Question

PC won't boot and monitor has no input

Asked by: davidcowler

Hi experts

My PC wouldn't boot today although it was working fine yesterday. The hard drive light comes on and stays on and the fan happily spins round, but the monitor is not receiving a signal. I have tried the monitor on another computer and it's working. Also, there is no beeping from the PC, which normally indicates a successful system check or errors.

I tried to boot the PC with the Windows XP disk in the CD drive but that made no difference. I have checked all cables, cards and connections and all seems fine. I built the PC myself about 2 years ago having designed the specification myself and it has been a great PC. So, I know a bit about building PCs but I have never seen this before. If there was a screen error I would know what to do. But this? I'm stumped.

I have a horrible feeling something has failed, like the processor or something equally expensive! Hopefully not though!

Looking forward to your suggestions!

Thanks
Dave

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Asked On
2009-11-01 at 04:18:55ID24861696
Topics

Windows ME Operating System

,

Personal Computers

,

Microsoft Operating Systems

Participating Experts
7
Points
250
Comments
29

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Answers

 

by: optomaPosted on 2009-11-01 at 04:31:06ID: 25713501

You could try resetting the bios by unplugging the machine and removing the cmos battery. Leave them out for a few minutes.
Whilst there reseat the memory modules(ram)

 

by: davidcowlerPosted on 2009-11-01 at 04:42:40ID: 25713527

Hi Optoma
Nice idea - but made no difference I'm afraid.

 

by: nobusPosted on 2009-11-01 at 05:02:09ID: 25713577

Here my troubleshooting procedure :
clean the system from dust, then  test with the minimum setup - disconnect also all peripherals and network cables :
connect only  motherboard + cpu + 1 ram stick, video card, power supply
verify that the 4-pin or 8-pin CPU Aux power plug is connected
verify that the VIDEO card has a power connecter - if yes, connect the power to it !
on boot, do you have a display?
if NO it is one of the connected, swap ram, Power supply, video card or monitor - leaving only motherboard and cpu
if Yes, add devices till the problem shows

you can also check the motherboard for bad capacitors as shown here :   www.badcaps.net

additional tests and things to try :
boot without ram, it should beep; (also, without video card)
try bios default settings,(if possible) or clear the bios by removing AC and bios battery
renew the CPU heatpaste

 

by: ISoulPosted on 2009-11-01 at 05:07:03ID: 25713589

Does your system have an onboard video adapter?

The few times I've dealt with symptoms exactly like what you have were on systems with onboard video, and it seems like it was a hardware issue with the motherboard and/or the onboard video adapter.

I replaced the motherboards on those systems, and they worked perfectly fine after that.

 

by: davidcowlerPosted on 2009-11-01 at 06:20:47ID: 25713757

The system has a video card as there is no onboard graphics. This card appears to be clean and seated correctly. I have tried removing all memory and the video card, but the system still does not beep in error. It does, however, appear to be trying to boot from the CD drive - or at least, its light is coming on. Maybe it just does that as a self test, I don't know. The capacitors also look perfectly healthy. I do not have a spare PSU to test with, nor a spare graphics card.

 

by: davidcowlerPosted on 2009-11-01 at 06:22:38ID: 25713760

More news.... the hard drive light remains on although I can't tell if the drive is spinning or not. The PC runs VNC so I tried to connect via my iPhone over the wireless and with a Ping program from the iPhone and it doesn't find the PC.

 

by: snazyPosted on 2009-11-01 at 07:58:01ID: 25714122

Does it boot to the BIOS settings screen?
Power light on and hdd light on, no beep if you remove the memory and video card and no boot from a CD, then it looks like ISoul is correct, maybe a faulty motherboard(slight chance the memory or video card)

 

by: nobusPosted on 2009-11-01 at 08:15:18ID: 25714181

follow my guide, it will show the propblem....

 

by: MicrosoftSavvyPosted on 2009-11-01 at 08:50:19ID: 25714308

Is the computing posting?  do the lights on the keyboard light up for a second when you try to start the pc up?

 

by: davidcowlerPosted on 2009-11-01 at 09:41:58ID: 25714520

The keyboard lights do NOT light up.
The screen does nothing, just stays in standby, so I see no BIOS settings.
I'm pretty sure it's not even getting to that as it doesn't appear to be performing a POST.
Nobus - I've tried as everything you suggested except swapping out items that I don't have spares of, namely PSU and graphics card.

 

by: MicrosoftSavvyPosted on 2009-11-01 at 09:43:59ID: 25714534

then what I would do is take out all cards and see if it posts.  if it does put them in one by one if not take out the ram and see if it beeps if not sounds like a bad board...

 

by: snazyPosted on 2009-11-01 at 09:45:17ID: 25714539

It wont go into BIOS itself, you need to start tapping F2 straight after it powers up, but since you dont see anything on screen, it does not POST. Its worth trying another video card, otherwise it is the motherboard.

 

by: MicrosoftSavvyPosted on 2009-11-01 at 09:49:44ID: 25714560

it might not be the graphics card it could be any of the cards, now if you take out the card and it posts that is probably it

 

by: nobusPosted on 2009-11-01 at 09:52:51ID: 25714572

then you need to borrow or buy theose parts, or turn the pc in for maintenance...

 

by: snazyPosted on 2009-11-01 at 09:57:35ID: 25714595

POST is checking only power, if good power, then it checks video and memory(this includes that the slots on the motherboard could be bad)When these components are ok, it will give you something on the screen and you should be able to enter BIOS with F2(might be some other key for your computer). If you cant enter BIOS, then we are talking about the above components or the slots where they are installed gone faulty.
If it is a power issue, then it will shut down, not hanging. He has changed the memory, so that leaves motherboard or video issue.

 

by: davidcowlerPosted on 2009-11-01 at 09:58:00ID: 25714596

I removed the video card and network card (it does have onboard LAN but that failed over a year ago hence the card). It does exactly the same thing. I hadn't previously tried removing the network card.

 

by: nobusPosted on 2009-11-01 at 10:03:03ID: 25714623

POST checks only power ?? i think not; read more here =  http://www.dewassoc.com/kbase/hard_drives/master_boot_record.htm

 

by: snazyPosted on 2009-11-01 at 10:04:36ID: 25714632

POST checks power, video, memory. Sorry for the "only" used in my sentence

 

by: snazyPosted on 2009-11-01 at 10:05:13ID: 25714633

Refraze:
POST is checking power, if good power, then it checks video and memory

 

by: MicrosoftSavvyPosted on 2009-11-01 at 10:22:22ID: 25714712

if you took out the cards and it did it then ram and it still did it with no beeps its probably a bad mother board although once i had a mouse that had a short that did it so you might want to then put one ram chip in and video then only plug video and power in then turn it on if all that gives same result goto dell.com and buy a new pc lol

 

by: snazyPosted on 2009-11-01 at 10:25:30ID: 25714733

Nobus, I see that you are trying to teach me what POST is using an article that I posted myself in another question that you also participated in. I am sorry for my language, as English is not my native language.
To prove it, this is the question where I posted the exact same article. And please stop picking on me, as we are all trying to help, not prove who is the best. If you have any comments on my advises, please stop using articles, that someone else has posted, but say it yourself.

http://www.experts-exchange.com/Hardware/Desktops/PCs/Q_24861073.html

 

by: MicrosoftSavvyPosted on 2009-11-01 at 10:34:34ID: 25714773

I agree with snazy the purpose of this site is to help others not compete.

 

by: optomaPosted on 2009-11-01 at 12:13:39ID: 25715212

Testing the power supply with another one would be a good idea, if possible, or if you could get your hands on a power supply tester to test the original one.

You mention that the onboard lan failed. Did it just stop working or damaged?

 

by: davidcowlerPosted on 2009-11-01 at 13:33:56ID: 25715607

The LAN just stopped working one day. I'm going to see if I can borrow a power supply from work tomorrow.

 

by: nobusPosted on 2009-11-01 at 23:21:45ID: 25717527

where do you guys get the idea i try to teach or compete?
i respect everybody, and just posted an article explaining the post - and i certainly have no intention of offending anyone
i don't even know if it has been used before (and that does not matter imo, everybody can use the articles on the net)

let's get back to the asker's problem; some feedback would get us further here

 

by: MicrosoftSavvyPosted on 2009-11-01 at 23:51:28ID: 25717618

nobus i agree...i dont sleep when i have questions going on because i like to answer them but thats not what happened here thats why the competing thing came up becuse someone wants brownie points from EE intead of helping....sorry for the extention of the problem but had to clear it up....

 

by: lancecurwensvillePosted on 2009-11-02 at 04:03:41ID: 25718653

All have had good suggestions....but here is what I'd try...

Unplug all peripheral cards (video, nic, modem, etc.).  Remove all memory.  Unplug HD, optical, and floppy drives.  The only thing connected should be the 20/24 pin power plug and the 4 wire (yellow/black) power on plug.  Power the machine.....if no beep during post, then you have isolated issue to one of three:  motherboard, processor, or power supply.  I'd try swapping power supply with a known good one, if you don't have one, ask a techie type friend or your IT dept at work if they can loan one to you for a day...if all else fails, you can pick one up for under $20 from www.3btech.net.

 

by: FlooringProPosted on 2009-11-02 at 06:05:41ID: 25719336

davidcowler,

I was going to put in my 2c, however it would appear that every possible answer to every possible hardware problem has been given. Unfortunately, without any spare parts lying around, at best your playing a guessing game.  In my experience if you do not get a POST beep then it can be any number of things (i.e. Mobo, CPU, PSU).  Isolating the problem component/s is the tricky part.  I wish you good luck with it, with as many EE's as you have helping i have no doubt that you will find an answer!

 

by: davidcowlerPosted on 2009-11-05 at 15:42:28ID: 25755347

Hi guys,

Thanks for all your suggestions. It was the motherboard, totally fried unfortunately. I couldn't report this update any sooner, what with not having a functioning computer.

I'll dish points out accordingly.

Thanks

20120131-EE-VQP-002

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