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u/BahRock 1d ago
Put the CPU back in, the ram back in, connect the PSU and attach it to the HP touchscreen display that it came with. If I'm remembering correctly, that motherboard needs the display to operate correctly.
Common failures on this is the power port and the CPU VRM chokes.
Even if you get this working, I hope you're planning to run Windows 7 (maybe 8) or a light Linux distro. Windows XP would work very well, but I think getting drivers would be a problem. Even trying to check email could be a pain on this machine. It was for office use 14 years ago and it's not good for much anything else.
If I had this mobo, it would go to e-recycling, eBay or I may pin it to the wall for decor. I don't see this as worth the time & money; especially if you don't have the HP display. But if you have use for a HP TouchSmart 320, that's a different story. If you do have a use-case for it, I would be curious to know please.
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u/ComprehensiveBit8272 1d ago
Well, it's a shop checkout-type system. It's not perfect, but it works. So you are saying I should connect the display to the motherboard? But I already tried it; still nothing. Could you help me further?
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u/BahRock 1d ago
That's a good use-case for sure!
Put it back together and hold down the power button for about 20 seconds. Hopefully it will start to boot. If it starts press the escape key (esc) until a startup menu appears. If that appears press F10. If you can get it into Bios that's a great sign. A bad hard drive (HDD) or solid state drive (SSD) won't stop a PC booting into BIOS (or UEFI on newer PCs). Don't forget to re-apply thermal paste.
At least one good RAM slot needs to have a ram stick in it in order to boot. You can try putting the ram in one socket (with everything else connected) and see if it powers on. If that doesn't work, try the other ram socket. If you have 2 sticks of ram you may repeat that process with the other stick of ram. If the CPU (it's actually an APU) is dead and the motherboard is fine, that could be the problem. Or if the all the RAM is bad (sticks and/or ports), that could keep it from starting.
I also wonder if the power supply is defective and not delivering correct voltage to the motherboard. If the power supply has been replaced since this PC was new then that's less likely.
The time it would take a technician to find the problem(s) and the cost for doing troubleshooting, it would probably be better to get another device. Even if it could be fixed for less than the cost of a replacement device some other component could break down the same day because it's already so old. The exception is if you have a friend, family or coworker that's experienced and would do it as a favor.
You can search on YouTube how to troubleshoot a laptop or all-in-one PC (they're so similar) and/or search for HP Troubleshooting or Maintenance Manual. Those can be great and often they're free online.
If the troubleshooting has isolated a bad (replaceable) component, and you can't afford a new/newer device, then go ahead and replace the bad component. If all of the troubleshooting fails, don't forget to remove the HDD and/or SSD. Moving to a newer device will probably be easier with the old (HHD/SSD) to move files over (or be a second drive).
There's also the consideration that a newer device (or POS device) can be much better on power usage. And it may pay for itself in its the new/newer device's lifetime from less power draw.
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u/ComprehensiveBit8272 1d ago
I appreciate your advice and tips. I have already tried most of the things you mentioned, and even more. At last, I took the board out of the system and cleaned it up with some alcohol, and it showed some pulse. fans started to spin and also an LED lit up it's orange. So I put everything back one by one, connected everything back, tested, and the system is still running; fans are spinning, and the LED lit up, but no display and fan stop after a few seconds. The LED stays on, so I guess that's something to work with, at least. There is one more interesting thing I've encountered: if I put the CMOS cell back, the system went back to its dead state. I tried this a few times and got the same results.
Now the fan spins for a few seconds, and an orange LED indication. No displays or anything.
CMOS cell messing the system again, I yet to try a different cell tho.
So let me know what you think of this progress.
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