boot problem

[jg]

My computer has suddenly refused to boot up. (Athlon 1.2Gh, XP Pro)
The power lights and fans go on but thats it. No beeps or anything.
Nothing on the monitor except "DPMS going to sleep", then black.
I tried several other monitors and the same thing.
All cables are ok.
So ..... does it look like motherboard or CPU? or something else?
Thanks for any opinions.

 

[Mikey]

Have you tried resetting bios?
mikey

 

[kony]

My computer has suddenly refused to boot up. (Athlon 1.2Gh, XP Pro)
The power lights and fans go on but thats it. No beeps or anything.
Nothing on the monitor except "DPMS going to sleep", then black.
I tried several other monitors and the same thing.
All cables are ok.
So ..... does it look like motherboard or CPU? or something else?
Thanks for any opinions.

Not CPU unless the heatsink had fallen off or it's fan had
failed. With an obvious problem a CPU almost never fails
before (most of a system).

Check the motherboard for failed capacitors. Signs include
domed or vented tops, leaky liquid or residue on top or
bottoms. If there is no outward sign of cap problems then
I'd begin focusing on the power supply, taking voltage
readings with multimeter and replacing it with a spare if
you have one available.

Also clear CMOS as Mickey suggested.

 

[thefriend]

5 possibilities bessides one of your cards shortening out the system.
CPU
Video Card
Memory
MOBO
or bios reset

reseat memory and cards
take out all cards but video card out and reboot
even take out mouse and or keyboard and reboot.

 

[Kevin M]

I had the same problem, taking out the RAM and reseating them worked.
Eventually I replaced the RAM and haven't had the problem since.

 

[Bob]

My computer has suddenly refused to boot up. (Athlon 1.2Gh, XP Pro)
The power lights and fans go on but thats it. No beeps or anything.
Nothing on the monitor except "DPMS going to sleep", then black.
I tried several other monitors and the same thing.
All cables are ok.
So ..... does it look like motherboard or CPU? or something else?
Thanks for any opinions.

I have you beat. I managed to bugger an old Dell Dimension to the
point where it won't even bring up the BIOS.

I hate proprietary computers.

 

[kony]

5 possibilities bessides one of your cards shortening out the system.
CPU
Video Card
Memory
MOBO
or bios reset

reseat memory and cards
take out all cards but video card out and reboot
even take out mouse and or keyboard and reboot.

Cables are a LOT more likely than CPU or memory.
Well memory could be an issue due to the contacts, but
otherwise and in the general sense, CPUs simply do not fail
on their own, they'd be about the last part to fail and only
do so from some external force.

If the prior failure was the heatsink clip, or socket lug,
or fan, or motherboard power circuit, THEN the CPU might
fail. Otherwise, when every other part of the system still
works, it is EXTREMELY rare, almost unheard of for a CPU to
fail (ignoring kids that try to overclock by giving it 40%
more voltage). Realistically, it is not going to be the CPU
alone.

 

[/\\/\\UF/-\\S/-\\]

I agree with kony. Check the mobo for leaky caps! If by chance you have an
EpoX mobo, look no further...

 

[Bob]

CPUs simply do not fail
on their own

I fried a K6-II once. Dust in the heat sink.

 

[Bob]

I agree with kony. Check the mobo for leaky caps! If by chance you have an
EpoX mobo, look no further...

Please elaborate. I have an Epox MB and it has been acting flaky - or
at least that is the best opinion thus far. It seems to behave flaky
when it gets hot.

Mine is the Epox EP-MVP3G-M.

 

[jg]

guys, thanx for your replies to this problem.

I replaced the ram and cmos battery but still no good.
Then I tried a different video card from my other computer and ..... the
computer booted up straight away - all fixed!
So I guess my video card has died (what do they die of?)
john

 

[kony]

I fried a K6-II once. Dust in the heat sink.

... goes back to what I wrote, that there is some external
problem already present, causing it's failure. Such things
are almost always obvious upon visual inspection of the box.

 

[kony]

Please elaborate. I have an Epox MB and it has been acting flaky - or
at least that is the best opinion thus far. It seems to behave flaky
when it gets hot.

Mine is the Epox EP-MVP3G-M.

Ironicially bad caps actually work better when too hot
(though die even quicker, towards the end that they don't
work well cool). Temp related changes would likely be a
mechanical problem, like memory, card or cable contacts, or
an overheating north or southbridge of not CPU or video
card.

MVP3 is a pretty old board at this point though, if it had
been used in a dirty environment previously then the
contacts could easily be fouled at this point in time, or
due to it's lower-cost (relative to some other contemporary
boards of that era) construction it could indeed have bad
caps too... most suspect would be those on the top corner
near the CPU socket.

Super-7 was also picky about video cards, if the AGP bus is
flaky then little extra heat could be enough... you didn't
mention exactly what "flaky" means, how that's manifested.

 

[Bob]

you didn't
mention exactly what "flaky" means, how that's manifested.

I discussed it at length in the thread entitled Error: INACCESSIBLE
BOOT RECORD" According to the experts, the MB is the likely
culprit.

Briefly what happened is it started getting hot and humid but not
enough to run the a/c that morning. The mouse stopped working and the
POST report of RAM was one stick short. Then I noticed certain INI
files being corrupted. I had to use the keyboard to navigate, which is
really lame.

So I shut down and took the last stick of RAM out. I also tried a
different mouse. Nothing helped. So I quit working on it and got
another box to rebuild.

The next day, after the house cooled off from running the a/c, I tried
the machine and this time it worked. I put the stick of RAM back in
and it worked. I then proceeded to recover the boot drive from an
archive I had created the week before on a removable drive using Drive
Image Pro 4.0. That's when I ran into the inaccessible boot device
error and had to use Win2K IPU to get running again.

I thought it was the power supply since I cleaned it with compressed
air and it was exceptionally dirty. The MB was not all that dirty
since I had cleaned it about a month earlier.

I am decommissioning that old machine and building a new one which
will be ready this coming week. I may use the old machine as a backup
- I have a spare port on my router.

I am going to evaluate the Enermax 352 RAID backup system. It may work
in which I will keep it. If it doesn't then it goes back. I hope it
works because it is a very handy way to make disaster recovery
archives using hard disks.


--

Map of the Vast Right Wing Conspiracy
http://home.houston.rr.com/rkba/vrwc.html

"Our country's a place of limitless hopes and
possibilities, and nowhere is that spirit more
alive than in the great nation of Texas."
--GW Bush, U.S. President from Texas

"One thing that makes George Bush such a great
president is that he does not govern according
to public opinion polls."
--John Cornyn, U.S. Senator from Texas

 

[thefriend]

That may be true in clone systems to some degree my friend but in
propietary systems that is just not the case. I have replaced loads of
cpu's in for example HPCompag dP ENS AND Evo Models.
His problem of no video but everything else working can certainly be cpu,
I beg to differ with you.
Usually you might get a beep code with memory or video, but with his
problem(no video) what cable other than the monitor cable could cause
this?

 

[kony]

That may be true in clone systems to some degree my friend but in
propietary systems that is just not the case. I have replaced loads of
cpu's in for example HPCompag dP ENS AND Evo Models.
His problem of no video but everything else working can certainly be cpu,
I beg to differ with you.

I still completely disagree.
It IS possible their bios had bugs, I have seen situations
where a board acted bad but upon installing a different CPU
the bios reloaded some values and worked again. The pulled
CPU still worked in other boxes and sometimes the CPU was
even returned to original box and it worked there again too.

If CPUs are dying the board should be replaced. Most likely
it has a flaw which may not let out the magic smoke all at
once but kill them over time.

Usually you might get a beep code with memory or video, but with his
problem(no video) what cable other than the monitor cable could cause
this?

Power cable, any cable loose/frayed/etc shorting out
somewhere. Could also be power switch or resest sticking
would wouldn't technically be a cable, but cables could be
unplugged to isolate it. The odds aren't high that it's a
cable but far higher than CPU, IMO.

Generally the method to resolve falls along the lines of
striping system down to minimal components, then adding some
back one at a time if it worked... or swapping in OTHER
minimal components one-by-one to isolate the fault.

 

[Christo]

Not CPU unless the heatsink had fallen off or it's fan had
failed. With an obvious problem a CPU almost never fails
before (most of a system).

Kony, i got an MSI board and it came with D-Bracket LEDs that indicate whats
up with system, dont know if your aware of it?

I had a similar problem, My computer was powering on good but no bios beeps
at startupm and a no signal to monitor

So i spent 30 minutes reading board manual and remembered the d-bracket, i
checked it and it indicated something up with the CPU (AMD 2600+) anyhow i
took the CPU out and re seated it and plopped HS/fan back on and it worked,
all worked good.

So...

CPU is a possibility, anything is when it comes to hardware issues, I
wouldn't rule things out, however saying that I know your a genius when it
comes to this kinda stuff... and just had to point out my past experience,
it might be an idea for the OP to try re seating the CPU and memory, to
fault find.

 

[kony]

Kony, i got an MSI board and it came with D-Bracket LEDs that indicate whats
up with system, dont know if your aware of it?

I've had some, they're just an oversimplified POST code LED
display, kinda like what Epox did but Epox did it one better
by having the segmented LED numeric display.

I had a similar problem, My computer was powering on good but no bios beeps
at startupm and a no signal to monitor

So i spent 30 minutes reading board manual and remembered the d-bracket, i
checked it and it indicated something up with the CPU (AMD 2600+) anyhow i
took the CPU out and re seated it and plopped HS/fan back on and it worked,
all worked good.

So...

So that's an indicator that it wasn't the CPU, probably a
bios glitch, maybe a poorly designed, dirty or defective
socket.

CPU is a possibility, anything is when it comes to hardware issues, I
wouldn't rule things out, however saying that I know your a genius when it
comes to this kinda stuff... and just had to point out my past experience,
it might be an idea for the OP to try re seating the CPU and memory, to
fault find.

Well I am making a distinction when it comes to "CPU".
That distinction is that the CPU wouldn't typically "fail"
by itself. That doesn't necessarily mean something related
to the CPU isn't at issue, nor that a CPU can't fail with
external forces or deficiencies. I suppose my main point
should be that these external forces are almost always
obvious upon inspection of the system. Of all the things
that might go wrong that a user can't discern with
conventional troubleshooting methods, the CPU is among the
last part to suspect when nothing related appears amiss.

 

[jg]

guys, thanx for your replies to this problem.

I replaced the ram and cmos battery but still no good.
Then I tried a different video card from my other computer and ..... the
computer booted up straight away - all fixed!
So I guess my video card has died (what do they die of?)
john

 

[kony]

guys, thanx for your replies to this problem.

I replaced the ram and cmos battery but still no good.
Then I tried a different video card from my other computer and ..... the
computer booted up straight away - all fixed!
So I guess my video card has died (what do they die of?)
john

Depends on the card and environment.

Potential causes include GPU overheating (with or without
fan failure), weight of card causing long-term PCB damage,
capacitor failures, bios lost, power supply problems,
motherboard (power) problems, probably other causes that
don't come to mind at the moment.

If it were a valuable card you could try installing a PCI
card, setting it to primary display device in the
motherboard bios, booting to dos and reflashing failed
card's bios. Beyond that, a physical inspection of the card
might catch physical problems but otherwise it's best not to
spend too much time on it unless you suspect the board or
power supply is faulty/insufficient/etc.