Question

My PC powers on but will not boot up and has no display

Asked by: spamsoft

On pressing the power on button, all the fans operate (case/ chasis and cpu), in addition all the relevant lights blink, dvd lights/ power on light etc. Therefore it appears that there is power running through the motherboard. However, the first time  I do this it goes through the boot process, tests the RAM successfully etc and reaches the hardware summary screen. Just as windows XP is about to start the blue screen of death appears reading various messages from memory to hard drive errors on different occassions when I power up the PC.  However on subsequent occassions, when I power up again or press the reset after the blue screen, it simply shows no display, it does not even beep, the hard disks do not turn on. I have replaced both the motherboard and the graphics card and it is still no better. As the RAM is testing ok when it does test it and this should not prevent the PC not booting up even if it were faulty then it seems to suggest either a CPU or PSU failure. It is also significant to mention that there has recently been a very large storm in my area which caused a modem on my other PC to burn out. In addition, I have not been using any surge protection hardware. Can someone please help me diagnose this confusing problem.

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Asked On
2004-08-22 at 12:40:51ID21102914
Tags

pc

,

powers

,

boot

,

up

Topic

General Computer Systems

Participating Experts
2
Points
500
Comments
3

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Answers

 

by: buckeyes33Posted on 2004-08-22 at 21:07:43ID: 11867188

Just because you run test on the RAM does not mean it is good.  Memory testing software is only about 75% accurate.  Bad RAM can cause a computer not to boot.  However, I don't think that this is your problem from what you have said.  Since another computers modem was burnt out does this computer have a modem?  A bad modem can cause a computer not to boot.  I think that you have narrowed the problem down enough.  I think that your power supply is probably not working correctly.  That is what I would start with.  Maybe you can strip your computer down to bare minumum and leave the HD plugged in.  See if the computer boots then.  If it does your power supply has gone bad and you need another one.  If it still does not boot then I would still swap out the power supply with a known good one and see if that works.  If it does, then you will need a new HIGH QUALITY power supply.  Such as a Enermax, Antec, or a Zalman.  If you have a DELL, make sure that you don't use another power supply out of another computer as DELL uses properitory power supplies.  You should then probably take it to a shop and have them test the power supply or you can test it with a multimeter and make sure that it is running good voltages.  If it is not then, you can still get a normal power supply and use a connector that will change the way the power plug in to the motherboard runs.  If you need this I can give you a link.  So, I would start with the power supply as this seems to be your problem.  

Also, did you make sure that the thermal compound was not hard when you changed motherboards and you did not put to much thermal compound back on the core when you reinstalled the CPU?  I don't think this would be your problem as the computer would shut down, just putting another thought out there.

 

by: lexicon_dominusPosted on 2004-08-23 at 02:08:06ID: 11868407

Hello Spamsoft;
I agree with buckeyes33. I think the problem is with your PSU. As a warning; I don't suggest making trials with that PSU to see if computer works. Bad PSU may damage your computer's various components.

20120131-EE-VQP-002

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