Computer Quit...

[Pennyman]

Ok, ill keep it as brief as possible. I was at my computer playing a game called Ultima Online which is not very performance intensive. I had teamspeak (a voice chat software), icq, and Ultima Online running at the time. For no apparent reason, the moniter turns off and i get cut off from teamspeak (since i could no longer communicate with anyone). The computer itself never turned off. So, i attempt to turn the computer off and on via the power button on the case. I immediately notice that instead of turning off by just pushing the button, i now have to hold the button for 4 seconds to turn the computer off. Once i do turn the computer off and on, everything appears to boot up normally except the moniter never comes on. The moniter is definetely getting power since its power button is blinking but no feed seems to be going to the moniter. I tried reconnecting the cables ot my video card and to the back of the moniter and no luck. Then i made sure my video card was still attached to my mother board appropriately and no luck. So, i checked my mother board label to see what it was doing and it read FF which according to my mother boards manual means that it is in the process of rebooting. Even though my moniter is getting no feed and i cannot actually tell what the computer is doing, im pretty sure the computer is never reaching the login screen. I dont believe it is strictly a moniter or video card problem. Also i would like to note that i have been playing with this setup for nearly a year now without any problems, this just happened like 2 hours ago and without any sort of warning or symptoms building up to it, one minute it was fine and the next it was worthless.

Heres the relevant system components i have, if i miss something that might help you in trying to figure out my problem feel free to just ask for it.

Motherboard EPoX EP-8RDA+
Processor AMD Athlon XP 2600+
RAM Crucial 1024MB PC2700 DDR
Hard Drive IBM Deskstar 80GB 7200rpm Ultra ATA100
Video Card Gainward GeForce4 PowerPack Ultra/650XP (GeForce4 Ti 4200)
Sound Card Sound Blaster Audigy
OS Windows XP Pro

 

[BadThad]

Most likely your video card has died. First off, the coolers they put on video cards are crap. Make sure it's spinning when powered up. Pull the power cord, remove the video card and put it back in. You can see the system POST? (the initial writting on the screen when you power on)

 

[klaviernista]

sounds like a blown mobo or video card. You can eliminate the video card possibility by popping in a spare vid card (if you have one) or by connecting your monitor to your mobos built in video (if it has that).

Other option is that your power supply or ram burned up.

Here are some questions that would help if you answered:

1) Do you notice any smell from you PSU? I.e. that unmistakeable burnt electronics smell?

2) Have tried unplugging the PC completely letting it sit and then plugging it back in? If so, does everything seem to power up normally? You could have a bad power supply.

3) Do you here any beeps (other than normal) when you power on? Most Mobo's communicate errors via a series of beeps. You can find out what each series means at your mobo's website usually.

Any major component (Mobo, Vid. Card, Ram, PSU, or HD) can go in the blink of an eye. IN fact, when they go, its usually very fast and without warning.

Hate to say it but you might be up a creek.

 

[Pennyman]

Nope, screen stays blank the entire time but the little green indicator light blinks so its hooked up. Also i made sure the fan on the Video Card was spinning, and i have already removed and replaced the video card.

 

[klaviernista]

Then likely its your mobo or ram thats crapped out. If you have spare ram laying around you can pop it in to check that out, if that doesnt work your MOBO is most likely fried. You can pick up a replacement relatively cheap at www.newegg.com

 

[Pennyman]

Ok, no spare vid card, no built in video on my mb. I also dont have any spare RAM. No burnt electronics smell. I dont think its the power supply as everything seems to be getting good power and booting normally after a power off and on. I dont hear any beeps whatsoever. I suppose it could be the mother board but i dont see why much of anything on the computer would run at all if the mother board were fried. The video card fan and processor fan both get their power directly from the mother board. Also, about the beeping, i have never heard my comp beep, maybe when i hooked it up i forgot to hook that part up . Im looking for this old video card i had, i cant seem to find it though, i think i tossed it in the trash.

 

[Pennyman]

Hmm, just rebooted again and looked at the readout on the mother board, it doesnt say FF anymore, it now says C1 which in the mb usermanual says is the following

"Detect Memory
- Auto-detection of DRAM size, type and ECC.
- Auto-detection of L2 cache (socket 7 or below)"

Anyway, does that help anyone? Can someone else make heads or tails of this? Does this mean it cant find my memory and its basically shot?

 

[Pennyman]

Ok, i think i have narrowed it down, now im pretty sure its my RAM, i also have a correction for above. I dont have a 1 GB stick, i have (2) 512k sticks. So the question is, could it just be one or do they both always go at the same time?

 

[climb4]

It could be just one of the sticks. Swap them out and see if you get a post with one. They do not need to be installed in pairs.

 

[klaviernista]

Originally posted by: Pennyman
I suppose it could be the mother board but i dont see why much of anything on the computer would run at all if the mother board were fried. Also, about the beeping, i have never heard my comp beep, maybe when i hooked it up i forgot to hook that part up . Im looking for this old video card i had, i cant seem to find it though, i think i tossed it in the trash.

- about the mobo: A fried mobo doesn;t necessary mean the traces to all the components are bad. Might be that just the traces to one component (i.e. cpu socket, Ram, AGP slot) etc is faulty..... I had a bad mobo once that would power everything up except the AGP slot.

- About the beeps: Do you remember hooking up the pc speaker to the motherboard? Lots of people nowadays either forget to do this or opt not to. All you have to do is hook the speaker to the appropriate jumper on your mobo and you should hear at least one beep if not more. Every computer I've built has beeps 4 times when it boots to indicate everything has posted normally.

- about the PSU: Sounds like this is ok. Most of those questions were directed to see if your PSU was not quite bad. Sometimes they go slowly and you can smell them burning when they overheat. When the PSU gets hot the power it delivers is not very "clean" per se and that can mess other stuff up.

 

[Pennyman]

Ok, i swapped the memory, tried it with each diff memory alone and in diff slots, basically about every combination possible and still no luck, so in all likelyhood its not the memory.

To answer your question about the PC speaker, i didnt remember if i had hooked it up or not so i went and checked and everything looked to be just fine. I still cant figure out why its not beeping haha.

Yes, the PSU seems to be fine, i really doubt thats it.