Suggestions on what would cause this problem?

[CKDragon]

Hi guys,

My girlfriend's family's computer (Just a plain, old HP from about 2 years ago) stopped booting up a few nights ago. The tower turns on and I can hear the fans whirring, the monitor connection is fine and when I disconnect it, it shows the "No Video Signal" OSD, so I believe that is fine.

Problem is that the computer never outputs ANY visual data to the monitor. I think the tower is just turning on and not even beginning to boot up. Previously I've had computers that wouldn't boot and I would just replace the hard drive and clean install a new OS and everything was fine. I've never seen a computer that wouldn't even show the BIOS information (or whatever data shows up first).

I only got to look at it for about 10 minutes last night, but what kind of problem does this sound like to you guys?

Thanks for any help you can provide,

CK

 

[Jayczar]

most likely the memory

 

[silentScope]

You see nothing on the screen? Could be something wrong with your video card also.

Try using a different video card and see if you see anything on the screen.

And also try Jayczar's suggestion.. try using a different memory stick and see if it fixed the problem.

If worst comes to worst, unplug everything except the essentials , memory, videocard, cpu, mb, (you dont even need a hard drive connected) and try to narrow down what's causing the problem.

 

[CKDragon]

Thanks a bunch for the quick reply Jayczar.

Wow, that would be awesome if that was the only problem. Bad memory would cause the computer to not display anything? I was starting to worry I'd have to go find a new motherboard to fit the stupid HP proprietory case they have.

Anyone else have advice before I go buy a 256MB stick of RAM to try it out?

Thanks,

CK

 

[CKDragon]

Originally posted by: silentScope
You see nothing on the screen? Could be something wrong with your video card also.

Try using a different video card and see if you see anything on the screen.

And also try Jayczar's suggestion.. try using a different memory stick and see if it fixed the problem.

If worst comes to worst, unplug everything except the essentials , memory, videocard, cpu, mb, (you dont even need a hard drive connected) and try to narrow down what's causing the problem.

Thank you for your suggestions, also.

There is literally nothing on the screen. It doesn't sound like the computer is going through the normal bootup process when I hit the power switch on, I just hear the fans whirring so I'm doubtful that the problem lies with the video card. If installing new memory doesn't work, I will try stripping it down ot just the memory, video card, cpu and motherboard to see if I can find anything out that way.

Thanks again,

CK

 

[CKDragon]

Sorry to self-promote my thread, but does anyone else have an idea I can try? I hope to gather as much information and try to at least narrow down the possibilities tonight.

Thanks,

CK