapest) way to go for him? I provide labor for free, but he will have to buy any parts that he needs so I want to keep things cost-effective. Unless I can find a replacement that uses DDR2 he will have to buy memory as well. I will assume that the PCI modem is crap now since that is probably where the power surge came in and will be thrown away. I took it out to see if it was keeping the computer from booting but it made no difference, but saw no reason to reinstall it since I have a ton of them he can have if he needs one.Intel No O/S S775 MATX BTO PC
Serial number:
Order number:
Ship Date: 7-24-2007
Your computer contains the following:
(1) Whitebox Branding
(1) Mini-Tower mATX Chassis
(1) Microsoft Windows XP Home System Builder
(1) Intel Core 2 Duo E4400 2.0GHz 2M Processor
(1) 1GB DDR2 800MHZ PC6400 Memory (1GB x 1) (I later put in 2x512MB so he could take advantage of dual-channel)
(1) Intel DQ965GFKR S775 mATX Motherboard w/Gigabit LAN
(1) 160GB 7200RPM 3G SATA II Hard Drive
(1) 350 Watt Power Supply
(1) 20X DVDRW Dual Layer Drive
(1) 20X Dual Layer DVD+/-R/RW Drive
(1) 56K V.92 PCI Data/Fax Modem
(1) 9-in-1 USB Card Reader
(1) 104 Keyboard Black PS/2
(1) PS/2 Scroll Mouse Black
Thanks in advance for your suggestions!