Help troubleshooting hardware problem

[Scythez0r]

Hey guys, so I have a bit of a problem with my old desktop and need some help figuring out exactly what is wrong.

So what happens is I turn it on, the fans come on and everything lights up and seems fine, but it won't get a video signal. At first I thought it may be the graphics card, but I don't have another PCI-E card to check it. One thing I thought weird though is the motherboard doesn't beep (headphones plugged in) when I boot it up with no ram. I've tried only leaving the essentials - CPU, 1 ram stick, GFX card and PSU (I made 100% certain the PSU was plugged in properly also) but no go.

I've also tried clearing cmos and checked the monitor and cables. The monitor seems to be able to tell something's there but wont display anything (it comes on when I turn on the PC but it comes up with no video signal).

The problem is I can't really try the parts on anything else because I don't have any other desktops any more and everyone of my family members has a laptop now.

So any help would be awesome. I don't have much money at all atm, so I want to make sure I know what's wrong before I go and buy any new parts I need. System specs are in my profile.

Thanks in advance.

[Jetster]

If it is going to give a error beep it wont be threw your head phones. It will be threw the speaker pins next to your front panel pins. Connect a small PC speaker to it.

Im sure you reseated everything right

This is the MB in your specs? So no onboard video?

You need to test your GPU in another motherboard, Its the only way to know. Or get a cheap GPU to test it

[eidairaman1]

take the PSU, Motherboard, Ram, Video card out of the case, put them on a non conductive surface and I mean like a cardboard box or a wood table top ensure graphics card, ram, psu, are all hooked up properly to the motherboard, ensure the video card is squared in the slot and power is all hooked up properly. Ensure the monitor cable is fully seated and the monitor is powered up properly (light on front of it normally is green or amber color or even blue).

Cheapest thing to do would to get another monitor cable, next a cheap video card.

[erixx]

First things first, get a motherboard speaker plugged into the mainboard. If anything is wrong with booting it can be anything but you will not see WHAT.
Meanwhile find a webpage with beepcodes explained for your bios (Phoenix, Award, etc)

[eidairaman1]

Originally Posted by erixx

First things first, get a motherboard speaker plugged into the mainboard. If anything is wrong with booting it can be anything but you will not see WHAT.
Meanwhile find a webpage with beepcodes explained for your bios (Phoenix, Award, etc)

one thing i noticed about alot of cases these days is they never include the speaker anymore

[Jetster]

Originally Posted by eidairaman1

one thing i noticed about alot of cases these days is they never include the speaker anymore

I noticed that too

[Scythez0r]

Originally Posted by Jetster

If it is going to give a error beep it wont be threw your head phones. It will be threw the speaker pins next to your front panel pins. Connect a small PC speaker to it.

Im sure you reseated everything right

This is the MB in your specs? So no onboard video?

You need to test your GPU in another motherboard, Its the only way to know. Or get a cheap GPU to test it

Yep I made sure everything was seated properly 100 times , and yeah no onboard video. I'll have a look for a real cheap PCI GPU then.

Originally Posted by eidairaman1

take the PSU, Motherboard, Ram, Video card out of the case, put them on a non conductive surface and I mean like a cardboard box or a wood table top ensure graphics card, ram, psu, are all hooked up properly to the motherboard, ensure the video card is squared in the slot and power is all hooked up properly. Ensure the monitor cable is fully seated and the monitor is powered up properly (light on front of it normally is green or amber color or even blue).

Cheapest thing to do would to get another monitor cable, next a cheap video card.

Alright I'll give this a try. I'm positive it's not the monitor cable as I've tried two different DVI cables and even a different VGA monitor.

Thanks a lot for the fast reply!

[eidairaman1]

before any of that clean the slot the card goes into by blowing it out with a can air duster.

[Scythez0r]

Alright, I tried pulling it out of the case and set it up on my wooden desk but no luck.

Won't be getting a can of air as they cost like $20+ here in New Zealand!

I'm getting a cheap brand new HD5450 1GB (got it for $10), should be here tomorrow so I'll try it out . And I can't find where to buy a motherboard speaker here in NZ - our biggest auction site and every online store I've looked at doesn't have them. Guess I'll have to get one off ebay or something and get it shipped from overseas.

[Jetster]

[Scythez0r]

So I got the 5450 and chucked it in today (couldn't try it earlier as I had to go away for a few days) and nada.

So I need to find out where to buy a speaker. Don't really wanna wait another 2 weeks for one off ebay.. It's funny, I just sold a bunch of old computer parts, cases and junk from computers we've had over the years and I bet there would've been one in there -_-.

[eidairaman1]

Reset the BIOS/ CLear CMOS

[Scythez0r]

Originally Posted by eidairaman1

Reset the BIOS/ CLear CMOS

Was one of the first things I tried.

[xBruce88x]

a low power led could work. blinking rather than beeping

[Scythez0r]

Ok, well I found a mobo speaker tonight, tried it out and according to asus, both my sticks of ram are dead.

But something I noticed while trying out both gpus and the ram in different slots, is it sometimes didn't beep and seemed like it didn't have any juice. Like it sounded pretty quiet even though the fans were running. Sometimes it did that for up to 10 seconds then suddenly sounded as though it got some power and it was actually running then it beeped.

So what do you guys reckon? Dead ram and a dodgy psu?

[jmcslob]

Look for swollen or discolored caps on the mobo...If possible try another PSU...

[Jetster]

Most likely your motherboard. To confirm just check your mem in another computer. Also if you havent reseat your CPU and HS. In fact take everything out of the case and test it

[erixx]

Can't you go to your brick and mortar computer shop asking for a favor? In most old computer cases you will find these speakers.

There are 2 types: a small speaker installed in the case and wired to the mobo, or the one that is shown in the picture above. Finally you could use any from any old headphone, radio, alarmclock... phone...

[Scythez0r]

Originally Posted by jmcslob

Look for swollen or discolored caps on the mobo...If possible try another PSU...

Originally Posted by Jetster

Most likely your motherboard. To confirm just check your mem in another computer. Also if you havent reseat your CPU and HS. In fact take everything out of the case and test it

Just looking at the mobo, I can't see anything wrong. Problem is I don't have anything to test anything on. I can actually test with another PSU, though I don't think there really is a lot of point until I get working ram in there to see if it boots, and even then, if it's the mobo that's dodgy the ram wouldn't do much good anyway.

Guess I could just forget about it and start a new build, which is what I would like to do if I had the funds .

Originally Posted by erixx

Can't you go to your brick and mortar computer shop asking for a favor? In most old computer cases you will find these speakers.

There are 2 types: a small speaker installed in the case and wired to the mobo, or the one that is shown in the picture above. Finally you could use any from any old headphone, radio, alarmclock... phone...

I think you misread what I was saying . I got a speaker and got the beep codes just fine, and it looks as though the ram is dead. Just sometimes it doesn't seem to power up properly, as in it seems 'weak', which I now expect could be the mobo.


Really appreciate the help guys.