Member Avatar for Crindle

After noon,

This computer I am working on for a person, and I cant get it to boot.

I have tried:
Different Monitors, cables, using hd drive in another comp.
MS-DOS boot disk.

When you turn on the lights on the cd drives flash, and the power on is solid green, floppy has no light.

Turn it on and the montior has power but is amber, the keyboard does not have numlock light or cant toggle it on, no post screen, bios, or windows.

The hard drive makes a makes a funny sound likes it searching for something like 2 same sound, then 1 different. No beeps though to follow.

Is it totally burnt out, or do you think there is a way to save it, at first I thought it was video but tried on another system to no avail.

Thanks,
Chris

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  • Latest Post Latest Post by Bill Shumate

Dani AI

Generated

Quick read: the machine is failing to complete POST (no POST screen, monitor only shows power/amber, keyboard LEDs don’t light, no beep codes) while the optical drive and power LED show activity and the hard drive is making repetitive noises. Those symptoms most commonly point to a motherboard/CPU/RAM or PSU problem — a mechanically failing hard drive can coexist with this, but a bad HDD by itself usually does not stop the system from showing BIOS/POST.

Try this prioritized, minimal-answers workflow to isolate the fault:

  • Power off, unplug and remove every non-essential device (HDD, optical, floppy, PCI cards, USB devices).
  • Fit only: PSU, motherboard, CPU with cooler, one known-good RAM stick (try each stick/slot), onboard video or a known-good video card, and a system speaker. Attempt to power on and listen for beep codes.
  • If no beeps, swap in a known-good PSU or use a multimeter/PSU tester to verify +12V, +5V, +3.3V and +5VSB are stable.
  • Clear CMOS (remove battery and short CLR_CMOS pins or use jumper), then try again.
  • Inspect the board visually for bulging/leaking capacitors, burn marks, or a cold solder joint near the CPU/VRMs. Smell for burned electronics.
  • If you get beeps or any POST activity, add devices back one at a time to find the failing part.

Notes about the hard drive and data: moving an OS drive between different motherboards can break Windows; was right to caution about that. For data checks, remove the possibly-failing drive and connect it to another PC as a slave or via a USB-to-IDE/SATA adapter (do not set it as the new system master). Repeated clicking or rhythmic noises usually indicate mechanical failure — if the data is important, stop powering the drive and consider professional recovery.

Given the age of a Pavilion from this era, weigh repair cost vs. replacement. correctly called out PSU and BIOS as suspects — reprogramming or replacing a BIOS chip is possible but often impractical. If the minimal-boot + PSU swap + CMOS clear produce nothing, the most likely outcomes are failed motherboard or CPU; salvaging data from the HDD (if it is noisy) should be the priority.

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All 6 Replies

Member Avatar for mechbas

A board that won't post is a very troubled board. The two things that come to mind are PSU and/or BIOS.
Have you tried another PSU? If that doesn't work the only other possibilty is CAREFULLY changing the BIOS chip itself, if that doesn't work it's surely another board.
If it doesn't post it isn't going to do anything else.
Hard drives have a startup sequence, self checking, maintance, etc.

Member Avatar for Crindle

So what would the sound of the hard drive be then the 2 shorts and a long kind of noise. Like its trying to find something to read?

Member Avatar for Crindle

*Update*

I tried the hard drive in another computer both ide and it didnt work or boot. I then swapped the dead hard drive for another one that I knew work in the dead machine, and it didnt display anything but a black screen so I am assuming that the motherboard, integrated graphics, and hard drive are all faulty.

Member Avatar for dcc

The power on self test looks at the RAM, disc drives, and all of the peripheral devices and if there is a failure in any of these it will fail to start without at least prompting.

This computer is what seven or eight years old? If you have to replace any parts it won't be cost effective to invest anymore money in this machine.

Another issue here is taking the hdd and installing it in another computer, if you install it in another computer with a different motherboard as a master you may have damaged the operating system. When a hdd is installed with one motherboard it will recognize the chipset of that motherboard, and when you introduce another motherboard with a different chipset it confuses the OS and can even be fatal for it.

Member Avatar for Crindle

Okay for future testing only test hard drive on another board as slave, got it. Anyways, the HD drive, and mobo are both gone as far as I am concerned. Right it isnt cost effective to buy parts for this system, but it isn't my computer.

Member Avatar for Bill Shumate

I have a HP Pavilion a6342p. It will not power up, have changed power outlets and tried a different power cable, no help. Green light on the power supply flashes very fast. Need help,

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