Computer won't post anymore!!!

[BimmerGuy330]

I had a windows XP system running fine. Then I opened the case, unplugged the hard drive (both the IDE and power connections), and put in an older 8gb hard drive to mess around with linux on. I booted from the 8gig drive, it booted from the debian CD and then froze. I then held in the power button for ~5seconds to turn off the computer. I tried booting the computer again, but the monitor's LED (on my LCD) stayed orange, meaning the computer never even posted.

I then switched back to the WinXP hard drive, pressed the power button, and the same thing happened - the computer didn't even post.

Almost the EXACT same thing happened to another one of my computers a couple months ago, and I still don't know what's wrong. The only thing I can see the two computer had in common was an ASUS A7N8X Deluxe motherboard.

The full specs of the recent computer are:

Athlon 2500+ Barton
ASUS A7N8X Deluxe
ATI 9500 Pro
2x 512mb Corsair XMS
80gig Seagate Barracuda (with WinXP)
8gig Maxtor (trying to get debian on it)
Power supply - 400W Antec

Both of my computers have "died", and I really need some help with this one I would appreciate any input!

 

[windows311]

hi, are all your fans still spinning? any beeping?

 

[BimmerGuy330]

The fans all turn on, and I can hear the hard drive spinning up. No beeping at all....not even the single beep it "should" be doing...heh. Also, the little hard drive activity LED is on constantly.

If anyone needs any more information, feel free to ask

 

[otispunkmeyer]

yeah my HDD activity light is on constantly...but that was after i had used a cool mod on my thermal take fan....u had to plug the LEDs into the power and HDD headrs on the mobo....when the LED's busted i switched back and the HDD light has stayed on ever since

 

[CraigRT]

well all i gotta say now is try swapping out some parts.

 

[BimmerGuy330]

Update: I ended up tinkering around with one of the computers, resetting the cmos, and switching the video card, and then switching it back to the same card it had before. It finally booted! So I put in the debian install CD, type in "vanilla" as the boot flavor, and just a few seconds after that it hangs. It says something like:

"Setting up Swap
Setting up multi-port blah blah blah
_"

And just sits there with a blinking cursor, not responding to any input. I have to manually turn off the computer by holding down the power button, and when I turn it back on - same problem as before!!!!!!!!!!! It won't even post now

Anyone? :frown:

 

[BimmerGuy330]

The first one stopped working again, and I finally got the second one to boot WinXP. However, it froze at the login screen, with black horizonal bars across part of the screen.... Also, when it first loaded up, in the BIOS, it said something like "CMOS Checksum Error". What exactly is this? Could any of this be due to bad batteries on the mobos? I ordered both of them at the same time, so it seems strange that they would both die at the same time...

 

[BimmerGuy330]

Ok...now the second one freezes at the Logo screen for the mobo!!!! When it DID get into the BIOS, I saw that the temperatures were fine, at about 39degC for the proc.