Black screen-where to start?

[pheasant]

Oh-Oh
Major league dump I think.
Last time I powered down all was just fine. Hit power this AM; nothing. No
video card report, nostart of POST, hard drive light lights for about 2
seconds then goes out. Doesn't sound like it's spinning up either.
CPU and northbridge fan running just fine. Swapped out monitors, same story.
Cleared CMOS and replaced battery, no dice. Reseated video card, RAM,
checked SATA connections, reseated sound, and modem cards, no joy.


Built about 4 months ago, powered on maybe once a week for 24-48 hours, CPU
temps never over 50 degrees.

Soltek 75FRN2-RL
AMD Barton 2500 running at 200 x 11 for 3200XP speed
Corsair PC 3200 2 x 256
GE Force 440MX AGP graphics card IIRC
Toshiba 80GB SATA hard drive
Win XP Home all updates done except for the new one this week, (it's why I
powered it up today)
Runnin NAV, Ad-Aware,SpyBot, and RegCleaner about once weekly.
Using Mozilla Firefox 0.8 for browser.

Have been building and tinkering for about 5 years, this is first major
nasty, tell me what you think and where to start.

Thanks
Mark

 

[Dave C.]

Oh-Oh
Major league dump I think.
Last time I powered down all was just fine. Hit power this AM; nothing. No
video card report, nostart of POST, hard drive light lights for about 2
seconds then goes out. Doesn't sound like it's spinning up either.
CPU and northbridge fan running just fine. Swapped out monitors, same story.
Cleared CMOS and replaced battery, no dice. Reseated video card, RAM,
checked SATA connections, reseated sound, and modem cards, no joy.

It's down to the power supply, CPU or mainboard, in that order. Most common
failure point in a non-overclocked system would be the power supply. Please
tell me you didn't recycle the power supply from a previous system. On an
overclocked system, just about anything could be stressed to the point of
failure by now. -Dave

 

[Wes Newell]

Oh-Oh
Major league dump I think.
Last time I powered down all was just fine. Hit power this AM; nothing. No
video card report, nostart of POST, hard drive light lights for about 2
seconds then goes out. Doesn't sound like it's spinning up either.
CPU and northbridge fan running just fine. Swapped out monitors, same story.
Have been building and tinkering for about 5 years, this is first major
nasty, tell me what you think and where to start.

I always have a spare PSU.

 

[Doug]

You will probably be looking for a quality PSU. This is the backbone of the
whole system. The 12V line is producing to fire the CPU fan, but the others
will have to be looked at or just replace it like everyone else does.

 

[noone]

For crying out loud, ever think that your video card take a dump? Get a new
card and see.

 

[Bob Day]

Oh-Oh
Major league dump I think.
Last time I powered down all was just fine. Hit power this AM; nothing. No
video card report, nostart of POST, hard drive light lights for about 2
seconds then goes out. Doesn't sound like it's spinning up either.
CPU and northbridge fan running just fine. Swapped out monitors, same story.
Cleared CMOS and replaced battery, no dice. Reseated video card, RAM,
checked SATA connections, reseated sound, and modem cards, no joy.

Do you get any beep code?

-- Bob Day

 

[pheasant]

.. Hit power this AM; nothing. No

Do you get any beep code?

-- Bob Day

No beeps at all.

I had ideas of: video card, cmos battery, cpu, mobo, then psu.
No I didn't recycle any parts, but wasn't a very expensive psu/case, so this
will be near top of list since the majority of you seem to feel this is the
place to start.

So; vid card, PSU, cpu, then mobo will be order of testing.
I'm hoping it's the vid card, as really don't want my pre week 39 Barton to
be toast, but as long as it ain't the HD I'll be happy. Glad it's just my
hobby box.

Thanks all.

Mark

 

[DaveW]

It sounds like either the power supply unit or the motherboard failed. The
cheapest and easiest to perform test is to replace the power supply with a
known working unit of adequate output and stability.

 

[Bob Day]

. Hit power this AM; nothing. No

No beeps at all.

I had ideas of: video card, cmos battery, cpu, mobo, then psu.
No I didn't recycle any parts, but wasn't a very expensive psu/case, so this
will be near top of list since the majority of you seem to feel this is the
place to start.

So; vid card, PSU, cpu, then mobo will be order of testing.
I'm hoping it's the vid card, as really don't want my pre week 39 Barton to
be toast, but as long as it ain't the HD I'll be happy. Glad it's just my
hobby box.

If the video card fails, you normally get beeps, which is what
prompted me to ask. I'd suspect the other things on your list
first. Lightening storm maybe?

-- Bob Day

 

[Andrew]

What type of Motherboard?
Ram?
We know of the Barton, is it a Mobile?
The problem might be s short in the board and case.
An incorrect bios setting.
A bit more info on your system would assist in adressing your current
problem

Andrew
Oh-Oh
Major league dump I think.
Last time I powered down all was just fine. Hit power this AM; nothing. No
video card report, nostart of POST, hard drive light lights for about 2
seconds then goes out. Doesn't sound like it's spinning up either.
CPU and northbridge fan running just fine. Swapped out monitors, same story.
Cleared CMOS and replaced battery, no dice. Reseated video card, RAM,
checked SATA connections, reseated sound, and modem cards, no joy.


Built about 4 months ago, powered on maybe once a week for 24-48 hours, CPU
temps never over 50 degrees.

Soltek 75FRN2-RL
AMD Barton 2500 running at 200 x 11 for 3200XP speed
Corsair PC 3200 2 x 256
GE Force 440MX AGP graphics card IIRC
Toshiba 80GB SATA hard drive
Win XP Home all updates done except for the new one this week, (it's why I
powered it up today)
Runnin NAV, Ad-Aware,SpyBot, and RegCleaner about once weekly.
Using Mozilla Firefox 0.8 for browser.

Have been building and tinkering for about 5 years, this is first major
nasty, tell me what you think and where to start.

Thanks
Mark

 

[Andrew]

My mistake
Didn't scroll down through your post.
I have been playing with my Mobile 2500 changing the bios a bit on my
AN7, results in the no boot thing for me .
Have cleared the bios, and restarted pc and reconfigured things after
that, ( my 2500 running as an 800 default setting doesnt make you smile,
but it boots to begin with)
Going back to a previous known setting works
Oh-Oh
Major league dump I think.
Last time I powered down all was just fine. Hit power this AM; nothing. No
video card report, nostart of POST, hard drive light lights for about 2
seconds then goes out. Doesn't sound like it's spinning up either.
CPU and northbridge fan running just fine. Swapped out monitors, same story.
Cleared CMOS and replaced battery, no dice. Reseated video card, RAM,
checked SATA connections, reseated sound, and modem cards, no joy.


Built about 4 months ago, powered on maybe once a week for 24-48 hours, CPU
temps never over 50 degrees.

Soltek 75FRN2-RL
AMD Barton 2500 running at 200 x 11 for 3200XP speed
Corsair PC 3200 2 x 256
GE Force 440MX AGP graphics card IIRC
Toshiba 80GB SATA hard drive
Win XP Home all updates done except for the new one this week, (it's why I
powered it up today)
Runnin NAV, Ad-Aware,SpyBot, and RegCleaner about once weekly.
Using Mozilla Firefox 0.8 for browser.

Have been building and tinkering for about 5 years, this is first major
nasty, tell me what you think and where to start.

Thanks
Mark

 

[pheasant]

If the video card fails, you normally get beeps, which is what
prompted me to ask. I'd suspect the other things on your list
first. Lightening storm maybe?

Well Guys;

It ain't the psu, cpu,. cmos battery, sooooo gonna try and round up a vid
card before I go ripping the mobo out.
But at least when I find the culprit, will have a quieter psu.

 

[pheasant]

Bob

You may have something here, we have had a couple tstorms here, but nothing
else touched, so kind of disounted this.

 

[Phÿltêr]

Oh-Oh
Major league dump I think.
Last time I powered down all was just fine. Hit power this AM; nothing.
No video card report, nostart of POST, hard drive light lights for
about 2 seconds then goes out. Doesn't sound like it's spinning up
either. CPU and northbridge fan running just fine. Swapped out monitors,
same story. Cleared CMOS and replaced battery, no dice. Reseated video
card, RAM, checked SATA connections, reseated sound, and modem cards, no
joy.


Built about 4 months ago, powered on maybe once a week for 24-48 hours,
CPU temps never over 50 degrees.

Soltek 75FRN2-RL
AMD Barton 2500 running at 200 x 11 for 3200XP speed
Corsair PC 3200 2 x 256
GE Force 440MX AGP graphics card IIRC
Toshiba 80GB SATA hard drive
Win XP Home all updates done except for the new one this week, (it's why
I powered it up today)
Runnin NAV, Ad-Aware,SpyBot, and RegCleaner about once weekly.
Using Mozilla Firefox 0.8 for browser.

Have been building and tinkering for about 5 years, this is first major
nasty, tell me what you think and where to start.

Thanks
Mark

I reckon the CPU is hosed

 

[OZoNE]

Bob

You may have something here, we have had a couple tstorms here, but nothing
else touched, so kind of disounted this.

I had a PC get hit by a TStorm...It fried EVERY part EXCPET THE VID CARD.
Everything else in house was fine.
So electricity has a funny way of destroying some things and not others...
It may have taken out just one or 2 resistors or capacitoors on the
motherboard and stopped there....
you tested all other parts in a diff system i take it from your break down
of what its not?
My Advice is if you have a known working mobo laying around put each piece
in 1 at a time till your left with nuthing but the board in the case.
Hell even maybe pull the mobo from the case and try booting it on a tabel
top...No grounding out that way...
Perhaps a trace on the board is now shorting to ground...
really a bitch to troubleshoot one without spare parts to test with.
The PS did originally sound like the problem at first but Now Im thinking
the MOBO got a hit over night...it can and does happen

OZoNE

 

[pheasant]

Oh-Oh
Major league dump I think.
Last time I powered down all was just fine. Hit power this AM; nothing. No
video card report, nostart of POST, hard drive light lights for about 2
seconds then goes out. Doesn't sound like it's spinning up either.
CPU and northbridge fan running just fine. Swapped out monitors, same story.
Cleared CMOS and replaced battery, no dice. Reseated video card, RAM,
checked SATA connections, reseated sound, and modem cards, no joy.


Built about 4 months ago, powered on maybe once a week for 24-48 hours, CPU
temps never over 50 degrees.

Soltek 75FRN2-RL
AMD Barton 2500 running at 200 x 11 for 3200XP speed
Corsair PC 3200 2 x 256
GE Force 440MX AGP graphics card IIRC
Toshiba 80GB SATA hard drive
Win XP Home all updates done except for the new one this week, (it's why I
powered it up today)
Runnin NAV, Ad-Aware,SpyBot, and RegCleaner about once weekly.
Using Mozilla Firefox 0.8 for browser.

Have been building and tinkering for about 5 years, this is first major
nasty, tell me what you think and where to start.

Thanks
Mark

OK Gang

Who guessed motherboard?? YOU WIN THE COOKIE!!!!!!! Johnny tell
them what they've won!!!

Lots of settings to change, booted as an AMD 1100GHZ, but at least we're
running again. Like the quieter fan too. Runs 6-7 degrees cooler.

 

[Bob Adkins]

Oh-Oh
Major league dump I think.
Last time I powered down all was just fine. Hit power this AM; nothing. No

Here's what I do, assuming the fans and lights come on:

Jerk all the cards, re-boot, and turn off any network, sound, USB, LPT, and
com ports. Rotate the RAM if you can, borrow a stick if you can't.

If it boots, add back 1 thing at a time until it stops booting.

Still no boot, borrow a PSU and CPU and try again.



Bob

Remove "kins" to reply by e-mail.

 

[Panos Papadopolous]

No

Here's what I do, assuming the fans and lights come on:

Jerk all the cards, re-boot, and turn off any network, sound, USB, LPT, and
com ports. Rotate the RAM if you can, borrow a stick if you can't.

If it boots, add back 1 thing at a time until it stops booting.

Still no boot, borrow a PSU and CPU and try again.

Good advice, Bob.

I would remove everything except the motherboard, cpu and fan, memory, power
supply and also plug the built-in speaker into the board, then turn Power
ON.

You should get a single beep to show a successful POST.

If not, one of installed units is bad.

If "beep", Power Off, add video card and repeat.

If "beep", Power Off, add Monitor and repeat.

You should hear "beep" and see error message on monitor, "no keyboard".

Power Off, add keyboard and repeat, and so on.