Need Urgent Help! I assembled my old P3 machine and the monitor won't power up!

klutzon

Hey guys,

I'm selling my old P3 450Mhz machine to someone, and I just finished assembling the machine, putting all the jumpers and cables in all the right places. I turned on the machine, and everthing powers up, but the monitor doesn't turn on. I first tried the S3 Trio 3D/2X AGP card that he was going to get, but that didn't turn on (and I know that the card works for a fact). So I took out the S3 Trio and put in an old Trident ISA video card, but that didn't power up the monitor either. I then tried putting my brother's PCI Banshee, but even that doesn't start up. Now I can't suspect the monitor because it's the same one that my brother uses with his machine and it works fine with it, but it doesn't kick in with my old assembled machine.

Here's what's in the machine so you know how many things are taking up power:

200W PSU
Intel P3-450Mhz Slot 1 processor
Intel ZX motherboard
64MB DIMM RAM
S3 Trio 3D/2X AGP card
Old ISA Crystal sound card
3GB Hard Disk
Floppy Drive
10x CD-ROM drive

That's it.

So I'm in a dilemma. I thought perhaps the PSU in the casing that I put the machine into was too low in output, but I'd been told that a 200W PSU would be fine for a Slot 1 P3-450Mhz (which runs at 100Mhz) and furthermore the previous casing (which got screwed, the chassis got bent really badly) also had a 200W PSU, which was enough for the machine to work before. So I figure I've got two options here.

1) All the slots on the mobo are screwed, in which case I'm screwed (and so is this guy who needs the computer), because neither ISA, PCI, nor AGP start the monitor up.

2) The monitor won't start up with this PSU. In which case a different monitor might do the trick.

The monitor does power up, as in it does get power, but the monitor stays in 'Stand-by' mode the whole time, never going into 'Working' mode. I remember that this mobo had a problem with my brother's AGP Savage4 when we first got it, we had to fiddle around with the angle and the placing of the card in order for the monitor to kick in, but we never had a problem with the ISA or PCI slots.

I know that if I don't put in all the cables (IDE and all the multi-coloured cables for power, HDD light, etc) in the right places, the machine won't turn on at all. This happened the first time. But I fixed it, because everything in the computer starts up like it usually would, the hard disk, floppy drive, CD-ROM, all that, but the monitor won't kick in. I know that if the monitor would start, the computer would be absolutely fine.

What do you recommend I should do / try? I'll try with my monitor, perhaps that'll help. I'm doubtful though. I'm very anxious to get this machine up and running soon, this guy needs the machine quick and I told him I have one for him, if it wasn't for the monitor I'd have a complete one right now...

I'm going off to rack my brains, please help me out!!!

alewisa

OK, first thing to do is try powering the system with the monitor powered from mains, not from the PC. If that works, then hunky dory.

Next check. Does the PC boot with a single beep (which means all ok, generally). If so, components are ok, so it isn't a component problem. If still no video, swap monitor with another (known working), or on a known working PC.

Other system works, this doesn't? Swap out the video card for a PCI card (forget the ISA card for time being, you might have a PCI/ISA clash!). Try again.

Can't remember if you stated mobo type, in general a long beep with two shorts indicates video problem, a repeated long beep is memory. If the former, reseat the gfx card. Serious. I have issues with a G400Max in this rig, in that sometimes when delving inside I nudge it, and that upsets something.

Hope this helps.

UberLord

1) Is the PC in question actually booting? ie, Hard drives spinning up, floppy drive being looked for, beep on sucessful POST...

if yes then your PC is not booting - abort and try again. Otherwise proceed to step 2

2) faulty monitor cable? Hopefully the cable can be fully removed from the monitor instead of being molded into the casing. Try swapping it out.

if you've tried step two with a spare cable and its still not working, proceed to step 4

3) Obtain a low-voltage battery (preferabbly one with the two pins on top and an old/broken connector) and an electricians screwdriver (one with a lightbulb in). Now, connect the battery to two cables at the same end. Then, using the blade of the screwdriver, connect the same pins at the other end. Hopefully the pins work and the lightbulb will light. If not, your cable is broken - buy a new one

If step 3 worked, proceed to step 4

4) Is the PC booting the correct graphics card? Modern PC's can boot graphics cards from either a PCI slot or the AGP slot. Most default to PCI even though you're booting from AGP. This is correct behavour - its handy for when using two graphics cards as a cheap means of dualheading. Now, you can't see the BIOS so you need to obtain a PCI graphics card and try that. If the PCI card works with the monitor then the problem is with the mobo/graphics card combo

No PCI card? Proceed to step 5

5) I'm all out of steps/ideas so it's time to send your monitor away to be repaired unless some other bright spark as more ideas to put into the pot