No Beeps... No video....

william-bacon

First, I buy this PC from my friend. Doesn't boot. i assume it's the PSU, so I buy a new on for $40. Nothing.

THEN I buy a motherboard for $50. Same old problem, new day.

The symptoms are as follows:
NO beebs when I attempt to power up when no RAM is present - this is clearly bad.
THE light in the corner of the motherboard turns on
WHEN everything is plugged in to MoBo, it sounds as if everthing will work, but no display ( Familiar "CHECK SIGNAL CABLE" message)

I have tried the following:

Like I said, I tried both new PSU and new MB.
Tried my sister's CPU, same thing happens.
Tried multiple Video card, many I know work.
Tried clearing CMOS
Tried barebones boot IE. Nothing but CPU, 1 stick of RAM, and Video.
Tried changing CMOS CLEAR jumper around, still nothing.
Tried it without Power Switch connected - Put jumper on the connectors


There are probably more things that I have done but forgoten about.
Please help.
THIS IS AN URGENT ISSUE.

swimtech

Can't even see a bios screen?

No bent pins on the monitor cable?

Tried a different monitor?

cyclops4

Do you have the motherboard manual ? Does it have onboard video or audio ? In some cases with older boards, even if you insert a video card into the AGP slot you need to modify settings in the BIOS or various jumper settings in order for it to switch over from its natural "onboard" settings to the AGP card.

I've run into situations where I believed that resetting the CMOS was my only option, but only made the board completely unusable afterwards. It went from beeping and being an idiot to being completely catatonic.

When you say that you bought a "PC" from a friend, what exactly do you mean ?

You've already replaced the board.

You've already tried different video cards.

I'm assuming you've swapped cables or tried different video output options (RGA, DVI, S-Video) if that's even a possibility.

You've reset the CMOS. Maybe good, maybe bad...especially with a seemingly malfunctioning board.

Are you actually talking about just a processor and/or a hard drive ?

Trying firing it up without a drive connected or a different drive connected, find the manual for the board, find any information you can regarding the CPU on the web, keeping swapping out components and eliminating possibilities. That's always the way with hardware diagnostics. Eventually, you either run out of options and write it off as a fried board or you are able to diagnose the problem.


With all the problems that you've had and all the attempts at trying to resolve the issue, I would say that you're developing a grudge against that machine and that you refuse to give up when that might be the best option. I would return it to your friend, get your money back and say that you've performed many diagnostic tests free of charge and have determined that it's a piece of garbage.

william-bacon

I appreciate the help, but it's not exactly the video that worries me, It's the lack of beeps more than anything.
I know if I can get the board to beep, I can fix it.

And the video is NOT intergraded. I learned my lesson a long time ago.
And of course, I have tried many different cards, If I haven't already posted that.
ALSO...... I have tried playing around with the jumpers on the board, and they don't help.

About the monitors, I have tried plenty, more than 4, and nothing helps.
No BIOS appears, infact, nothing appears, except the message it displays when the cable isn't hooked to anything.

If anyone can help me, I can guarantee good karma.

Like I previously stated, I need help with this bad.

cyclops4

I am beginning to think the problem may lie in the AGP slot itself, which may be damaged or possibly dirty. Just a thought.

If you're not getting video out, it's tough to determine whether no beeping is a good thing or a bad thing. You can never determine whether or not your getting to the BIOS if you can't see anything on your monitor. So, I think you're jumping the gun in a sense. If you're not getting video out, either the board is not functioning at all and not delivering a video signal or the board is functioning and there is some other problem with either the AGP slot, cables, video card etc. It sounds to me as if you've exhausted all of the latter possibilities, so it kind of points to the board as the problem. No beeps without video usually means death. Just because you've tried two boards doesn't necessarily mean that you've eliminated that possibility....stranger things have happened - see my story below.


If it's not the AGP slot, then it's the board. Then again, according to your post, you've tried TWO boards. You've tried everything else. My guess, based on the facts, is that the board is damaged in some way, possibly fried from static electricity or other damage. It could be that both boards are damaged.

I once had an electrical problem in our home that fried two boards in a row and I could not figure it out for the life of me. Only when I had replaced the second board with a third board, I happened to be restarting the machine, when right next to my window our air conditioning unit kicked on. The Windows XP screen at boot with the running blue horizontal bar across the bottom disappeared before my eyes and the machine never came back to life. I had finally, accidentally found the problem. The electrician who had wired the house had illegally connected our air conditioning unit into the same circuit that the outlet I had the machine plugged into used. So, even with it connected through an ISOBAR unit, what was happening was actually a brown out - shortage of enough power. Whenever the air conditioning unit would kick on, it would draw just enough power to reduce the power to my outlet and thus fried three motherboards in a row. I spent a lot of money and had nowhere to turn, so I know how you feel. Our house was built ten years ago and my chances of finding the electrician and recouping the $500-600 that I wasted on motherboards was nil. Before I stumbled upon the real problem, I was studying all of the hardware compatibility, manuals, jumper settings, replaced the power supply, swapped out components (monitor, video card, removed sound card, switched memory, changed cables, switched video output types) and every other thing you could possibly think of. It was maddening. It turned out to be a problem I had no idea even existed that was causing me to lose board after board.

When you're making all these changes, you're using a static strip and taking precautions against static electricity, right ? Surge protectors used....

I would bring the board back to it's original state at your friend's home and see if you can get it up and running. Go back to square one. Did you see it function normally before you bought it ? I know these are all simple questions, but sometimes we overlook the obvious because we are fairly experienced and figure that we know what the problem is before we actually solve it....know what I mean ? Then after a few weeks, you find yourself having exhausted all the more advanced solutions and wondering what could still be possibly wrong. The key then is to go back to the very simplest options or start the whole process again.

william-bacon

Here's the whole scoop 'bout how the deal went down....

My friend was talking about how he got a new new computer, and I asked him why, being his old one was quite decent. He told me that it had stopped working. And I decided, why not buy it from him? the parts that do work are worth more than $10 anyways.

The reason that it s important to get this fixed is because I'm i'm using some crappy 100MHz Pentium (Disgusting, I know) right now, being my real good computer's processor died. (Overclocking is not smart.)

I am only 13, so money doesn't come too easily. I can't just throw money back and forth trying to fix my good PC.
This seems like the one to fix, being it shouldn't cost as much.

Tipstaff

Best thing to do is take a step back, and go through things a little more simplistically. Sometimes it's the obvious things that get overlooked.

1) Double check the power supplies voltage switch. If you're in North America it should be set to 120 (some might say 115), and if you're in Europe it should be 220 (or 240).

2) Double check that you have all the power connectors to the motherboard connected. I'm not sure if the board you are using is the same, but going by your other post I take it your using an AMD Socket A motherboard, so it should be pretty straight forward with most likely just the 1 main connector.

3) Even though you've tried a barebones startup (CPU, RAM, Video only), did you also unplug the power connectors for the other devices, and not just the IDE/Floppy cables? Be sure to pull all the IDE/Floppy cables from the motherboard side, and all the power cables from all unneeded devices. Also, disconnect any case fans that might be plugged into the motherboard too.

4) 2 things that you haven't mentioned are the keyboard, and mouse. Have you been using the same ones during all the testing? If so, try a different set.

Question for you: can you list the models of the 2 motherboards you've tried, as well as the CPUs?

cyclops4

My conclusion:

This is a bad motherboard. You need to bury it in the backyard.

william-bacon

Heh. I'm thinking it's the PSU. Bummer, either way.

I bought both power supply AND motherboard new.
If you ask me it has to be one of the two. Being I have tried CPUS that I know work, and the motherboard (speaker built in) doesn't beep.

I greatly appreciate all tips.

PangingJr

you bought a dead computer, and as i see you've tried changing just about every hardwares on that computer and it still not working.

sounds like a good idea to get a replacement on the new (but maybe bad) PSU and/or motherboard, and then try again.

that's the only thing that i can think of. i'd say 2 things, the other would be: you do not know how to build a computer.
but you sound like you knew what you are doing. keep us posted.