Need some help diagnosing hardware problem

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Lukthree

n00b
Joined
Oct 30, 2007
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4
I built this system about 8 months ago, AMD X2 4200+ socket AM2, 2 x 1gig corsair 5400 RAM, Foxconn C51XEM2AA nForce 590 SLi, EVGA GeForce 7900GS PCI-e, Ultra 550 watt PSU, one IDE HDD and one SATA HDD, and a DVD-RW drive, running XP sp2

everything had been working perfectly up until today, i start counter strike source and the screen goes black as if its loading the menu but instead after about 10sec my montor says no signal and turns off, so at this point im like wtf so i hard restart my system because it doesnt respond when i ctrl-alt-del or anything. it posts OK and loads XP up to the login screen, but before i can login the monitor shuts off again, same thing. at this point i leave it off and check the temp of my gfx card and everything by touch and everything is running cool, restart again and now it wont even post and ive got no power to mouse/keyboard. mobo lights come on, HDD's spin up, but no signal to monitor or power to keyboard or mouse. At this point i tried booting with one module of ram at a time figuring one of them might have died but no luck there, then i did the same thing with my hard drives, and even switched my gfx card to the other pci-e slot, no luck there either, i dont have another AM2 processor to test so i cant test that. Im thinking its either that or the mobo but i have no experience with those failing so i dont really know what to look for, what do you guys think? also, if the gfx card died, would the system still post, just no OSD? and shouldnt i still get power to my mouse/keyboard?
 
Try getting it to post with no ram installed, and listen for beeps... then try the same without your video card installed, again listen for beeps... if you get the correct error beeps, then my guess would be a dead video card... if you don't get any beeps, I would suspect your board has died.... you might re-seat your cpu/hsf and see if that does anything, I doubt it will, but you never know...

Good luck...
 
I am thinking video card problem too.

I recently worked on a PC that wouldn't even boot. The system would 'blink' on when you turned on the power, but not start up. Mobo lights were on. The problem was the video card, it's fan had died and killed the card. Once I removed the card from the system, it started right up and everything worked fine.

So, yes, the vdeo card can affect the startup of the PC.
 
thanks for the suggestions guys, i started it without the video card and it beeped and the LED on my motherboard read "FF" which means "boot" according to the manual, i waited for a minute or two and my keyboard and mouse still didnt have power. i put the videocard back in and took the ram out and started and nothing happened, same as usual, no beeps etc.

also, the fan on the card still works, and right when it crashed for the first time i felt the card with my hand and it definitely wasnt overheated, although it would make sense it was the card that is broken because it crashed while initializing a 3d app, just dont know why it would randomly self-destruct haha

so, final verdict = video card? i should probably ask one of my friends to borrow one of theirs and test it before i RMA
 
ya it sounds like your video card but it could also be your psu (Ultra sux IMHO). Try to also get your hands on a PSU and see if that works.
 
are you sure it could be the psu? i mean it still powers my motherboard, fans, and drives fine, my system just wont post

what would be the symptoms if my processor was the culprit?
 
Back in the Socket A days I scratched the top of a processor pushing down w/ a screwdriver to get the cooler on. I had symptoms similar to yours, ie - everything looked and acted like it powered up, but no video signal. So I guess it is possible that the CPU is damaged, though much less likely than the video card.

I don't really see how it could be your PSU.
 
Lukthree said:
but instead after about 10sec my montor says no signal and turns off, so at this point im like wtf
Click to expand...

This points right at GPU problems. Definitely get another video card to work with before taking any other action.
 
thanks guys, yeah i got a hold of another pci-e card and it booted fine, now i just have to wait an eternity to RMA via newegg
 
Ive had the pleasure of RMAing a few times with Newegg. It really wasn't too bad, I got the replacement within 2 weeks after I shipped out the bad part. Relatively painless.
 
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