No display after freeze/restart

[Eirgorn]

EDIT - should I have posted this in Computer Help? Sorry about that!


Hello all,

Last night my computer froze up will I had a few applictions open, so I held down the reset button to reboot. It shut down and then it tried to restart a few times (about 5 seconds each time), but it never made it. So I turned the power off at the PSU and waited a minute before trying again.

This time it seemed to boot fine - but I didnt see any display on the moniter. I unplugged the monitor cable and the "No Device Message" appeared on the screen, so the moniter appears fine.

I opened the case and all the fans were working (Case Fans + CPU Fan + GPU Fan) - does this all point to a bad video card?

I bought the card last May - and the Sapphire site says all thier products have a 2 year warranty, but that I have to run the return through the original vendor - Newegg. Do I just need to do an RMA? I dont have any other GPUs laying around (other than some AGP stuff) to confirm with - what do you all think?

Thanks in advance,
E

 

[sutahz]

Ask around, see if a friend/co-worker has a setup similar to your (PCI-e video card, same speed of ram or higher). Swap those 2 parts out. Oh, when you power it on, does the hdd activity light act the same as when it boots up normal? Always on? Never comes on?

 

[Eirgorn]

Unfortunately everyone either has old AGP/PCI systems or integrated graphics. I tried restarting with just 1 of the RAM sticks in and still no luck.

I just checked to see if the HDD light came on - and it did briefly when it first started, but not after that. I checked to see if the DVD drive opened and it did.

Do you think one or both of the 12V lines on the PSU are having problems?


Unfortunately I had MIRebates on several of the components, so I think its going to be a pita to RMA anything without the UPC - so I definately want to narrow down the sources of the problem as much as I can.

Thanks,

 

[Eirgorn]

Im getting 12V and 5V readings on the PSU cords (not sure if Im checking both 12V lines though - lemme dig around a bit more).

Now the GPU has a cord from the PSU to it in addition to the PCIe power - is that for the fan? The fan is working on the GPU - maybe the mobo is messed up and not giving power to the GPU itself? Is there a way I can test the PCIe line for proper power?

 

[Eirgorn]

OK maybe Im not POSTing properly - I dont hear any beeps at all when it powers on. The fans all come on, and the voltage seems ok from the PSU - I dont really have a spare mobo/cpu/psu to try to nail down what might be failing, is there anything you'll suggest?

Thanks,

 

[sutahz]

See if someone you know has a PCI video card. (buy one locally or off ebay for like $15.. never know when you'll need one)
If your hdd doesn't go through its normal cycle of busy and idle states during the boot up process, that means your computer is not booting up.
Try w/ 1 stick of ram @ a time, each time w/ a different stick of your 4. Also you can take it further by moving 1 stick thru all 4 ram slots, then moving onto stick #2, #3, #4.
If the pci-e power plug isnt plugged into the video card, the video card will scream/beep at you.
"Now the GPU has a cord from the PSU to it in addition to the PCIe power "
I have no idea what your talking about.
I dont recall modern mobo's beeping 1x to let you know everything is A OK.

Oh and, reset your BIOS.

That long beep is either saying power isnt hooked up to yoru video card (but you said it is) or your mobo is picky about where the ram is, so try slot closest to the cpu (#1 we'll call it), then try #3 then #4 (as we know #2 isnt a fix).

 

[Eirgorn]

I just cleared the CMOS and took all the Ram out except 1 stick in the #2 slot. Now I get a long beep while posting and then it shuts off after 5 seconds.

EDIT - Put the ram in another slot and now there's no Beep, but it still wont stay on longer than 5 seconds.

 

[Eirgorn]

I dont think it was a display problem after all - I think my BIOS had been reset to default and caused a problem with my ram which requires +0.3V.

Ive got it set correctly now and it's POST great. I just have the 2G of Firestix in atm, and I'll leave it like that until I feel everything its going normal.

Thanks for the help guys.