Why Why Why Why...

[Shantei]

Okay guys,

Sorry about that freestyler.

It does make a beep noise I found out without the card, and not when it's in. The display is still blank. I'm tried plugging it in to another monitor, to no avail. I've replaced the video card, and still nothing. I pretty much inspected the interior of the computer for anything that might not look ... right. I seriously think there may be something with the motherboard, I really couldn't say myself. But I haven't done anything, like moved it or anything. One day it's fine, the next day it's not.

I'm sorry to everyone for my poor conduct of behaviour this evening. .. long day and the best computer in the house broke .. how would you feel?

Thanks for your help .. and patience

 

[A True Folder]

By funny coincidence this happened to my daughters pc last night (P4 2.8GHz, 1GB DDR266, FX 5200)

It would boot and no display, to turn the pc off I had to hard power off, this happened immediately i.e. the pc had not loaded windows despite no display. Halt on all errors enabled in the bios is my thought there.
So I removed the FX5200, cleaned it with a Q-Tip or cotton bud (or whatever you call them) and isopropyl alcohol to remove all the dust from the top side of the card, it was quite dirty. Once the pcb and contacts had been cleaned thoroughly I replaced it in the m/board.

While I had the side off the case I removed and reseated the two ram sticks as well just for good measure.

This allowed me on next boot to reach the bios so I figure maybe the card overheated (passive cooling on this card), anyway I enter the bios and the cpu speed is down to 2.1GHz so now I'm thinking thermal incident ?? eeeeeek

I reset the bios and rebooted, Windows loaded but the resolution was stuck on 1280x1024 and the option to change it was inoperable. I uninstalled the driver, reinstalled it and away we go. I'm still concerned about the possibility of a thermal incident so I'm reseating the cpu cooler today as the temp was mid range at idle but it appears that some game my daughter d/loaded when played at 1280x1024 may have generated enough heat to overheat the pc.

How did you make out with your pc?

 

[Shantei]

Nice going there, your daughter deserves her pc working again.

For me? Bah, I've gotten too agitated with it and have decided to ignore it today. Although do you reckon I should give what you did a go? It may be worth a try.

Thanks.

 

[lhuser]

Reseat you RAM. If that doesn't work, unplug the PC and pop off your CMOS battery for a couple of seconds. Put it back and power it on.

 

[A True Folder]

Although do you reckon I should give what you did a go? It may be worth a try.

Thanks.

Mate, anything is worth a try if it can save $$$/hassles, if the topside of the card is heavily encrusted with dust then yes I'd suggest cleaning it as it can hinder heat dissapation.

You could try resetting the cmos as lhuser has suggested though there are several theories as to how to do this, refer to your manual if you are unsure, personally I don't disconnect the power cord from the wall socket I just turn the switch off (the reason being is that it gives a ground through the earth wire), you've stated previously that you've done most things with regard to troubleshooting so I would assume you've checked that the cards fan is still spinning up etc.

Last resort is to return to the basics, i.e. cpu, 1x stick of ram, HDD, video card and see if it will boot then.

When you do boot and get no display is windows loading or do you get instant "power off" when you hold in the start button to shut down?
Is this pc on a network, can you see it on the network when it boots? or do you also have "Halt on all errors" enabled in the bios?

The fact that you're not getting an error code at boot is somewhat perplexing, usually if a card is dead that is the first indication hence why I keep pounding on about troubleshooting. Do you get the single POST (power on self test) beep when you first start up?