Black Screen question

[Sandan]

Working on a problem with a computer I built my dad. It was working fine for about 6 mos. It started acting up by giving an error message that it couldn't find the hard drive. Then it would boot after about 6-7 reboots. Then the hard drive started clicking and we got a black screen with no boot up. I changed the hard disk thinking that it was bad but still a black screen. I then cleared the CMOS and later changed the battery and still the black screen. I am getting power to the fans and the power led light comes on but it won't go any further such as looking for the A drive. Any suggestions? I think I need to try changing the CPU with a spare I have. The system is old it is an Asus P5a-b motherboard, amd 450+ CPU, with 256 mb PC 100 ram.
Forgot to add that when I boot there are no beeps which is strange.

 

[lobadobadingdong]

what troubleshooting steps have you taken?

i.e. bare mobo w/just proc and power, any beep codes? etc.

 

[Sandan]

The only steps I took are replace hard drive, clear CMOS, then change CMOS battery. There are no code beeps what so ever. I haven't done the bare motherboard thing yet but will give a try. I wonder if the CPU blew out.

 

[Big Lar]

Sounds like your Power Supply bit the dirt

 

[Sandan]

Thanks Big Lar for your response. I am getting power because the PSU fan is working, the fan on the cpu works, and the Hard drive led light is on. After that nothing else happens. Can a Power Supply blow out but still power up some things? Since I get some power that is why I suspected the cpu. Thanks for any response on the possibility of a psu going out but still powering up some things.

 

[lobadobadingdong]

Originally posted by: Sandan
Thanks Big Lar for your response. I am getting power because the PSU fan is working, the fan on the cpu works, and the Hard drive led light is on. After that nothing else happens. Can a Power Supply blow out but still power up some things? Since I get some power that is why I suspected the cpu. Thanks for any response on the possibility of a psu going out but still powering up some things.

most likely you have either bad mobo, proc or mem, strip it down to just psu, mobo and cpu, if you don't get the long short long beep code then you either have a bad mobo or proc, the only way to truly test that is to try a known good proc, if no memory beep code, then you have a dead mobo. the likely hood of a dead psu powering up your hdd and system fans but not posting is pretty slim.