My computer just stopped working.

VortexX

Junior Member
Aug 26, 2005
5
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My computer just stopped working.

I have no idea to fix this, so I come to this forum in hopes that I can get any suggestions at all.

My computer was working flawlessly before this incident FYI.

I brought my computer on vacation this summer and upon arrival back home, my computer just doesnt work at all. I noticed my graphics card was dislodged, as well as one of my harddrive bays. Upon reseating what was displaced, and making sure all my wires were tightened before starting the computer, I turned it on and feared the worst. It made all the sounds like it was working fine, then I was getting a siren beep (was like 8 beeps) and then it stopped beeping. Besides the beeping, the computer sounded like it was working fine, except NOTHING was showing on the monitor.

At first I thought it was the graphics card, but I tried 3 other graphics cards my dad had and there was no change.

Then I thought it was the monitor, I tried 2 other monitors in the house, no change.

I also thought it might be the CPU.. I attempted to reseat the CPU, and ended up bending the pins.. but I eventually aligned it properly, and upon reseating, no change.

After exhausting everything I could come up with, I bought a new motherboard, CPU, and power supply.

After replacing all the parts in my computer with those, THERE WAS NO CHANGE.

Im totally baffled as to what is preventing my computer from showing absolutely nothing on the monitor. Everything sounds like its working fine, except this motherboard doesnt display beeps which I guess that means it doesnt have a POST.

But what could be doing this? I tried disconnecting and just running the power supply, motherboard, and graphics card. It acted the same as if I had all the parts in the computer. Could a faulty cable be interfering with preventing bios from even showing? I reset CMOS on both the old and new motherboard, and to no change in the problem.

Im thinking its maybe the memory, but how could its travel on the airplane do anything to the memory? I tried alternating my 2 sticks of ram and using just 1 stick, to no sticks. Computer acted indifferently to anything I did.

Please, anyone.. I'd appreciate any insight in this matter, because Im totally confused as to what else I could do.


SPECS:

Motherboard : Abit VT7 (The one I used before was AI7)

Power supply : Mad Dog 550W (The one before was the one that came with my Aspire case - 420W)

Processor : Intel P4 2.4AGhz (The one before was a P4 3.2EGhz Prescott)

Ram : Corsair DDRAM 1GB ValueSelect

Graphics : Geforce 6800 VGA

Sound : Chaintech AV710 7.1 Surround
 

deadlock

Member
Dec 4, 2000
110
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A big ditto. Bad RAM sounds likely, and would have been one of the very first things I would've swapped out (definitely before the CPU and MoBo!).
 

VortexX

Junior Member
Aug 26, 2005
5
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It wasn't a constant beep, in fact it beeped precisely 8 times (as a siren). Im going to the store to buy new memory and Ill report if it indeed fixed it or not (still open to more suggestions btw in case this doesnt work :) Thanks for the insight so far.
 

VortexX

Junior Member
Aug 26, 2005
5
0
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I also thought it would be odd that BOTH sticks of my corsair ram went dead.. whats the chances of that (albeit ram going in the first place?) Fortunately all the components Im buying will be going into another computer that we need anyway.
 

Kogan

Golden Member
Mar 21, 2000
1,331
0
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edit: Oops, thought you figured it out already.

Yeah, It looks like it could still be either the ram or video (the only things you haven't replaced so far, right?)

Also take into consideration that the new compents you have may be bad (not very likely of course) :)

And one last possiblity - the case may somehow be grounding something it shouldn't with the motherboard, so try to power up the system outside of the case.
 

VortexX

Junior Member
Aug 26, 2005
5
0
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Tried a new kingston memory stick just now.. there has been no change.. also Ive tried 2 or 3 old graphic cards, so Im totally stuck as to what to do next..

I also tried a barebones configuration outside the box, the old mobo with base essentials isnt booting up either.

So I have 2 seperate computers now that dont work at all.. nothing shows up on monitor.
 

everman

Lifer
Nov 5, 2002
11,288
1
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So it still doesn't work with a new mobo, cpu, ram, psu, and a good video card. I assume you tried it without any extra cards or peripherals, or extra disk drives of any sort?
Is the motherboard properly seated to the case with standoffs? (so the board is not touching the case directly)
 

VortexX

Junior Member
Aug 26, 2005
5
0
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I cannot say for sure if anything is shorting out the motherboard, but I did perform an outside install on a anti-static bag and I got the same result in that respect. I think Im going to take it to Bestbuy to get it looked at and see if they can fix it. I dont want to spend more money trying to fix this.. its become too complicated.