power light on tower does not come on but everything else does

[chaoslegion1804]

At first when I turned on my computer I would be able to sign into my account and be able to get on the internet and maybe one website, the computer would completley freeze and I would have to forcefully shut my computer down because not even the task manager would come up at this point. If that didn't happen it would come up and then shut itself down for no apparent reason. I thought it was something loose so I unplugged the computer and then plugged it back up. Now the power light that would turn bright blue when turned on does not come on at all, but the fans, and the lights indicating the CD/DVD burner and CD ROM come on. The monitor reads that it is at least plugged in but no signal is going to it and it goes to power saving mode. I was told of a few options that could be causing the issue like the heat sink being metal to metal, so I put some thermal paste on it. no change. I was told to remove the ram and then turn on the computer and that there should be a series of beeps, no beeps at all, so could it be the mobo or is there anything else I could be missing? I've checked all wires to make sure they weren't loose, I replaced the small battery (looks kinda like a watch battery) with one from a vaio i had, the serial numbers were the exact same and everything and I know the vaio works, it just needs a new hard drive that isn't a sata like the HP one. the computer itself is about 4-5 years old but the power supply is 2 years old, the graphics card is 2-2.5 years old, the ram 1 year old, the hard drive is also a year old. If anyone knows what is wrong with my desktop let me know before I end up buying a new computer.

[Suspishio]

On most mobos, the power light comes on when the CPU signals ready for the BIOS (something like that).

So it would be a very brave person to suggest to you that the mobo is OK and it's something else that needs fixing!

I rather think it's met both its Waterloo and Trafalgar. (Gone to Ludwig). It is no more; it is an ex-mobo.

[chaoslegion1804]

Thanks for the advise, i replaced themobo with a new one and that resolved that issue, now i'm having an issue where when Iturn the computer on it goes to a screen asking me how i want to boot it. In safe mode, safe mode with networking, last known working configuration (something along those lines) and normal mode, it doesn't matter whichone Ichoose it goes to the loading windows xp screen and then automatically goes to a quick blank screen flashes a blue screen and reboots and goes back to the same screen asking how i want to to load it again. I would just format the hard drive but the problem is the XP home edition CD has been lost but I still have the product key to prove its genuine, any ideas on how to fix it without the CD or am I going to need it? I can bring up the bios screen though and everything on that is set to the defaults.

[Suspishio]

If the previoud mobo failure occurred during a disk write then anything could be screwed up in your windows loading files. If I were you I'd purchase an XP Pro upgrade although there is a danger that it won't find your existing Windows (which is sort of there) for status purposes.

You can borrow someone else's XPO Home CD and insert that if asked as part of the status check; it'll later ask you to properly activate the XP Pro upgrade and all should be well.

Get what I've said checked out ( I had a similar but not identical issue and that worked).

[chaoslegion1804]

I tried a friends XP Pro disk and the computer doesn't even seem to read it at all. I tried changing the boot in bios to the CD drive but that didn't make any difference. I'm at a loss on what the issue is. The computer powers on and the first screen you see is the motherboard giving the option to go to bios. If you don't hit the del button it continues on and goes to the boot screen asking if I want to boot in safe mode, safe mode with networking, last known working configuration or normal mode. Doesn't matter which one I choose it goes to the loading XP screen for a moment then flashes or blinks a blue screen and reboots itself. Apparently the computer isn't reading disks or if it is it isn't showing it. I don't have a floppy drive so I can't install it that way either. In the bios screen if I look at the specs of everything it is reading it seems to read that everything is correctly plugged in. I've tried loading it with the two different default options in the bios. Not sure if there is anything that I can change because I've never dealt with bios before.

[Suspishio]

What beats me here is that you cannot boot from CD. If this is the first device in the boot list then it should ignore any of the stuff you've described.

I'm wondering if you have a problem with your disk controller. You've mentioned no beeps when RAM is removed. Is that also the case with no keyboard?

Personally I don't think you're gonna get much further and you probably think likewise.

[chaoslegion1804]

Since I replaced the motherboard on the computer it does beep if there is no ram in it, but there is no beeps when the keyboard is not plugged in but its always been like that as far as i know. For a few moments i thought it might be the disk drive itself even though it was being read in bios, I replaced it with an extra one that i had laying around that I know works. didn't make any difference. I've unplugged and replugged all the wires a few times to no avail. could it be the hard drive that is causing this issue? I've even replaced the wires with newer ones as well thinking it might be that but it doesn't seem to be that either.

[caperjack]

could it be the hard drive that is causing this issue?

Not likely ,even if you took it out you should still be able to boot to cdrom and try and install winxp ,it would just tell you no hard drive found .
what make is the computer if a brand name !

[chaoslegion1804]

sorry for delay in response had to wait to get back to work to be able to access a computer. The computer itself is a HP Pavilon a730n (you can still look up the specs of the computer with google.) The only issue is I've ended up replacing almost everything in it in the last 2 years. I've replaced the power supply, graphics card, hard drive, ram, now the motherboard. Before I had the issue with the motherboard it had been a good 6-7 months since i replaced anything in it. Everything worked smoothly and perfectly. With the new motherboard I had to change the ram from 184 pin to 240 pin. I tried putting my friends old hard drive into my computer, it already had Vista running on it, it went to the same screen asking how i want to load windows in safe mode or the others, when I choose one of these it goes past it and goes to the loading windows screen again then it becomes a black blank screen with the pointer on it but doesn't do anything else and it doesn't reboot like it does with my hard drive in it.

[caperjack]

You can't ,I repeat Can't load a hadrive from another computer with window on it already ,unless it has the exact same motherboard or at leat the same chipset installed on the drive !, it will not boot!period

[chaoslegion1804]

I feel like an idiot but I learned something new at least, TY. So there's no way around it, I have to buy a new hard drive...

[chaoslegion1804]

disregard that last post. I can use my friends computer and hook my hard drive up as a second drive and format it from there right? or will that not work for the same reason and take information from his mobo?

[caperjack]

disregard that last post. I can use my friends computer and hook my hard drive up as a second drive and format it from there right? or will that not work for the same reason and take information from his mobo?

yeah, you can hook to his computer and format it .i do that all the time .just right click on the drive when it shows up in mycomputer ,chose format

[chaoslegion1804]

Ok, I finally got the chance to get over to my friends house and formatted the HD (previously had XP home.) I then placed it back into my computer and changed in bios to boot from the CD drive (CD is XP Pro), came up with error bootmgr missing press crtl+alt+del to restart, tried that didn't work, tried running from the other CD drive and didn't work. same thing comes up. I don't know what to do, can you guys help me?

[Suspishio]

I'm thinking you may be caught with the HDD not i a state of grace sufficient for windows to be installed. The below link explains how you might get round this and it can't hurt because you have no data on the HDD to protect.
http://support.microsoft.com/kb/69013

Let us know.

[chaoslegion1804]

Sorry I figured it out last night, apparently even though formatting the Hard Drive on another computer works, but aparently if the computer you formatted the HD has a higher OS then the one you wish to install it doesn't work(or at least for my computer that was the case), I ended up having to put Vista onto my Computer which doesn't make any sense to me at all, but my computer is running smoothly now. thank you all for your help in fixing my comp.

[caperjack]

Sorry I figured it out last night, apparently even though formatting the Hard Drive on another computer works, but aparently if the computer you formatted the HD has a higher OS then the one you wish to install it doesn't work(or at least for my computer that was the case), I ended up having to put Vista onto my Computer which doesn't make any sense to me at all, but my computer is running smoothly now. thank you all for your help in fixing my comp.

all you had to do was follow the instructions in the link in Suspishio post and run the windows repair first ,do the fdisk/mbr and then reboot to winxp cd and format it again of run just run the install