Need help fixing friends PC

A

Aaron11

[H]ard|Gawd
Joined
Oct 19, 2009
Messages
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I thought I'd help a friend out and take a look at their HP Pavilion Elite e9120f. He told me it was only one and a half years old. So at his house, I tried turning it on. I didn't get a splash screen from the BIOS or anything. All that showed up was "Reboot and select a proper boot device or insert boot media in selected boot device and press any key." So I thought, oh well it's most likely a hard drive issue. Then I turned off the PC and booted it up again to see if I could access the BIOS to see if the HD was being recognized. I booted it up...nothing. No post, no error messages like the other one before, just nothing. So then I thought, "Well, maybe it's more than just a hard drive issue." So I kept trying to restart it, and the same blank screen with nothing on it kept appearing.

So then I decided to take it to my house and inspect it further. Boy does HP have a quirky setup inside the case. To get to the hard drive you have to go through this hard drive cage and unscrew lots of screws. Anyway, since it looked time-consuming to get to the HD, I thought maybe reseating the memory would at least let me go into the bios. Hooked it up, booted it and I got the message I got the very first time. Then I tried booting it again, and nothing... The fan on the gpu was going crazy so I thought maybe the gpu was bad. I took out the gpu and just used the onboard one. First I got the message, then I rebooted and nothing, just like before. I started noticing a pattern that it seemed to display the message after you unplug it, then plug it back in. So I finally went on to the hard drive since I had no luck accessing the BIOS. I took it out and hooked it up to my pc. Inside my OS, I saw that the document files were unscathed so I backed those up. I then restarted my pc and booted of his 1TB drive from the pc. It started up with the loading bar from Vista then BSODed. What do you guys recommend I do? Thanks
 
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I cleared the cmos. it was a real bitch to do. It didn't do anything. anyone?
 
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If you have a spare hard drive, install the OS on his computer. Its probably the HDD, so run a DIAG. on his HDD while its in your computer.
 
gwarren007 said:
If you have a spare hard drive, install the OS on his computer. Its probably the HDD, so run a DIAG. on his HDD while its in your computer.
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Thanks for the help. I don't have the HD connected to my PC right now, but when it was, I did check the smart data and it was in good working order. The thing is, I can't even get his PC to post most of the time (maybe one out of ten times it will post). I just tried changing the RAM and that didn't help either. I'm starting to think there's a bigger hardware failure than just the hard drive.
 
^^I think you're right. I smelled a burning smell coming from the PSU exhaust fan. I'll contact my friend and tell him. I was looking at the Antec Earthwatts 380 watt psu. It's the cheapest quality cpu on the market as far as I know.
 
I believe newegg has the Antec Neo Eco 400 still on sale with rebate. Worth a look.
 
Well, I got the PSU in the mail today (Antec 380 one) and it didn't help. Same problem as before. Any suggestions? My guess is that it's a mobo issue. And if it is, is it worth it to get a new mobo? I'm thinking that he will need a new license for Windows. Should I just tell him to get another computer?
 
Aaron11 said:
Well, I got the PSU in the mail today (Antec 380 one) and it didn't help. Same problem as before. Any suggestions? My guess is that it's a mobo issue. And if it is, is it worth it to get a new mobo? I'm thinking that he will need a new license for Windows. Should I just tell him to get another computer?
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Quite possible that Bestec killed the mobo. He won't need a new license as long you call up MS yourself to issue you a new key while you're installing the new OS and explain to them what happened. Definitely get a new mobo as that setup is still worth salvaging/reusing.
 
Hmm does the PC still have standard warranty. I have to assume, if it isnt the power supply, which I could of just get a power supply tester, or jump the green wire to any black wire, not Hard Drive, as you got to dump the HD as backup. Hmm, when you turn on the system, is the onboard led light on the motherbard working? Are the fans churning as usual? Can you press F8 during boot up to get to recovery? I would try to reseat the CPU, and motherboard. If you take out the cpu, and put it into a compatible motherboard and run prime 95. See if its the possiblity of cpu. I had a similar problem, and found out it was my motherboard, and had to RMA it to ECS!
 
The PC is past its warranty. The fans are working as usual and the power led comes on. I can't do anything. I haven't seen a splash screen. 9 out of 10 times I see nothing on the screen, other times it's just the message as before. I'll try reseating the cpu. EDIT: This more work than I thought. The damn heatsink is stuck to the cpu! I pulled on it (I didn't think it was that hard) and the heatsink came off with the cpu at the bottom. I'm researching ways to get it off as I write this. I think its some kind of adhesive crap
 
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not likely, cpu thermal paste gets hard over time is all. Next time try twisting it as opposed to pulling.
 
So I was finally able to get the cpu off of the heatsink. I just put it next to a hair dryer for about 5 minutes. Then I twisted it off like crazy. My n00bish mistake. I reseated it and same behavior as before. I'm going to try the x4 910 in my mobo to see if it's the cpu. If it is the cpu, will it hurt my cpu to put it into his mobo (I put the bestec psu back in)?
 
I got the Phenom II X4 910 installed into my mobo. It works fine. I didn't stress test it too long, but the point is that in the other pc it doesn't even boot. Any suggestions? Is it the mobo? That's the only other thing I can think of. And if so do you think it's wise to keep the new psu or try out that bestec? I'm going to test the bestec to see if it's really bad
 
Keep the new PSU. I wouldn't trust the Bestec. If that CPU worked fine in your mobo, then yeah, sounds like a mobo issue to me. But to rule it out and if that new PSU is installed, try your CPU in it. And no, I don't recommend installing your CPU if that Bestec is still installed.
 
It does kinda sound like the problem may be the monitor or the video "card".

Stuff is powering on, just no video.
 
Tried the CPU in my PC. It worked great. Didn't crash or anything after an hour of stress-testing. I already ruled out video card by removing the dedicated gpu and using the onboard of the mobo. Same video output showed regardless if on the discrete or integrated gpu. I ordered a new mobo. And don't worry, I got rid of that crap bestec. I'm using an external monitor right now.
 
To my conclusion its the motherboard... Lol. I was right. Well, once you get your new motherboard in, and you test the power supply with a power supply tester, you should be golden. Hmm, just to be safe, try the ram with your mobo aswell, you want to atleast have everything the same, and only change 1 part at a time, or else it could be a mis diagnosis. Oh well, im really sure its the motherboard as you went through gfx too. like me. Lol. Painstaking process atm, but hey, better then buying tons of new stuff you dont need!
 
KrAzYaZnFLiP808 said:
To my conclusion its the motherboard... Lol. I was right. Well, once you get your new motherboard in, and you test the power supply with a power supply tester, you should be golden. Hmm, just to be safe, try the ram with your mobo aswell, you want to atleast have everything the same, and only change 1 part at a time, or else it could be a mis diagnosis. Oh well, im really sure its the motherboard as you went through gfx too. like me. Lol. Painstaking process atm, but hey, better then buying tons of new stuff you dont need!
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I looked through the psu caught a glimps of a burnt capacitor or something in the psu, which would explain the smell. I already tried my ram in his mobo...didn't help. I'll try his ram later, but I'm sure it's fine.

hossdaddy said:
Hey you know what, it could have been a bad video cable. Check that too.
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The cable I connected it to is the one I use all the time with my PC (and the cable still works)
 
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