Computer won't boot, argh

[ValheruX]

My computer won't boot up, it doesn't even beep, no post, or anything. I turn it on, the fans come on, all the drives light up, but it just won't boot.

This happened a few days ago, for about a day or two i had programs crashing left and right, starting up slow etc. Then I restarted my computer, and it wouldn't start up. I figurered that it was the RAM so I ordered a new stick of pc2100, put it in, and it still won't start up.

When the drive lights come on, I can't even open the CDROM. I'm figuring now that either my CPU or my mobo itself is screwed....Allthough I have an EPOX 8k7a, and the indicator LCD says FF which I think is normal.

Argh.

Any suggestions?

 

[stockjock]

Have you tried a new power supply? sounds like its dying on you

 

[ValheruX]

Nope, haven't tried a new PSU, don't have a spare one...

 

[MegaloManiaK]

Truthfully any problem like this has an infinite number of causes so im not saying this is your case in particular. BUT, i just purchased an Athlon XP 1800 with board, ram, and video from a friend and from day one it hasn't worked properly. Sometimes you would reboot and it would not come back up, sometimes it would. When it didn't work all that would happen is PSU would come on as well as anything powered by it, but did not recieve any input from the board. I.E. the HD came on but didn't try to do anything. After changing the video card, the ram, PSU, and reseating the processor, i found that reseting the CMOS fixed the problem, I think the CMOS battery is going dead and needs to be replaced, i plan on letting it go as is until the problem happens again and hten replaceing the battery. On most boards there is a jumper setting you have to move and then power up to reset it. For mine the jumper had 3 pins, normal operations was pin 2-3 jumped, i set it to pin 1-2, pressed the power switch (nothing actualy comes on) set it back to 2-3 and the thing came back like a champ. Your bios runs off that battery at all times, even when there is AC power chargining it the bios still depends on the battery, so if it cuts out the bios dies.

Hope this helps.

 

[ValheruX]

Thanks a lot for the input. I tried what you said, I cleared the CMOS, took the battery out and snapped it back in, and nothing's helping.

Just like yours, all my drives, CDROM, floppy etc, will light up as if they are powered on, but they won't actually do anything. I really think my mobo or my tbird is fried.

If anyone has any other ideas, please respond.

Thanks a lot in advance.

 

[Ape]

Try a bench test. Mobo, Memory, Video, CPU, PC speaker and PS. Do this out of the case. If it posts, then you know it may be shorting out in the case. If not, you have narrowed it down those components, minus the PC speaker. Try changing out each of the components if you can. Also, make sure everything is seated. Sometimes the AGP card seems like it is in al the way but it isn?t. I hope this helps. Ape Out.

 

[flashcadillac]

I have a similar problem....with a few differences.

Here's my system:

Soyo Dragon +
Athlon XP 2000+
512mb DIMM of Crucial ram
Geforce 3 TI/500
Audigy card
CD-R drive as primary master
DVD as secondary master
4 - harddrives connected using the channels 3&4 connectors on the mb set to IDE
Antac 400w power-supply
No overclocking on any settings.

This sytem has run flawlessly since I put it together late last year.

BUT, I moved the machine a few feet this past weekend to do some baseboard painting (did complete shutdown and disconnected the power. Slowly moved the system without jarring it.)

When I moved it back last night and connected the power cord and turned-on the PSU, the motherboard light came on.
When I started it up, the fans spun-up, and I got the usual flashing of the CD devices, but the drives don't spin-up; there is no video and no beeps. It just sits, fans merrily whirring.

Disconnected the power and reset the CMOS jumper and the result was the same. Disconnected hard-drives and the result was the same. Pulled the DIMM and the result was the same. Replaced the CPU with a known good one. Again, no drive spinup, no boot, and no beeps.

Any other ideas before I begin disassembly and table-test it? Thanks a LOT in advance!

 

[ValheruX]

That's EXACTLY how mine is. I ordered a new mobo/cpu from newegg.com. Going to first try the new CPU, if that works, then it was the cpu, if not, i'll replace the mobo, and see if that was the problem.

 

[flashcadillac]

Well, I screwed around with it again this afternoon...disconnected the mouse,keyboard,video-cable...and used the cmos-jumper again.

to make a long story short....it started up and I'm NOT shutting it down again. Personally, I think it's the cmos battery.

 

[flashcadillac]

One more thing...I had been using a two-computer Belkin KVM (PS/2 model) for this and another clunker. It just occured to me that when I disconnected the mouse & keyboard connections, that is when I could boot, and directly connecting the mouse and keyboard was also successfull...perhaps a link there?

Anyway, I am loathe to shut it down to test it.....but you never know, it's supposed to rain all weekend...

 

[DieHardware]

Originally posted by: flashcadillac
One more thing...I had been using a two-computer Belkin KVM (PS/2 model) for this and another clunker. It just occured to me that when I disconnected the mouse & keyboard connections, that is when I could boot, and directly connecting the mouse and keyboard was also successfull...perhaps a link there?

Anyway, I am loathe to shut it down to test it.....but you never know, it's supposed to rain all weekend...

Could be. Since you disconnected the original computer from the KVM, you could try the other computer on those suspect PS/2 ports to see if they're bad.

 

[oscoyle]

I had a similar problem where only one side of my kvm went out. It's a problem that you don't really look for and can lead to a lot of useless
searching for problems that don't exist. I still don't know what caused the problem with the kvm.

 

[flashcadillac]

Think I found the culprit.....wife had accidentally unplugged both the keyboard and mouse cables from the KVM at the PC...and apparently reversed them when she put replugged...the belkin cables for that kvm are color-coded on the inside of the plug, not the outside (what's up with THAT?) Of course, it had me cussing and head-scratching for awhile UNTIL I found a troubleshooting reference in the KVM's manual.

 

[Nuker43]

Ok heres my story since this seems to be the boot thread.

I mounted the mother board to a Skyhawk Galaxy case. It has 6 brass mounts and 3 plastic mounts. I inserted 1024 mb of ram in the blue sloted RAM slots. I installed the cpu and the heatsink/prossessor.

I am getting a 500 watt power supply in the mail tomorrow so in the main time i used a 350watt to test it out.

I pluged in everything in the right spots... pluged in the front panel switches and leds.

When i went to power up for the first time (with just RAM, CPU, and MB installed) It powered up fine except that the monitor didn't register (btw i also had radeon 9700 pro in the agp slot for monitor) and it also did not beep at all. Furthermore, it turned off by itself just under a minute of it being on.

I tried to power up again and this time it only turned on for a second. Giving power to everything and then turning off.... the cpu fan spun a couple times and turned off.

So i figure either something blew up or the power supply (350watt) can not support the radeonn , the cpu, 4 fans, and a light.

This was yesterday and i ended it at that and went to sleep.

Today i tried it again after clearing the bios and reseting the ram and agp card to make sure that wasn'[t the problem. Well this time i boot up and it does the same thing.... powers up for a minute then turns off.

I unpluged the fans and the light to try again... this time it powers up for a second but i hear a short in the power supply. I imediatly take it out and put back into my main computer and it doesn't work.

Obviously the power supply went or was reduced in power.

I unpluged the cd rom and it worked (this computer is a 1.9 ghz with the same radeonn and the mb is intel)

Well i still have the same problem with the 3ghz and asus board... what could it be?

Why does it only boot up for a couple seconds then turns off?

Why is there no beeps?

Any ideas... i could really use it before i kill myself... thanks.

BTW The system is a 3ghz HT 800mhz fbs, asus p4c8000 deluxe motherboard and kingston hyper x ddr.

 

[Turkey22]

usually the problem you are describing tends to be processor, but I am actually experiencing the same thing right now, and mine is video. try pulling out the video and see if you get beeps to make sure that your pc speaker is still working. I thought it was proc right away and replaced it since I was looking to upgrade, well finally got all my stuff in and it did the same damn thing. double checking the video tonight but thats really all it could be as I have checked everything else first.

 

[flashcadillac]

sounds like the board doesn't "see" the cpu-fan, and it does a check on it before allowing a boot. The fan MIGHT be plugged into the wrong fan-header on the board......Look in the motherboard manual and see if there is a key-entry (my board uses the insert-key) to allow boot into the bios to check that. While in the bios, make sure that AGP is selected as the primary video (vice PCI or onboard.)