W
WinGuy
tony said:
My advice:
If your graphics card is in a black slot, do none of the below and instead
just take it to a computer repair shop. Otherwise...
Will your system boot up with any floppy disk, if you have one or a friend
does? It would be best to physically disconnect the Hard Disk Drive/s data
(flat) cable/s before you try that (see below). Most HDD flat cables only
plug in one way and are "keyed" to do so, but document it anyway (look for
the red stripe on a flat cable).
You probably really do have a hardware problem, and the likely one is your
graphics card. First, try removing any cards that plug into slots (remember
where they go, touch bare PC metal before you touch a card or anything else
inside your computer, and of course be sure the PC is unplugged from the
wall socket or bad things might happen). If it reboots ok into safe mode
now, then one of those cards is bad. When you put them in one at a time do
not touch the connectors and make sure they are seated properly before
applying power, else you might damage something expensive. If you have a
separate graphics card (probably in a brown AGP but it could be in a white
PCI slot) then it could have gone bad, too, and so you could try another
one. If your graphics card is built onto the motherboard then try another
graphics card in a PCI (white) slot or an AGP (brown) slot, the BIOS should
automatically recognize it - although for full functionality you'd have to
install its driver. Lastly, it could be a memory or motherboard problem that
is not directly related to graphics rendoring - but this is very unlikely.
You might try "re-seating" the memory, though, just in case contact points
have oxidized. It is very unlikely in your case that it is a power supply
problem, at least not the power supply itself. You can also try removing
power and data cables to your floppy drive, HDD's, and so on but be sure to
document how they go (especially if a floppy data - flat ribbon - cable can
be plugged in more than one way) and on the floppy power and data connectors
be sure that you connect the power cable correctly and do not be off by any
pins. Just be carefull and don't rush. If you are uncomfortable with any of
that then consider taking it to a repair shop, because you could damage
something that was ok before. Just carefully document before you start
removing or unplugging things, and you will probably not hurt anything if
you hook it back up correctly after eliminating potential bad hardware
issues. On some computers the floppy disk must be fully connected up of the
computer will not boot (a BIOS setting).