My desktop is failing to give any display on the monitor

I was using the machine when suddenly it went off and failed to boot again, I have disconnected all the peripherals i.e. mouse, keyboard, harddrive, crdom but still when I try to boot it nothing happens, only the processor fans starts but no display comes to the screen, no beeps or any other indication comes
beeps come only when I also take out the ram
I also tried by changing the power supply but the results were same

It was P4 machine with intel d102ggc2 board and has not extra graphics card, My monitor is fine as I have confirmed it by connecting to the laptop

What do you suggest/recommend to do ?

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Have you try to clear CMOS?

How long have you left it before you got "cheesed" and reset it? Sometimes it is worth leaving it a couple of minute before powering off.

In my experience, when a PC dies just like that and when the PSU appears to be OK, either the mobo failed or there was a power glitch that fried the mobo.

Not what you wanted to hear I suspect.

So is there any way for me to confirm that the mobo is gone?


@HelpingHands-IT
I had given it ample time

The classic symptoms of a fried mobo are:
1 PC dies in mid-operation
2 When powering up, fans and disks whirr
3 No beeps if RAM taken out

I should have read your first post more carefully. You got BIOS beeps when you took the RAM out. So BIOS is doing its stuff or some of it at least. So:

a. With everything in, do the disks whirr? Any disk lights?
b. On boot attempt, do the keyboard lights flash

If there was a power glitch that didn't fry your mobo, then you could have been in the middle of a disk operation and the MBR got zapped.

It's a difficult diagnosis over the web!

commented: thanks +3

a. Its hard to judge from a SATA but I don't think that there is any activity in disks


b.Yes, the keyboard lights do flash


I don't think that it has anything to do with the MBR, if MBR was a problem then I would have atleast got the BOIS display on screen

Can the RAM be the problem?

Actually - yes. Once the boot ROM code has got past the basic task executed from its own ROM it needs RAM to pull in the rest of what it calls - like Windows.

So we could possibly narrow this down to either or both of two issues:

1. Dodgy RAM (try them one at a time)
2. Fried graphics chipset

A mains glitch could damage either/both.

Of course we know your monitor cable is fine and the monitor is good. Yes?

Unfortunately I have just one RAM chip of 1 GB , so I can' t test that :(

Fried graphics chipset: I dont have any separate chip, its all in mobo, so if they got burned then both (graphics+mobo) should not work ? do you agree

Sorry for not replying sooner.

Whilst the above opinions are all correct - I would be inclined to replace the Power Supply Unit first as this device will also create all the symptoms your suffering with and is also the cheapest option to try.

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