PC Problems

[SteveH]

Hi, recently a relative decided to buy a new pc, the one he had been using he gave to me as a thank you for the help I had been giving him. I reformatted it and updated all the drivers but the on board sound wouldnt initialise so I put in a sound blaster live sound card and updated it's drivers. That sorted that. I spent all day on the new (to me) pc and no problems.

This morning I went to turn it on and the monitor screen stayed black the power light to the monitor went green then back to amber as it does when it has power but is turned off or if it goes into stand-by, it also made clicking noises as it went from green to amber. I could not get it to power up. I changed monitors for another one I have, and that just had the power indicator light flashing on and off. I tried the graphics card I have in this machine, with the same result, and a gainward 256mg card I have as a spare, same result.

I have tried booting up and pressing the DEL key to try and boot into safe mode but still nothing. The motherboard and graphics card in the affected pc are manufactured by msi, and the fan on the card works so the m/board is powering the card up. It just that the monitor seems not to be recieving info from the cards, either the original or two working replacements.

Any ideas please on what the problem is and any fixes?

 

[Dragman]

Try taking the memory sticks out and putting them back in.

 

[Hooty]

Sounds like memory failure to me.

Hooty.

 

[SteveH]

Tried that, thanks for the suggestion , made sure no dust in memory slots but no good still the same

 

[SteveH]

substituted memory sticks into another pc, they work

 

[poolsfodder]

not sure if this will help,im the last to ask ref pc.
i had the same problem with mine,a hp t250.the prob was the on/off switch
it had a fault and was telling the pc to close when i put it on,it corrupted the first part of my drives,so once fixed i had to get windows xp reinstalled.by what you discribe its exactly the same.pf

 

[SteveH]

Not sure if you mean monitor or PC switch mate

 

[SteveH]

bttt cos Im a bit desperate

 

[shonkyboy]

Its either a mobo (motherboard) failure or a possible power issue ( in not enough power been passed though to the devices (possible PSU failure)) I you have any usb devices - try removing them all except for the bear essential (ie - mouse etc...)
This can sometimes be an issue and may resolve if followed as i explain here .
Try discconecting the power supply from all internal devices (hdd etc)and refitting one at a time. The key is to be logical - try dissconecting one and so on.

Tery this also with all expansion cards in the PC.

The last call refers to an earlier post - try checking the 'reset switch' on the case - is it stuck by any chance?

If that does not work then I'm afraid your mobo or proc has gone 'fish tits' and i pity you!

it would help if i knew if you could see the POST scren or not.

Hope this helps

Computer Chris

NB : one last stab - check to see if the Processor fan is attached properly - as an overheat could cause this kind of behaviour - or if it has indeed overheated beyond the point of no return - then i'll refer to this as 'eel lips

 

[SteveH]

No I cannot see the POST screen, If I unplug the video cable I get the message in the middle of the screen that there is no signal as soon as I link the cable to any one of the cards I have tried, including the msi original, the screen remains black and the monitor indicator light either goes green then amber or green and off depending on the monitor I use. All I have connected to it now is the keyboard and mouse and the monitor and it remains as described, unplugging drives etc makes no difference and the fans on the mobo and the graphics card are both working. Checked and yes the processor fan is correctly sited.

 

[poolsfodder]

i meant the power buton to the tower itself,as said i had the same thing
with mine and that was the cause.pf

 

[SteveH]

Main button to tower is working ok.........BUT.........the reset button doesn't seem to want to do anything????

 

[poolsfodder]

shonkeyboy sounds the one for that,by his last post he mentioned.pf

 

[SteveH]

off to work now but will check here in the morning.

 

[shonkyboy]

try disconnecting the reset button from the motherboard - if you dont know where it is - tell me.

 

[SteveH]

button is disconnected anyway, I should have checked that before! I have connected it and no difference, so I have given in and taken it to a repair shop Thanks for the suggestions and help guys.

 

[chris w]

this could also be caused by you not having all the switch cables for you tower in the correct place.
but strange how you can not get to bios screen sounds like a definate graphics card faliure. even thought he card fan is working does not mean the card is not dead

 

[SteveH]

Hi chris I understand that the card may be dead even with the fan working, I only mentioned the fan as a way of saying that the motherboard was powering the card up. To cut a long story short, before I took the pc to the repair shop I checked the card out of the tower and found some dry soldering, which had cracked and allowed some components to become loose. Unfortunately some of the chipped solder had bridged and caused a visible short on the back of the card, so a new card is being sought, what I cant understand is I have tried two Nvidia cards both in good working order and that didnt work, but having borrowed a PNY board that one did.

going back to the Nvidias, no luck yet both work in other pc's the guy at the repair shop is going to try some used cards and whichever types work I am getting the best one I can afford from him either used or new. Hopefully then I have a system that only needs ram upgrades in the forsee-able future.

 

[SteveH]

Sorted with the addition of a brand spanking new Nvidia GeForce 8400 gs, not as good a card as I would have liked but the best I could afford as I am still waiting for my first pay packet from the agency job I have recently started.

 

[mecca]

hey i just bought an 8600GT it was only 54 and was easily the cheapest bit of my quad core build, BUT i had heard that Crysis was almost unplayable with anything but a top, top end pc, however it plays it fine on medium settings, and it is only slightly too slow with full settings on.

what im saying is it will still play most games totally fine, i think people go overboard with graphics personally.

i can play crisis for 54 yet i know some people who have two 8800GT's to run it on the same settings as me, with a cost of about 500 quid more lol.

of course it helps that i have a quad core 4 gig of ballistix ram etc