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Woke up, computer broken

W

Wingy

[H]ard|Gawd
Joined
Dec 18, 2000
Messages
1,294
I woke up this morning, walked over to my computer, and noticed it was frozen. So I restarted, and nothing happened. The monitor stayed black, the little light on the monitor was blinking, which is making me think there was a problem with the video card.

But does anybody know what could cause something like this? What steps should I check here?
 
Do you have the system speaker plugged in? Any beeps?

Does the power light on the front of the computer turn on?
 
Power lights on, HD light on, IDE drives spin

ASUS A7N8x Deluxe, XP Barton 3000+, Radeon 9800np, 2 sticks corsair pc3200 512 each,
PSU I'm doubting is the problem. It's not a name brand, but it has worked fine for a long time, and the rest of the system powers up correctly.
 
Wingy said:
I woke up this morning, walked over to my computer, and noticed it was frozen. So I restarted, and nothing happened. The monitor stayed black, the little light on the monitor was blinking, which is making me think there was a problem with the video card.

But does anybody know what could cause something like this? What steps should I check here?
Click to expand...

I'm thinking you're right about the vidcard. Check its fan for circulation and reinstall. If you have any other vc that works try it. I have low end workable parts for my entire system I've bought off ebay just to troubleshoot. Like a $40 investment but they have helped me many times.
 
The monitor blinking just means it's getting no signal. I wouldn't assume that is the video card. I mean, you can rule out hard drives since you don't even get a bios issue. And bad memory typically leads to beeps and doesn't prevent the initial bios screen.

So, that leaves the gfx card, motherboard and processor. I have had a few motherboards die on me overnight, and all have left the totally black screen. Basically, if you can get a new GFX card without buying one, it's worth a test.
 
Well initially the it just looked like XP had frozen, then on restart, it refused to post.

I just swapped in a working videocard with no luck.

Which do you think it would most likely be? CPU, Motherboard? I'm tryin to figure out what new thing I should buy :(
 
Well since the video card has been ruled out, and I doubt it's the processor, since the heatsink has worked beautifully thus far, with no problems ever, and has never been tampered with (And also has a working fan), I'm thinking it's motherboard issue.

A7N8x Deluxe. Would you all agree?
 
Wingy said:
Well initially the it just looked like XP had frozen, then on restart, it refused to post.

I just swapped in a working videocard with no luck.

Which do you think it would most likely be? CPU, Motherboard? I'm tryin to figure out what new thing I should buy :(
Click to expand...

If you take out the CPU, your BIOS should tell you that you have no CPU installed. So, remove the CPU, see if you get any message at all. If not, replace the mobo.
 
Wingy said:
Well initially the it just looked like XP had frozen, then on restart, it refused to post.

I just swapped in a working videocard with no luck.

Which do you think it would most likely be? CPU, Motherboard? I'm tryin to figure out what new thing I should buy :(
Click to expand...

If you swapped out the vc, you're right in suspecting the cpu or m/b. I'd go with the m/b first.
 
This same situation happened to me three days ago. I have a xp 2100 oc'd on an epox8rda+ board. I have been running this setup for a year now and it was doing fine... I had no plans on upgrading until nforce4 boards were in at least the second generation.

Here is a list of the things that could be wrong with your system:
Bad PSU
Corrupt/Dead BIOS
Dead motherboard for whatever reason (most likely bad capacitators www.badcaps.net)

When I checked out my motherboard I saw some bulging caps so I'm figuring it just finally gave out.

Other option was the PSU. I had a crappy 350watt no-name PSU that came with my case so I figured I would just order a good one since I could use it later on anyway. I ordered a Sparkle Power 530 ( http://www.newegg.com/app/viewProductDesc.asp?description=17-103-489&depa=0 ). That is the same as a Fortron 530w but $1 cheaper on Newegg for whatever reason. Don't worry about the seemingly low 12v rail, it's rated low at 18a but people have tested and say it can support up to 28a. Once that gets here I will plug it up to my epox and see if it posts... small chance that could be the problem. If it doesn't post (and hangs at FF) I will know that it is a bad motherboard like I suspect.

When/if I realize it's a dead board, I can either buy another nforce2 board and use my current CPU/Heatsink in it or be forced to choose an upgrade path at what seems like a pretty rough time.
 
I posted a few days ago about my computer problems. You can read the post here:

http://hardforum.com/showthread.php?t=815984


Now, I just got a new motherboard form newegg today, swapped it in, still the same problem. The monitor light blinks, no beeps or anything. I'm beginning to think CPU, so I put one on order earlier.

However, Before the order is said and done, I was wondering if I could get one more opinion from all of you, as I can't afford to keep buying parts like this.

I confirmed the video card is ok. Apparently, the motherboard was too. I havn't been able to test the processor, however, I thought the ASUS Voice reporter thing was supposed to tell me if the CPU failed the initial test. Is this true?

Anyways, any help is appreciated, I'm running low on morale here:p I'm a computer science major, and not having access to my computer is making life shitty right now.

Thanks guys.
 
< begin /threadcrap >

Wingy - I merged your two threads. One thread, per subject, please. You can always "bump" a previous thread with a new post - that will get it to the top of the list.

Thanks - B.B.S.

< end /threadcrap >
 
My apologies, and you sir, are very quick :)

And my questions again, do you think it could be CPU, and if it is, why wouldn't the ASUS voice reporter report it. To be honest tho, I've never been able to get that thing to work.

And also, my PSU seems to power all my fans and drives ok. So I don't think that's the problem. I've tried unplugging all my drives and trying to start, and still had the same problem.
 
Wingy said:
My apologies, and you sir, are very quick :)

And my questions again, do you think it could be CPU, and if it is, why wouldn't the ASUS voice reporter report it. To be honest tho, I've never been able to get that thing to work.

And also, my PSU seems to power all my fans and drives ok. So I don't think that's the problem. I've tried unplugging all my drives and trying to start, and still had the same problem.
Click to expand...

I don't know how an f'ed up processor will be reported, but if you take the processor out, you get a bios screen that says No CPU detected or something like that.

Have you tried booting with the processor physically removed?
 
I had a similar problem with everything just "freezing" in place, and then going black. My problem turned out to be the lack of necessary power getting to the hardrive. I later determined I had too many devices plugged in to my 12v rail. I don't know if this is your problem, but at least it is easy to check.
 
Wingy said:
And my questions again, do you think it could be CPU, and if it is, why wouldn't the ASUS voice reporter report it. To be honest tho, I've never been able to get that thing to work.
Click to expand...
If you have the voice-enabled post stuff off, I am not sure if it works. I turned it off when I installed my A7N8X Deluxe over a year and a half ago (or 2 years now? Can't remember!). I much prefer the beeps. :)
 
try unplugging everything except the necesities (motherboard, video card, cpu fan, basically unplug the other fans, hard drives, and cd drives) then try booting it up, if it works your have a bad power supply, if not it may be the cpu. have you tried resetting your bios via the jumper on your motherboard? this works well sometimes.
 
Same thing happened to me last weekend. Turns out my lovely furball-of-a-cat chewed the monitor cable. So, make sure your cable isn't damaged somehow.
 
Garion said:
Same thing happened to me last weekend. Turns out my lovely furball-of-a-cat chewed the monitor cable. So, make sure your cable isn't damaged somehow.
Click to expand...

haha that is pretty funny. i lock the cat and dog out of my computer room. the only pet in my computer room is my ball python, and she can't cause too much damage from inside her glass cage :)
 
Sometimes you start a new build up and they turn right on and they play nice, sometimes they fight you every step of the way....:rolleyes:

You're in the unfortunate place where you are going to need to test your major components, one at a time, in a known good system. How about your RAM...?? Tested it in a known good system?

compslckr had good advice. If you haven't done so already, strip the system down to only the needed components; pull cards, fans, etc. that aren't the minimum needed. I usually go for a boot with new systems with a floppy, one stick of RAM, a CPU, and a video card. Sometimes you have to start there and add things back one part at a time, confirming proper operation after every addition.

Good luck - B.B.S.
 
- grab a piece of cardboard, or something else that's non-conductive.
- take the mainboard out of the case, put it on the aforementioned cardboard
- remove everything from the mainboard, except for the CPU and HSF
- hook up a (verified with a DMM with a load attached) PSU to the mainboard
- add an external speaker if the mainboard doesn't have an onboard one
- turn the system on (short the PWR_SW pins for a second, or attach a NO switch)
- the system should start beeping at you because you didn't install any RAM and a videocard
- look up the beep code. If it's missing RAM, add it. If it's a missing videocard, add it.
- if you don't receive any of those two codes, or none at all, start panicking, then replace the CPU, and if that fails the PSU
- if you still don't get any beep codes, and you did reset the CMOS like you should have after even a minor change to the configuration, you've confirmed that the mainboard is officially deceased.
 
I wonder
What if he removes the CPU.
If mobo is alive it should beep as well, shouldn't it?
If it doesn't beep it means mobo is dead, not the cpu?
 
Astra said:
I wonder
What if he removes the CPU.
If mobo is alive it should beep as well, shouldn't it?
If it doesn't beep it means mobo is dead, not the cpu?
Click to expand...


Last night just found out, removed CPU from motherboard, new motherboard, and got "NO CPU INSTALLED" from the ASUS voice reporter

When CPU installed, it does the normal problem.

I think I've got myself a solution. Thanks guys!
 
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