PC won't boot up

[sborder]

Sorry if this thread is in the wrong spot but couldn't see where else to put it.

Couple of nights ago my monitor 19" Samsung 191t went blank. pc was still running, I rebooted and that lasted for 15 or 20 minutes. Ran some system works stuff and all ran well until last night. Monitor went blank again, this time I went to reboot and nothing happened. The pc will start, the orange light comes on and then goes out after 15 or 20 seconds and that's it. No beeps - or anything. The monitor has a rectangle graphic on it that says, No Connection Check Signal Cable.

I have determined the monitor is most likely ok.
I open the pc and looked at the graphics card and I had forgotten the card has a built in fan. Which meant it hasn't been blown out for 18 months. The fan on the card was full of dust and such and may not have been running. I blew it out and reinstalled the card and still no reboot. Checking the card the fan was running one time and the next time I checked it was not. So I figured the problem may be the graphics card.

I should probably let you know I built this pc 18 months ago. It has the following specs.

Power Supply: 420 Watts
Mother Board: Asus A7N8X
Processor: AMD 2400
Graphics Card: ATI All-In-Wonder 9600 Pro
Ram: 2 gig
Hard Drive: 200gig
External USB Hard Drive for Backup: 200 gig
DVD: Samsung DVD-RW combo
DVD: Asus DVD-RW
Floppy Drive
Monitor 19" LCD Samsung 191t
OS: XP pro

This pc is for my home office where I run our companies web sites.
So the pc is not used for gaming (I don't have the time)

I have tried the following.
I have put in a new graphics card. ATI Radeon x700 Pro and still no reboot.

Then I took out the ram both sims this time when I tried to boot up the pc did beep at me but that was all still no boot up.

I then disconnected all of my extra cables trying to narrow down the problem and still no reboot.

I then disconnected from the mother board, both dvd and floppy I left the hd drive connected and still no boot up.

Not sure what else I can do, except to reset the bios by taking out the 2 flat batteries and waiting 30 minutes.

ANY ides and good advise is welcome.
Luckily I have another pc (old win98) to access the web and some email.

Thanks for any help
Steve

[The_YongGrand]

Did the PC entered Windows, hmmm.... like you hear the opening sound when Windows is loaded (Assume that you didn't turn off the sound in Windows Sound setup). Did you see any HDD activity? If the system is still running, and you don't see any display, try connecting another monitor to your computer. Hope that helps.

[Panama Red]

Sounds like a possible power supply failure. Do you have another you can try? What brand is the one you have now?

[sborder]

No activity on the hard drive, usually the green led light comes on to show activity, but nothing.

No other power supply to try.
The power supply is turbolink switching power supply model atx420-12v

Wouldn't a bad power supply mean the pc would not power up or anything ?
Beacuse it does power up.

[Panama Red]

Turbolink is on the "bad" list in our power supply reference thread.

http://forum.pcmech.com/showthread.php?t=131195

All the more reason to suspect a psu failure. If so, hopefully it didn't take any other components with it.

[sborder]

Figures I'd get stuck with the one componet that I didn't pick out because it came with the case.

So is it possible that a power supply can be bad and still power up the pc ?
If the power supply is bad nothing should work. Right ?

[Panama Red]

Depends on how it failed. Often times the mobo lite will still be on as well as the case power led. Even if it isn't bad, it would be a worthwhile investment to get a new one.

[sborder]

So if I understand you correctly, even though all 6 fans and the power supply fan and the cpu and graphic card fans come on. It could still be the power supply causing the problem ?

I agree now that i know this brand of power supply is poor I do want to get a quaility one. I'm just trying to narrow down the cause of my problem.

If the power supply still working means that it's probably not the power supply but some other problem then I would like to fix that problem as well at the same time i get a new power supply.

Or is something like this best done by the process of elimination and i should resolve my self to just doing one thing at a time?

This could turn into a 3 or 4 day fix, because i live about 40 miles from the closest computer parts store. lol


I do appreciate your help.

[Panama Red]

You could try Hal's out-of-case troubleshooting thread first and see if it helps. If it doesn't then I'd start with a new psu. Either way it's worth the expense.

http://forum.pcmech.com/showthread.php?t=12753

Here's a good psu.

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Produc...82E16817153006

[Marke522]

I had a computer of my own that had very similar problems. I was using the one that came with the case until it went bad. I had a new power supply installed and everything else was fine. They aren't that much and it's the best place to start seeing as the one you have isn't grade A.

Did your computer ever seem to get hot or smell like something was burning? Mine did that right before it shut down the first time. I was able to reboot it and run it again for another week, but then it shut down again later after being on all night, and after that, all it would do was spin the fans. I could hear the harddrive trying to turn, but it just wouldn't go. There was only a faint little wrr, ...wrr, ...wrr, rather than a louder zzzzzzzzzzzzooooooooooom.

I'm sure all your data and hardware will be fine, just don't play with it until yoiu get the new part.

Be sure to repost and let us know.

[sborder]

Matter of fact I did smell something hot a day or 2 before this happened. So maybe we are on to something here.

First order of business is a new power supply.

Is there any advantage to going to a little higher end psu like:
Antec SmartPower 2.0 SP-450 ATX12V (70.00) or should I stay with the THERMALTAKE Silent PurePower TT-420AD (37.00) like recommended above.

And maybe it would even be better to look a psu's in the 100 to 120.00 range.
I ask because i know nothing about the reason for the price difference.

[Digitalic]

Did you try the monitor on another PC to see if it works? The no signal message you get could be a bad monitor or cable. If the post doesn`t detect a monitor it won`t go further. Did you get any error beeps during post?

[glc]

There is no point in going with an ATX 2.0 power supply with that motherboard, unless you are planning to upgrade the motherboard in the future to one that requires 2.0 (PCI Express).

[sborder]

Yep, the monitor works ok on a different pc.

[sborder]

Found a power supply, got to go have dinner, then off to spend more money.

I will probably go with the higher end power supply even though I don't necessarly need it right now. I do plan on up grading my mother board at some point. After all that was one of the main reasons I built this pc to begin with was so that I would not always have to purchase a new pc when i wanted to upgrade.

Will let you know what happens.

[sborder]

Well the Antec power supply went in real easy. I will say this you can sure tell the difference between a quaility power supply and what I had before.
This psu has a hook up for just the fans, instead of running everything from the main power cable. Plus it is sooo much quieter.

However, I'm afraid that is the only good news. The pc still does not boot. Now when I power up I get an amber light that comes on and after about 20 sec. it goes out. The green hard drive light never even flickers and there is no indication the hard drive is trying to do anything.

No beeps or anything, the only time I ever got a beep was when I took the ram out and tried booting the pc like that. I don't get the flashing message on the monitor like before that said "No Connection Check Signal Cable", so that has changed. I have gone a head and left the new graphics card in as the fan on the old card was not working.

I know I'm getting power to the dvd drive because the power light comes on when I power up. I tried putting a symantec sys recovery disk in the dvd drive. The drive started but nothing happened and then the dvd stoped.

So any further ideas, what's next?

steve

[Marke522]

I'm not entirely sure, but I do belive an amber light means the motherboard is bad. Perhaps your psu took it out when it burned up.

You should wait for glc or another to post to be sure.

At least you said you were wanting to upgrade later. Looks like later might be sooner.

[g-dogg]

why dont you try to clear your cmos battery it might work

[sborder]

I think i will as a last resort take the cmos battery out. After i unplug the pc and take the battery out how long should i wait befor i put the battery back in?

steve

[sborder]

I unpluged the pc and left the cmos battery out for 20 - 30 minutes and still nothing. I will leave the battery out over night and see what happens in the morning.

If I end up replacing the mobo, (which at this point it is very likely) do i need to replace the cpu and the ram as well?

I am planning to get the exact same mobo, however the mobo will handle a larger cpu I might want to upgrade from a amd 2400+ to a amd 3200+ as long as I am going to this much trouble.

I guess my over riding concern is my data on the hard drive. At what point by replacing componets does the existing hard drive not work with the new mobo and cpu, or will it?

I have an image backup on an external hd that is only a couple of days old so that will help if I need it.


steve

[glc]

Have you tried the out of the case troubleshooting yet?

[sborder]

No I have not done that yet. I supose I should, don't want to (lol) but I know I need to.

Problem is this is not a new build and the system was working just fine, so I already know I have a bad part someplace or maybe several.

So far I have replaced the psu and the video card. I probably should go and get some new ram (256 for testing). I've got 2 1000gig sticks in now and I tried taking them out, but all that did was make the pc beep at me.

[Panama Red]

You can test your memory and hard drive without spending any money or replacing any parts. Both can be tested with a boot floppy. Get the hard drive diagnostics from the site of your hard drive manufacturer. Get Memtest86+ from: http://www.memtest.org/

[sborder]

I can sure get those tests, but my computer doesn't make it that far.
All that happens is an amber light comes on and it never gets to the point that the a drive will even boot.

[Marke522]

Yeah, if your motherboard is gone then there is no way you can use those programs. You should test those parts in the other computer to make sure they aren't at fault.

[glc]

I supose I should, don't want to (lol) but I know I need to.

Until you do, any advice given here is speculation. Playing around inside a case can shift a motherboard and ground/short it out very easily.

[sborder]

Well I decided since I don't have anyway to actually test any of the componets to bite the bullet. So I ordered an updated version of the same mobo and upgraded the cpu from a amd 2400+ to 3200+. I also ordered some extra ram (512 ddram) in case what i have is fried.

At least for me it's much easier and faster just to replace the componets.
Everyday without my pc is another day of lost production.

[sborder]

I would like to know what would happen if the ram that I have now which I don't know for sure if it is good or bad would cause a failure to the new mobo or cpu if the ram is bad?

[Markoman01027]

bad ram can cause all shorts of problems. You really need to do the out of case troubleshooting.

[glc]

Hate to put it this way, but if you are in a hurry to get back up and refuse to troubleshoot properly, take the computer to a tech.