Member Avatar for kindintentions

I am running a P4 2.4 Ghz system with 1GB of RDRAM on an Intel board co-branded with Gateway. It is a Gateway system from three years ago. Everything was running fine till the other night the screen went black and nothing came up. I have it on a UPS and Line conditioner and did not notice any spikes or valleys in the power so I don't think that is the problem. At first I thought it was the Gforce 4 graphics card but when I took that out and put in an ATI Radeon 7000/VE card I got a post code for no graphics card. So I reinserted the Gforce card and tried one stick of RDRAM at a time but again got post codes for the RAM. When I turn on the power button I get power to all the peripherals, USB ports, Hard Drives, Disk Drives, but no BIOS setup screen on the monitor. The monitor only says no signal. However, the computer does not boot into windows upon startup (even though I can't see video output the windows startup sound does not play). I am at a complete loss as to what is wrong. All the fans are running on the case and on the power supply and CPU. I have reset the CMOS and still nothing. Any help or ideas would be appreciated. I just don't want to give up on the computer just yet.

Thanks in advance for any help or ideas.

  • 2 Contributors
  • 2 Replies
  • 143 Views
  • 2 Days Discussion Span
  • Latest Post Latest Post by kindintentions

Dani AI

Generated

For and anyone else picking this thread up later: here is a short, prioritized checklist that covers useful steps not yet described in the replies and that will isolate whether the problem is power, memory, video, or the motherboard itself.

  • Attach a small chassis speaker to the motherboard POST header (if one is not fitted) and capture the exact beep pattern. Compare that pattern to a BIOS vendor list to interpret whether the board is flagging video, memory, or another fault (BIOS beep codes reference).

  • RDRAM boards behave differently from DDR boards. They usually require matched RIMM pairs and sometimes a continuity module (C‑RIMM) in empty slots. Booting with single RIMMs or wrong slot population can produce memory errors even when the sticks are good. Read the RDRAM notes before changing slot population (RDRAM basics).

  • Do a visual check (power off, unplugged): look for bulged/leaking electrolytic capacitors on the motherboard and PSU. If caps look deformed the board or PSU is a likely failure point.

  • Minimal bench test: unplug all drives and PCI cards, leave only PSU, CPU/heatsink, one correct RIMM configuration (or C‑RIMMs if required), speaker, and the video card. Try a known-good PSU or use a PSU tester/multimeter to verify the 3.3/5/12V rails.

  • Reseat the AGP/PCI video card and clean contacts with isopropyl if needed. If available, test with a different known-good card or onboard video to rule out the GPU.

If these steps still leave the system dead, the board or PSU is probably toast; weigh repair cost vs. replacement. If data recovery is the priority, remove the drive and attach it to another machine or a USB enclosure before further teardown.

Recommended Answers

All 2 Replies

Member Avatar for goldeagle2005

Do you hear any kind of beep codes from the BIOS? If yes, what are they?

Member Avatar for kindintentions

Do you hear any kind of beep codes from the BIOS? If yes, what are they?

I get no beep codes or post codes when everything is the way it should be but when I take out the video card and try to put another one in i get one long and two short tones, and when I try to take out the ram I also get post codes but dont remember what they were. Hope this helps.

:D

Be a part of the DaniWeb community

We're a friendly, industry-focused community of developers, IT pros, digital marketers, and technology enthusiasts meeting, networking, learning, and sharing knowledge.