Computer won't boot up! ~help

[SlipperyDog]

I moved my computer to a different place, and it powers up but it doesnt boot... what could be the problem? i tried reseating the cpu, memory and vga card...

ok, everything turns on, like the fans, there's power to the dvd drives cuz it lights up, and i hear the hdd spinning, but there's no beeps or display, is it the mobo?

 

[nadirshakur]

What appears on the screen? Is the screen in sleep(check the light)?

 

[Quinton McLeod]

Make sure the back of your PSU is set to 110v instead of the 200 (something) volts.

 

[Colonel C]

Try booting from a CD or floppy disk.

 

[SlipperyDog]

nothing on the monitor, not even a flicker, i cant even go into bios to boot from cd...

 

[Cipherfaction]

try switching moniters?? reinstalling you video card??

 

[TheSophist]

Remove the motherboard from the case and place it on a piece of cardboard, this is to eliminate your motherboard from being shorted out. Install the videocard, memory, and CPU. Do not install any peripherals or drives (i.e. soundcards, netcards, hard drives, webcams). Make sure your monitor is on and that it is connected to your motherboard. Reset CMOS by removing the battery and shorting the pins.

Reboot from here and listen for any beeps. If this still does not work, move to a different AC Outlet and attempt to boot again. If there is no post or beep codes, then the next step would be to swap the videocard, memory, and CPU individually with a working set. If you still have no post at this point, I believe your motherboard may have a problem. Report back and let us know how it goes.




TheSophist

 

[Shack70]

Excellent post TheSophist!

Something may have been jarred when you moved it.

 

[Gherault]

Err... also, how long was the PC in that location? I've had wires in power cables physically break inside the sleeving after sitting in the same position for a couple years then being moved. It resulted in there being "dirty power" though it would still power up the fans it was a "spotty" connection between the two bits of fractured wiring. It is a good possiblity that you jarred something when you moved it as the Sophist and BlackFlagg (great band, btw. ) pointed out. I've had screws come loose during transport and end up in unfortunate places. You'd do well to try his reccomendations (before or after trying a different power cable ).

 

[SlipperyDog]

thanks for all the replies, i tried all that, so i got another motherboard, the same one i had, installed it, and the same thing, no posting beeps, u think it's the power supply or the outlet?

 

[Gherault]

Well... it should be fairly inexpensive for you to try another outlet. I'd make sure it was on a different breaker in the house if you want any sort of real result from that route- but it sounds more like the power supply.

 

[SlipperyDog]

ok, i tried a diff power supply, video card, ram, didnt work

so when i turn on my computer, fans run, i can hear the drives spinning (dvd, hdd) but nothing shows up on the monitor, there are long beeps, it just doesnt boot... help!

 

[Gherault]

Just to make sure, you did take the motherboard out and try it outside of the case, correct? And you have a new MOBO, video card, ram, and powersupply? Only thing left is your processor. Take the heatsink off and try reseating the CPU, make sure you clean the surfaces and then reattach the CPUs heatsink properly, using thermal grease of some sort... there's several websites dedicated to explaining this process, just google "replace CPU heatsink" and you should pull a few up.. play around with the wording for different pages. I really am trying to be helpful, incidentally, you don't have to say that at the end of each post.

And... you seem to have spent a lot of money on this project, if you're getting frustrated perhaps you should take it to a professional? If not then I'll be glad to continue offering advice.

Edit: Missed the beeps part first time round... describe the beeps? example: three long beeps and a pause, repeating ;or; Two long beeps and a short beep
And what mobo do you have now, exactly? you said you had a new one? Need the manufactuer and model number.
You have tried booting with only ram, video and CPU on the board, right? no keyboard, mouse, CD/dvd/HD, sound, etc? (of course you need to attach the monitor)
Edit2: Does your videocard have an extra power connector that might need to be connected?

 

[SlipperyDog]

i have tried reseatin the heatsink, but maybe it's the processor, ill try, about the beeps, they're long beeps, with a short pause

edit: my videocard doesnt have extra power connections

 

[Gherault]

How many long beeps, and what motherboard is it? (Manufacturer and Model)

 

[SlipperyDog]

there are no more beeps, but the motherboard is abit bh7

 

[rasczak]

have you tried using another monitor to rule that out? get a spare from somewhere and test that out. this should have been done first as opposed to buying a new motherboard.

also did you happen to make sure that the power button led on the monitor itself was green? to ensure that your monitor is indeed actually on? and did you make sure taht your power cable was secure? how about any incidents with pulling out the VGA cable when you moved the computer? did you have any issues trying to pull that out?

 

[Gherault]

The long beeps on the 845PE chipset are supposed to mean the board is not detecting your ram. Try moving it to different slots. Jpbelauskas has a good point about the monitor, also.

P.S. jpbelauskas, no one suggested he buy another board, or anything for that matter. Perhaps it was implied but if that is the case it was very weakly implied- however hindisght is 20/20 so lets just try to get it worked out for him, ok?

 

[rasczak]

Originally posted by: Gherault
The long beeps on the 845PE chipset are supposed to mean the board is not detecting your ram. Try moving it to different slots. Jpbelauskas has a good point about the monitor, also.

P.S. jpbelauskas, no one suggested he buy another board, or anything for that matter. Perhaps it was implied but if that is the case it was very weakly implied- however hindisght is 20/20 so lets just try to get it worked out for him, ok?

hehe didn't mean to sound like that

 

[SlipperyDog]

thanks guys it worked, i ended up just reseating everything and it worked, i guess computers are gay like that sometimes

 

[Gherault]

Awsome! I hope you're able to return anything you didn't need. I'm glad you got it worked out.