Member Avatar for Kingsoverace

Hello.. I'm staring into my Vista 250gig Gateway GT5404..... comp was working till I turned it off one day....When i turn it on now i have No signal to monitor and the tower beeps 3x's...And the fan seems to be cranking a bit louder and wont settle down. I guessed the hardrive was shot so i got a new one......still same thing.. :( Its been a few months now collecting dust.....I'v tried to research this my own only heard about overclocking and bad video cards....PLeeezze help me get this running..!!..!!

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  • Latest Post Latest Post by hughv

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Brief recap tied to the thread: ’s reseat suggestion cleared the earlier POST beeps that reported, but the system still shows no video and the case/CPU fan runs at full speed. Those two remaining symptoms narrow the likely causes toward power-delivery, motherboard/BIOS state, or video-output hardware problems rather than RAM.

Practical next steps (power and board checks)

  1. Power down, unplug, and visually inspect the motherboard around the CPU and power connectors for bulging or leaking capacitors, burn marks, or blown components. A failed VRM or swollen caps often causes full-speed fans and no video.
  2. Confirm the CPU 4/8‑pin ATX12V connector is seated on the motherboard. Missing or loose CPU power will produce odd behavior.
  3. If comfortable using a multimeter, measure PSU rails at the 24‑pin connector: +12V ~11.4–12.6V, +5V ~4.75–5.25V, +3.3V ~3.135–3.465V. A failing PSU is a common cause; swapping in a known-good PSU is a safer, quicker test.

BIOS/video isolation and CMOS

  • Clear CMOS (remove battery or use jumper per the manual) to rule out a corrupted setting.
  • Boot with the absolute minimum: CPU+heatsink+fan, one stick of RAM, and the graphics card (or onboard video if available). No drives, no extra cards. This isolates the fault source.
  • Test the monitor and cable on another machine and try a different known-good monitor or video cable to eliminate display-side faults.

If the board still powers fans but gives no video after those checks, the fault is likely the PSU or motherboard (VRM/BIOS chip/video output). Given the age of a Gateway GT5404, weigh the cost of a replacement board/PSU versus a replacement system. If unsure or uncomfortable with live-voltage checks, have a local shop bench-test with a spare PSU and known-good GPU.

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Member Avatar for hughv

Try re-seating the memory. Might as well re-seat everything and do a little cleaning while you're in there.

Member Avatar for Kingsoverace

Yah!! reset the memory cards...It doesn't beep now. However the fan is still racing and there is no signal on the monitor...

Member Avatar for hughv

Not a good sign.
Re-seat everything, especially the video card, cross fingers, reboot.
Check the monitor cable.

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