Computer Died?

[Wojtek]

So I wanted to turn on my computer this morning and then it happened.

It wouldn't boot up.

I see my video card's bios in the top left corner, followed by a "no input" message of my monitor, and they loop endlessly.

The motherboard's bios never shows up.

What could be the cause of that?

[Robert]

The first thing is to is disconnect everything - hard drives, cd-roms, printers, etc. Then see if it just boots and let you get into the bios.

[Wojtek]

I've already disconnected the power cable from the back to reset bios (no cmos battery).
And it didnt help.

I'll try your trick when i go back home. Thanks.

[Wojtek]

Well, I did unplug everything from the mobo (except vid card) and tried to turn it on, and nothing. Nothing shows up the the screen and no beeps.

If I put back in either ram stick and try to boot (while still having hdd, dvd, floppy, wireless unpluged), the same thing happens as described in the original post. Vi card's bios shows up, followed by the monitor's "no input signal" message.

It seems the mobo is not 'turning' on the rest of the stuff.
Could I have a fried mobo? What about the cpu? Would the mobo still allow me to go into the bios with no cpu?

[Decker]

Mobo, is not sending the initial reset signal (the vid card will start on it's own), hence not even getting a beep code for an error, and nope BIOS need the CPU to show except for some more exotic or server boards. Check the cpu seating, and some boards require some RAM at least to initialise.

[Wojtek]

Cpu seems to be sitting nicely. I took off the fan off the heatsink and vacuumed the dust off it. Nothing was done to the pc itself. Was sitting in the same spot for months now.

Should I take off the heatsink and re-seat the cpu?
I dont have any thermal paste though.

I think I need to mention that yesterday I turned off the computer the hard way, holding the power button in the front and waiting a few seconds. I've done that many many times before never having a problem, im worried that it finally did kill my pc :p

[Decker]

Nah it's still a soft power down, don't remove the heatsink but pop the ZIF lever (probably have to do the catches that hold the whole lot down too) and just lift out about an inch and lower again. Simple thing like a lil oxide creeping in can do it.

[Wojtek]

So I took off the heatsink off the cpu, took out the cpu, vacuumed everything (:p) and put back everything.

Tried to turn it on, and it still does the same thing. Loop between vid card's bios and monitor no input signal message.

Anything else I can try?

[PaulP]

try to move the fan in the power supply.... Dust can cause the fan to stop turning...

I had a defective power supply fan that caused the power supply to burn out.

When trying to switch the computer on, do you see any led's lighting up (on motherboard, CD-rom...)
Does any fan start at all after turning the system on ?

Hope this helps,
Kind regards,
PaulP.

[Wojtek]

Everything starts when I turn it on. Vid card's blue led shows up, dvd drive can be opened, all fans spin (case and cpu) and psu's fans move as well. I can also hear that faint hdd spin noise.
The mobo itself does not have any onboard leds.

The psu is fairly new, less then a year old, so I don't think that may be the problem.

[Decker]

Can you 'borrow a CPU' to test - eiter that or the mobo's knacked.

[Wojtek]

Nobody that I know still has the same cpu as me, I still got a 2500+ barton :p
My mother has a 3200+ athlon64, but from what I read its not the same socket as my barton.

So I guess I can't test the cpu or mobo.
Talk about a nice way to force a computer upgrade...

[iBrightDev]

you know anyone that has a amd 64 athalon that would work?

[Wojtek]

well my mother's pc has an athlon64 3200+ but isn't that a different socket type?

i googled my mobo and it said it's a socket462, while googling for the other cpu gives me socket754

[PaulP]

Hi Wojtek,

Thanks for the answers on my questions.

I had a similar situation at home, it can be the motherboard having bad caps, you can see that in a easy way if you can inspect the motherboard closely.

It's a known issue that after +/- 2 years bad caps can cause this problem...

Look:
System faults
Motherboard fails to POST.
Memory Test Fails.
Fails to fully boot (or even install) Operating System.
System randomly and frequently freezes.
Random & frequent 'Blue Screens of Death'
BSoD or hard freeze under heavy drive activity (Either RAID, SCSI, or standard ATA)
CPU temps abnormally higher than usual under typical or less load.
*CPU VCORE & other system voltages are erratic or far out of tolerances.
Resetting the system after a freeze and the system will not repost.
(You have to completely power down then power back up.)

Does that look similar to what you have ?
Info was taken from : http://www.badcaps.net/pages.php?vid=31
Pictures as example what to look for : http://www.badcaps.net/

Let us know... we will find out what is wrong ! :P

Kind regards,
PaulP.

[RavenServers]

Hi,

This may sound silly but have you tried a different monitor? Here is what I would do:

- If you have more than one memory module, I'd try switching them out (one in, one out) just to test the validity of those.

- If you have on-board VGA, I would try using that (set the jumper to enable this).

- If you have maybe a spare video card lying I would try using that.

Good luck, I am sorry to hear about your troubles :(

RavenServers

[iBrightDev]

well my mother's pc has an athlon64 3200+ but isn't that a different socket type?

i googled my mobo and it said it's a socket462, while googling for the other cpu gives me socket754

yeah, you sounds pretty screwed bro.

[Wojtek]

Well I went ahead and ordered an Asrock mobo which has both agp/pci-e and ide/sata and ddr1/ddr2

Also got a Q6600 to replace my barton :)

Didn't have enogh to do a full system upgrade heh, so I'll have to keep my vid card, ram and drives for the time being.

The stuff should arrive here on friday. 2 more days with no internet. Ugh. I'm walking in circles in my room :D