[Novalug] Hardware problem

[Jay Hart]

Ok, got a little problem here.

Guy down the hall from me asks me to look at his computer, tells me it will
not power on.  Sounds easy enough, power supply dead, get another, I'm
thinking.

So, I go and get it in anticipation that I need to research the model and get
a power supply that works.  Figure first thing to do is to test and make sure
its the power supply.

So, I plug the power cord into the power supply, as soon as I do that, the
power supply fan kicks on, in additional to the CPU fan turning on. That
should not happen unless the power button is on. Disconnect power button, same
thing happens.

So at this point I have (with power to the power supply):
-fans kick in
-CDrom is powered, tray will eject
-HDD not spinning up (that I can tell)
-no beeps from POST test at all
-Front power button doesn't do a thing (when connected to motherboard)

I take out the NIC, modem, and RAM, see if that will determine anything.
Result: no change in machine state. no beeps in POST determining problem.

So, I swap to another power supply, maybe board not getting enough power (I
use a known good power supply), nothing changes, same as before.

The two things that have me stumped are the fact that the fans turn on, (I
don't think they should be turning on until I "turn" the computer on) and the
fact that nothing is happening during the POST test.

I do not have a mouse, KB, or monitor hooked up, so this might be an issue,
but I don't think it is. I'm going to test that theory in a second.

This is an HP Pavilion, anyone got any experience with this particular make of
PC?

Any suggestions very much welcome.

I have three possible conclusions:
1. motherboard partially dead.
2. bad CPU
3. some combo of #1 and #2, plus something else

I can't see the CMOS battery being an issue here.