boot failure

[Wanabe]

Hi,

My computer won't boot.

I've tried reseating the ram, cpu and clearing the cmos.
When i press the power button the leds on the front panel light
and there is one beep. The hard drive led stays on but their is
no activity coming from it. Also their is no display from the monitor.

Thanks,
Brian

 

[Mike Walsh]

Try these steps until you get the correct results.
Unplug the hard drive, the monitor should work.
Remove all expansion cards, including video. You should get a beep code for no video adapter unless you have on motherboard video adapter.
Remove the memory, you should get a beep code for no memory.
Use a digital volt meter to check power supply voltages.

 

[Wanabe]

Try these steps until you get the correct results.
Unplug the hard drive, the monitor should work.
Remove all expansion cards, including video. You should get a beep code for no video adapter unless you have on motherboard video adapter.
Remove the memory, you should get a beep code for no memory.
Use a digital volt meter to check power supply voltages.

I have tried these steps and still no joy, i get one beep no matter what
i try. I've also noticed that their is no power going to my floppy
drive. Any more ideas ?

 

[Mike Walsh]

You could have a bad CPU or motherboard, although the fact that you get a beep means that it is not completely dead. I suspect the BIOS is the problem. Since modem motherboards don't have plugin BIOS chips you might have to replace the motherboard.

 

[GBH]

Its worth swapping out the PSU with a known good one. I recently dealt with
a similar problem, the machine would get to the bios screen and then reboot.
This despite the fact that all the nominal voltages were correct but one was
apparently dropping or being pulled down. In my case a replacement PSU did
the trick.

hth

Geoff