PC Tech Advice

[Jimmy_P]

Got in from work today to find my computer won't boot up properly 

The lights come on, fans start and hardrives spin, but there is absolutely no visual output to my monitor. The monitor works fine as I've just tested it on my housemate's computer. I suspect it may be caused by my power supply as I noticed it crackling a bit last night. Pushed the kettle lead firmly in and the crackling stopped, but now no monitor display today.

Basically I need someone to diagnose whether the power supply needs replacing, somethings gone on the motherboard, or some other cause I haven't considered so I can go about replacing the right bits. I called a company called Clifton Computer Care earlier today and the guy I spoke to was helpful, so I'm most likely gonna take the computer to them tomorrow for diagnostics. If anyone can recommend a person/company they've used before for any similar situations I'd appreciate it as I'm only going with the first place I found on google at the moment, and have no idea what their service will be like.

Cheers, Jim

[thedave]

probably just a spider flange
stick a 2cv9 screwdriver in the most homosexual of your dimms if there are three hundred and sixteen grossefarter the just re klijun the hard board 

[Zammo]

probably just a spider flange
stick a 2cv9 screwdriver in the most homosexual of your dimms if there are three hundred and sixteen grossefarter the just re klijun the hard board 

 

[Jimmy_P]

Tried that it didn't work

[Night Wold feat. Maxi Priest]

have you tried whacking it really hard?

[whalemonste®]

Dodgy BIOS settings can stop it booting. Try clearing your CMOS - there should be a jumper near the lower edge of the mobo with a flat round battery nearby - move the jumper from pins 1 & 2 to pins 2 & 3 and leave it there for a mo, then move it back, then try booting again.

Also if you suspect the PSU, you could borrow one from one of your mates and try that?

[i am harry]

The lights come on, fans start and hardrives spin, but there is absolutely no visual output to my monitor.

Let's sort this out properly. Your answer to the following question will allow me to expertly tell what the problem is:

when you turn it all and everything starts whizzing up does the motherboard make a beep

[Night Wold feat. Maxi Priest]

Dodgy BIOS settings can stop it booting. Try clearing your CMOS - there should be a jumper near the lower edge of the mobo with a flat round battery nearby - move the jumper from pins 1 & 2 to pins 2 & 3 and leave it there for a mo, then move it back, then try booting again.

has that actually ever worked for anyone you know? i ve only read about that happening but never seen it.

what you wanna do is get a nice big bowl of warm soapy water and give it a good soak

[Zammo]

Has it got a graphics card?

Replace it.

[Uncle Basic]

The lights come on, fans start and hardrives spin, but there is absolutely no visual output to my monitor.

Let's sort this out properly. Your answer to the following question will allow me to expertly tell what the problem is:

when you turn it all and everything starts whizzing up does the motherboard make a beep

And if it continues to beep then the problem is your laptop is actually a Group 4 Securicor Van reversing and you're in the way.

[i am harry]

Dodgy BIOS settings can stop it booting. Try clearing your CMOS - there should be a jumper near the lower edge of the mobo with a flat round battery nearby - move the jumper from pins 1 & 2 to pins 2 & 3 and leave it there for a mo, then move it back, then try booting again.

has that actually ever worked for anyone you know? i ve only read about that happening but never seen it.

what you wanna do is get a nice big bowl of warm soapy water and give it a good soak

used to happen almost every time i turned my computer off so i sold the motherboard to someone eles

[Jimmy_P]

My motherboard doesn't have an internal speaker to make a beep, so no it doesn't and it never has done. There is a terminal on the motherboard to attatch a speaker for such a purpose, maybe I could get one at Maplins. As far as my understanding goes if it beeps once the motherboard is fine, but if it beeps lots then somethings wrong with the motherboard right?

[Jimmy_P]

Regarding the graphics card I'm using the internal graphics of the motherboard

[i am harry]

My motherboard doesn't have an internal speaker to make a beep, so no it doesn't and it never has done. There is a terminal on the motherboard to attatch a speaker for such a purpose, maybe I could get one at Maplins. As far as my understanding goes if it beeps once the motherboard is fine, but if it beeps lots then somethings wrong with the motherboard right?

Yeha its called posting. As the motherboard turns on it makes a check that it can run all hardware and the settings in the cmos are correct. A single beep means its passed that check, more than one means there's a hardware conflict (usually ram or something), no beep means it hasn't reached that point and can usually be fixed as james described above.
without the post details i wouldn't suspect the PSU...it powers the hard drives, fans, and everything on the motherboard. there's no reason to assume that it's somehow unable to handle the onboard graphics but not, for example, the chipset, or the ram.
also if you happen to be in the market for a video card let me know

[Jimmy_P]

Ok this could be helpful, however I cant find anything when searching for "internal motherboard speaker" on Maplin's website. Theres a socket on the motherboard with 4 pins labelled speaker, but I need something to attatch to it 

[sclist]

like whalemo said, boot failure due to a dodgy bios settings would be my best guess .. might be worth checking the memory ..

but I doubt its the power supply ..

edit: note that there are two connections going into the mobo .. (big (many pins) and small (4-pins) ) make sure both are connected

[Jimmy_P]

Yes

I looked through the motherboard's manual yesterday evening to figure out how to switch the speaker on as I assumed there must be one there that was disabled. I found the connection on the motherboard where the speaker should be attatched, and can confirm that on my motherboard there is nothing attatched to this connection

[Dan Alive!]

The lights come on, fans start and hardrives spin, but there is absolutely no visual output to my monitor.

Let's sort this out properly. Your answer to the following question will allow me to expertly tell what the problem is:

when you turn it all and everything starts whizzing up does the motherboard make a beep

And if it continues to beep then the problem is your laptop is actually a Group 4 Securicor Van reversing and you're in the way.

 

Well done. Well done indeed.

[Jimmy_P]

http://www.asrock.com/manual/775i65GV.pdf

Refering to page 10, label 13 - Chassis Speaker Header

There is nothing attatched here, and I'm guessing this is where the beeps would come from.

I should mention I've never set up a computer before so this is all new to me, its interesting learning about it though. You reckon its worth going to Maplins to get a jumper to clear the cmos, and see if I can get a little speaker to wire up to the speaker header? Can clearing the cmos do any further harm, or is this just what the professionals would be doing if I sent it to them?

[Dan Alive!]

There should be a jumper on the CMOS reset pins already, you just need to take it off and turn it round (i.e. join two pins that currently aren't joined) then hit the switch and hey-presto the CMOS is reset. You should then at least be able to see some POST output on the screen, if not actually get into the OS. If that doesn't avail you of a solution then I'd say its new computer time, unless you check every component one by one (starting with the GFX card).

[Jimmy_P]

The clear cmos jumper has just 2 pins. The manual says to clear the cmos put a jumper cap (which I don't have) across these 2 pins.

Thinking about it I can probably borrow one temporarily from my external drive as I think that has one to set it to slave.

[Dan Alive!]

That'd work. Usually there's at least one jumper on the motherboard where one of the pins is a dummy where the cap can be stored. But given its got no speaker I wouldn't expect any luxuries. Is it a Gigabyte one? I've had bad times with Gigabyte motherboards in my time.

[Jimmy_P]

Its an Asrock

[Dan Alive!]

Its an Asrock

Oh, well wouldn't really expect that to go too wrong. Although any board can go wrong. How old's it?

[ZatOichi]

so no speaker.

does it have diagnostic LEDs

(I have an agp card for games if you want it)

[Jimmy_P]

Progress !!

Reset the CMOS, then on first attempt at bootup the same thing happened, no display.

Tried a second time and I noticed the cpu led at the front flashing more like it does on a standard bootup. Unplugged the monitor, plugged it back in and can see my desktop!

Things still aren't completely right though, as my mouse wont work plugged into the ps2 port, which is right next to the VGA output, but it works on a USB port. The receiver lights when plugged into the PS2, but moving the mouse does nothing even after resetting the mouse and receiver?

Too scared to turn my computer off now, gonna make sure I've got everything backed up

[Skippy]

Too scared to turn my computer off now, gonna make sure I've got everything backed up

do it

[Jimmy_P]

I trust you're urging me to back up my work there 

Thinking about it it could have been the mouse causing the problem. Its got a usb converted to green PS2 socket, so it sticks out quite far from the back of the computer. If I had the rack pushed back too far, the connection to the motherboard could have been broken. The VGA out is right next to that, so that could be a dodgy connection too.

Might be a good shout to upgrade to a dedicated graphics card, didn't someone say they had one spare?

[Jimmy_P]

OK further developments. Turned the computer off and now it won't startup again 

Same thing as before no visual at all. While it was on the mouse didn't work in the green ps2 socket, only the USB even though it got power to light its led from the ps2. Also I plugged the keyboard in and that didn't work. These three sockets are all right next to each other on the motherboard.

Also I dont think the pc is booting up when there is no display. The one time it did work the LED indicating processor activity flashed much more than it does when there is no monitor display.

Now I'm really confused!

[Dan Alive!]

This might sound like a dumb fucking idea but try hoovering it. If the problems seem to be linked to the physical location of connectors/components then you could be looking at things shorting onto the metal casing. Give it a quick blast off a hoover and try to get out any little bits of metal that could be lurking around. Worth a shot anyway.

[Jimmy_P]

Worth a try!

Still thinking about the power supply. The 4 pin connector is plugged in right behind the offending sockets.

[Jimmy_P]

One more update before I go see some mates and forget about this for a bit.

I've figured out that if just the monitor is plugged in, I can boot into windows. However there is no signal detected by the monitor right up until the light blue screen saying "windows is starting up" None of the black screen with text that I'm used to seeing when booting up.

Once booted up in this state plugging either the mouse or the keyboard in via PS2 makes there respective lights come on, but they cannot be used.

Trying to boot up with either the keyboard or mouse plugged in via PS2 means the system will not boot up at all.

Thanks for all the input into this problem, I really appreciate it. Any further thoughts welcome

[i am harry]

i thought i had a geforce 6600 but i appear to only have the box.
i DO, however, have an spare 600w psu which i dont need so if anyone wants that let me know

Once booted up in this state plugging either the mouse or the keyboard in via PS2 makes there respective lights come on, but they cannot be used.

that's normal. a ps2 device will not be recognized by the OS if the OS was booted without it being connected.
motherboard sounds dodgy, might want to have a look for any physical signs of stress such as swollen capacitors and also look into the manufacturer's warranty if it isn't four years old or something. on the bright side they can be cheap as chips