no boot, no post, blank monitor after computer was transported interstate!

[monica22]

Hi guys,

My issue is a little different in that I haven't changed anything internally or installed anything new etc.... it's exactly the same system that's been working brilliantly for the last 5-6 months.

HOWEVER :)
I *did* just move from one side of the country to the other, and the computer was transported by a courier ( *sigh* a clumsy one i expect! :/ ) and today is the first time i have attempted to turn it on since its big adventure.

Soooo, long story short, this is what has happened every time i've tried turning it on ...roughly in order:

---------------------------
Power light turns on

All fans running perfectly

Nothing on monitor, absolutely black (doesn't even come up with 'no signal' when it's turned off and then on again)

HDD led lights up right at startup, stays lit for about 10+ seconds

HDD spins like normal (no broken/'reading error' clicks and clacks)

CD and DVD writers led's come on, both check for media present and spin up when it is... like normal

about 4 seconds after the HDD led lights initially at startup it flashes twice fairly quickly then turns off (doesn't light up again no matter how long i leave the pc idling in limbo, until i hit reset and try it all over again)

no POST beeps at all (i did get post beeps when i removed all of the ram chips at one stage)

...and that's the state it just stays at, fans running, HDD whirring faintly, no HDD light, power light on, blank screen until I hold down the power button to turn it off (it has no problem resetting or turning power off)
---------------------------

Been reading up on all the other similar "dead machines" threads and trying all the solutions I saw suggested:

- made sure all cards securely in their slots (all removed and then re-inserted)
- made sure all internal leads firmly attached to each component
- made sure all fans/heatsinks clean of dust (they were pretty clean to begin with tho anyway)
- eraser on ram contacts
- ram chips swapped out with a known working chip of the same type (all three were bought at the same time... new motherboard bought 6m ago only had two slots, not three)
- HDD swapped over with the HDD out of my portable external backup HDD
- monitor checked on laptop's TV-out, works fine
- reset bios defaults by removing the battery for 10 min and holding 'power' button in for 60 sec (and then the 'reset' button for 60 seconds also... just for good measure
- removed 1 stick of ram, and tried it in both slots as well
- Stripped it down to bare bones:
mobo
cpu + heatsink and fan
graphics card (no onboard graphics)
1 stick ram - tried 2 sticks first (there was no difference in the symptoms/outcome whatsoever, whether it had 1 or 2 sticks, or whether the 1 stick was in the first or second slot)

I also tried powering it on without HDD, and then attached it again (only dif was the red HDD led - blinked once instead of twice when the hdd was removed. exciting *lol*)

At my wits end here! :)

...Can anyone give me a hint as to how can I tell what the problem component/s are, what should I be suspecting????

Cheers for any and all help!

---Monica
(NB: I don't have another PC to test the components with either. bugger! :)

[Suspishio]

It's almost as if the PC has booted up but can't tell you because the display isn't showing. Does that make sense? Is the gap between hard didsk lights coming on and going off the same as your normal boot time?

Or is it more like the time to get to a boot options screen? In which case press Return or Space Bar and see what happens.

See where I'm heading? The graphics card doesn't seem to be delivering to the screen.

A second PC doesn't half help.

[monica22]

:D ...it's been a while since I've used it with the move and all (and who pays attention to that sort of stuff anyway lol) but i'm pretty sure that there were two mid-pitched bleeps and one low beep, all very close together, that had a (scuse me, can't think of the right description!) grunting/grating type tone that the pc usually makes when it starts up that used to happen at the end of the POST, when the computer starts to run all its memory checks etc? (the first things you start seeing on the monitor when you startup) This isn't happening atm, anyway

[ I could just be remembering an old noisy 233Mhz or any of the half a dozen computers that i've had since then tho :P ...Very possible ]

... there's no "POST=ok" beep either - it's definitely an absence of sound - the hdd's don't sound nearly as loud as they should either (just a soft 'inactive' whirring instead of spinning up properly)

the two flashes of the LEDs seems to happen at about the same time that the display should start to flick up on the screen... the LED is lit from the moment the power button is pressed and stays lit for a few or so seconds... 1-2 seconds later the flashes occur

(lol ... um i said 10 and 4 seconds before... but on second thoughts, i don't know what I was thinking :P)

...I'm fairly sure that the long flash at power-up is normal, but the two quick ones aren't

----------------------------------------

<---- that said, I'll definitely go and start pushing buttons like you've suggested, the help is much appreciated.

Apologies for the umm interesting descriptions.... i'm not at my most articulate at 3.45 on a Sat morning :D

---Monica

[Suspishio]

Or it's the monitor that's bust. Can you get into the monitor's diagnostic menu? Buttoms on the front.

Signing off now for the night. Where are you then? India?

[cguan_77]

when you power on does K/B led's flash, if it flash then your system can initialize..try powering on with PSU, M/B, and your memory stick, try taking out the processor and putting it back to its place..check if you can get a display..if you tried and still it doesn't work then it could be a hardware problem..but quite hard to know which is which...

[octavio.zl]

Hi guys,

My issue is a little different in that I haven't changed anything internally or installed anything new etc.... it's exactly the same system that's been working brilliantly for the last 5-6 months.

HOWEVER :)
I *did* just move from one side of the country to the other, and the computer was transported by a courier ( *sigh* a clumsy one i expect! :/ ) and today is the first time i have attempted to turn it on since its big adventure.

Soooo, long story short, this is what has happened every time i've tried turning it on ...roughly in order:

---------------------------
Power light turns on

All fans running perfectly

Nothing on monitor, absolutely black (doesn't even come up with 'no signal' when it's turned off and then on again)

HDD led lights up right at startup, stays lit for about 10+ seconds

HDD spins like normal (no broken/'reading error' clicks and clacks)

CD and DVD writers led's come on, both check for media present and spin up when it is... like normal

about 4 seconds after the HDD led lights initially at startup it flashes twice fairly quickly then turns off (doesn't light up again no matter how long i leave the pc idling in limbo, until i hit reset and try it all over again)

no POST beeps at all (i did get post beeps when i removed all of the ram chips at one stage)

...and that's the state it just stays at, fans running, HDD whirring faintly, no HDD light, power light on, blank screen until I hold down the power button to turn it off (it has no problem resetting or turning power off)
---------------------------

Been reading up on all the other similar "dead machines" threads and trying all the solutions I saw suggested:

- made sure all cards securely in their slots (all removed and then re-inserted)
- made sure all internal leads firmly attached to each component
- made sure all fans/heatsinks clean of dust (they were pretty clean to begin with tho anyway)
- eraser on ram contacts
- ram chips swapped out with a known working chip of the same type (all three were bought at the same time... new motherboard bought 6m ago only had two slots, not three)
- HDD swapped over with the HDD out of my portable external backup HDD
- monitor checked on laptop's TV-out, works fine
- reset bios defaults by removing the battery for 10 min and holding 'power' button in for 60 sec (and then the 'reset' button for 60 seconds also... just for good measure
- removed 1 stick of ram, and tried it in both slots as well
- Stripped it down to bare bones:
mobo
cpu + heatsink and fan
graphics card (no onboard graphics)
1 stick ram - tried 2 sticks first (there was no difference in the symptoms/outcome whatsoever, whether it had 1 or 2 sticks, or whether the 1 stick was in the first or second slot)

I also tried powering it on without HDD, and then attached it again (only dif was the red HDD led - blinked once instead of twice when the hdd was removed. exciting *lol*)

At my wits end here! :)

...Can anyone give me a hint as to how can I tell what the problem component/s are, what should I be suspecting????

Cheers for any and all help!

---Monica
(NB: I don't have another PC to test the components with either. bugger! :)

HI THERE... I HAD THE SAME PROBLEM AFTER RAM UPGRADE DUE TO DIFFERENT SPEEDS, NO MONITOR SIGNAL, NO BIOS, EVERYTHING IN PLACE, HD RUNNING, AND HD LED ALL TIME ON, SO I WEB-SEARCHED AND FOUND THAT THE FIRST SOLUTION (AFTER CHECKING RAM MOUNTS ETC.) WAS TO RESET CMOS, WHICH YOU CAN DO BY MERELY TWO EASY WAYS... THE JUMPERS OR THE BATTERY REMOVAL. BOTH HAVE TO BE DONE WITH THE PC WITH NO POWER SOURCE CONNECTED. SO I DID BOTH PROCEDURES AND EITHER ONE SOLVED MY PROBLEM. LATER I THOUGHT THAT IN THE POWER SOURCE THERE IS A TRANSFORMER WHICH HAS RESIDUAL ENERGY ON IT, SO EVEN WHEN YOU DISCONNECT YOUR CPU FROM THE WALL THE MOTHERBOARD WILL HAVE ENERGY TO FEED THE CMOS AND THE THREAD WON'T WORK (JUMPERS OR BATTERY),

THE SOLUTION FOR ME CAME WITH THE JUMPERS, BUT YOU MUST FIRST, DISCONNECT YOUR CPU FROM THE WALL, AFTER THAT FIND THE CONNECTION BETWEEN THE POWER-SOURCE AND THE MOTHER-BOARD AND ALSO DISCONNECT IT. NOW YOU CAN DO EITHER METHODS TO RESET YOUR CMOS AND YOU'LL FIND A SURPRISE..

HOPE IT WORKS FOR EVERYBODY THERE.. REMEMBER THERE'S RESIDUAL ENERGY ON THE POWER-SOURCE TO FEED THE LITTLE ENERGY DEMAND OF THE CMOS TO KEEP THE INFO. UN-FEED THE MOTHER-BOARD DIRECTLY AND THEN USE THE JUMPERS!!! GOOD LUCK