Member Avatar for Kloned

I have a 40gig HD, 3.0 ghz pent 4 processor (800mhz 1mb cache), 512 DDR ram (400mhz), Geforce FX 5200 (256mb) 420 watt power supply... So far ive tryed a lot, 3 different monitors, 3 different video cards. I have NO DISPLAY AT ALL, screen is blank, says its in power saver mode. no clue what to do, please help, thanks

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Thread summary and focused troubleshooting, building on suggestions from , , , and : the key symptom is that fans and drives will spin when powered directly from the PSU but the HDD/CD stop or the system won’t “live” when those drives are connected to the motherboard. That pattern narrows the fault to something the motherboard introduces (electrical short, damaged IDE/power header, or a failing board regulator) rather than simple jumper/cable order.

Prioritized checks (quick, practical, and different from suggestions already in the thread):

  1. Visual and physical inspection first — underside of the PCB, around the IDE/power headers and voltage-regulator capacitors. Look for bulging/leaking capacitors, burn marks, solder splashes or a stray standoff/screw touching a trace; any of those can kill a circuit when a drive draws current.
  2. Inspect all Molex/drive power connectors and the IDE ribbon ends for melted plastic, deformed pins or foreign metal. A slightly damaged connector can short only when mated to the board. Try a different Molex on the PSU (not the same daisy-chained cable).
  3. Electrically isolate the board: detach front-panel headers and tape them away, remove all peripherals, place the motherboard on a nonconductive surface and bench-test with minimal parts. If that’s already been done, add a test with a known-good ATX PSU before presuming board failure.
  4. If the onboard IDE circuitry looks suspect or fails the above, a low-cost workaround for data/recovery is to use an external USB enclosure or a PCI IDE/SATA controller card to boot or retrieve files — this bypasses the motherboard IDE controller.

If minimal bench tests (with speaker for POST beeps) still show no POST and drives stop when connected, the onboard controller or nearby power circuitry is likely faulty and motherboard replacement is the realistic next step. Avoid opening the PSU or doing high-voltage work if inexperienced; data is still recoverable since the drives spin from a standalone PSU.

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All 19 Replies

Member Avatar for suRoot

does the mobo use onboard gfx? if so plug into that first

if not take everthing out aparnt from
hdd, mobo, 1 stick of ram, cpu, psu, gfx card if it then doesn't boot

new mobo TBPFH

Member Avatar for wolfien

you can try to boot the mobo out of the case in the eventuality where u could have a bad contact under the board.

you can try to boot the computer w/o rams as well if you dont even have a post code beep ( assuming your pc speaker is plug in ) then it might be a dead motherboard

wolfien-

Member Avatar for Kloned

hmm, none of that worked :( you think it might be power supply?

Member Avatar for caperjack

hmm, none of that worked :( you think it might be power supply?

Yeah it could be ,you say no display at all ,does it post, do the fans run ,does the harddrive spin!!??

Member Avatar for Kloned

ok, everything runs...im not exactly sure about the harddrive though :\ but i think it is

Member Avatar for Kloned

Ok, Ive figured out this much, when the harddrive is connected to motherboard it doesnt run, same for the CD drive, when I dissconect them they run fine, just not connected to motherboard :\ I am pretty sure that it is the motherboard, is it that they arnt compatable or is it the motherboard being screwed up?

Member Avatar for wolfien

Ok, Ive figured out this much, when the harddrive is connected to motherboard it doesnt run, same for the CD drive, when I dissconect them they run fine, just not connected to motherboard :\ I am pretty sure that it is the motherboard, is it that they arnt compatable or is it the motherboard being screwed up?

I never saw any incompatibility issue with cd or hd on a motherboard...
it COULD be the jumper.. make sure your HD is set on master.. and try maybe using a different ide port for your CD. ( master as well on the second ide )
Don't use cable select thing.. It might screw up things...

If you have the posibility to test the power supply either on another computer or with a powersupply tester.

Member Avatar for Kloned

Well, if you could, could you tell me how to do all that stuff in a more detailed way? lol im anoob :(

Member Avatar for Kloned

didnt work :(

Member Avatar for pizzafiend

Are the CD-ROM and Hard drive on the same IDE cable?

Member Avatar for Kloned

no, seprate cables

Member Avatar for pizzafiend

Why don't you try a master/slave setup with one cable. Set your CD-ROM jumper to slave and your hard drive to master and plug the one cable into your primary IDE port.

Member Avatar for Thong_Ispector

Double check that you did not accidentally switch the mouse and keyboard connectors

Member Avatar for wolfien

oky well the best troubleshoot you could do is that.

1. Take everything apparts.. remove the mother board from the case.

2. Put the mother board on a safe spot.. like on some wood surface or on a antstatic bag.

3. Plug only the power, cpu, ram and the pc speaker, try to start it up ( you can short the 2 pins where u plug the power switch with a small screw driver )

4. NORMALY it should beep to tell you that the video card is absent. (unless you have one onboard )

5. Plug your graphic card and your monitor.. start it up.
If it doesn't start at that point.. there's a serious problem...

Check jumper / dip switch IF you have any one it...

make sure the CMOS reset jumper is on the right position.. in case it would be in "reset" position that would be your problem ;)

6. If it starts, add ONE after the other each of you peripheral...
you should find the problem that way..


hope it helped you

wolfien-

Member Avatar for Kloned

Everything on the computer is connected correctly, had a friend double check. I think there might be something wrong with the motherboard, cause the hard drive only doesnt work while its pluged into the motherboard. I used this hard drive on another computer and it worked perfectly. Ive tryed many different cables. :'(

Member Avatar for Kloned

Also I might add, that to turn my computer on, I have to turn the power supply switch on, my power switch for the computer doesnt work for some reason :\ Ive looked in the book to make sure I connected them correctly and they are. Im not sure if that would be a problem but I just wanted to point that out

Member Avatar for caperjack

Also I might add, that to turn my computer on, I have to turn the power supply switch on, my power switch for the computer doesnt work for some reason :\ Ive looked in the book to make sure I connected them correctly and they are. Im not sure if that would be a problem but I just wanted to point that out

This is not for everyone ,but what I do in this case to check the front switch is to take the wires off the motherboard front panel connectore ,and use a screwdriver to jump the 2 pins for the the computer boots then there is a problem with the switch or the way its wired .

Member Avatar for helloimtim

Mine did the same thing!! After talking to some tec guys this is what I found out. The ram was bad. Well not bad but in my case dustbunnies. I took the ram out. Cleaned it reinstalled the ram and poof no more window problems!! So I hope this helps if not maybey the ram is bad??..........peace.....im out

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