My PC won't POST!!!

[avatar13]

I was burning a CD and went out to run some errands. After I got back the computer screen was blanked out. I thought it was the screen saver but nothing happened when I moved the mouse around. I powered off the computer and rebooted and it never go to the POST screen. Nothing displays on my monitor when I power on the computer so I think either the Mobo or the Video is dead. Everything on the mobo powers up (hard drives and cd rom spin up) but it never gets to POST so nothing happens.

- I replaced the CMOS with a known working one but no luck. I also cleared the CMOS via jumpers.
- I swapped ram sticks to make sure the slots or sticks didn't go bad
- I unplugged everything (all IDE devices) but still no luck booting up

I have not tried replacing the video card yet as I don't have a spare. Any thoughts? Is it likely to be the mobo or video? How can they just die with the PC running? The PC is hooked up to a surge suppressor. I am pretty sure the computer won't POST if there is no video or if video is dead so I'm inclined to believe it's that.

Some notes on my setup:
AMD 2500+ Barton CPU/512MB PC2700 DDR (both running stock speeds, no OC)
Maxtor 120GB 7200RPM Drive
Yamaha 20x CDR Drive
Nvidia Ti4200 GPU
ECS N2U400-A Nforce2 Motherboard
Antec Sonata Case with Antec 380W P/S

 

[Creston]

"How can they just die with the PC running?"

Ehm, because they're electronic things usually made in Taiwan?

It's kinda tough to figure out which it is with you not having a spare video card available, although I'd recommend trying to boot without the video card connected, and see if it will at least give you bios beeps. If it does, I think it's a decent bet that the video card is actually broken (and is somehow stopping your system from Posting).

However, based on the "it died while it was running" I would be more inclined to say motherboard.

It's just almost impossible to rule either one out without more testing...

Creston