No video output, hardrive activity, or cdrom activity

[ChrisQuintero]

Hi,

Tonight suddenly as i turned away to check some homework, the input to my monitor shut off. I turned the computer off and on again, nothing... pushed reset switch, nothing. So i unplugged everything, and went to dinner. When i came back i turned it on and this time the hardrive light and cdrom activity light showed. I was able to open the cd-rom and insert the windows xp installation disk? dunno if that'd help or if i'd have to make a recovery disk? after about 3 seconds it stopped "reading" it again. (it wouldn't boot from cd-rom when i did that either, i had the windows xp professional disc in) The next time i turned it on and off, it went back to what it was doing before and nothing would function. So next step, i took out the cmos battery and cleared the ram and cmos settings... and still nothing.

I built my system last august and is as follows

AMD 64 3000+
Asus K8N-E Delux motherboard
Samsung 160gig SATA hardrive
Sapphire 9800 pro video card

and i'm running xp pro

I've checked all the connections, all the fans are running, and the motherboard led light is on so it is getting power. you guys have any ideas on what could be wrong? could a virus do something like this? I have pc-cillin and update it daily and scans about once a week. I'm at a complete loss. Thanks a lot if you can help at all with this. Thanks

Chris

 

[Abix]

Just as a guestimate, Id probably say that the board died on ya. Had almost the exact same thing happen to my P4T533 last Monday. The thing locked up in Windows for the first time in two years, and when I rebooted it, I didnt get video/post/beeps anything. I unplugged all but essentials and still didnt work. I also tested RAM, CPU, and video card in another board. All were good. *tear* The board is on RMA at the moment.

Anyways, Id suggest that first of all you unmount the board from the case just to be absolutely sure youre not getting any sort of short. Then, just plug in essentials(RAM, CPU/HS, video), and see if you can get a POST. If it doesnt POST, does it give you a beep code? If it doesnt POST or give a beep code, then Id take out the RAM and video and see if you got anything then. If still nothing at all, then take out the CPU and put it in another board to make sure its good. If it tests out good, then its your board.

Good luck.

 

[ChrisQuintero]

I'm afraid that'd it'd be kind of risky to try any of these suggestions.. I walked back upstairs to my computer and somehow the computer turned on by itself??????? no lie.. it was fully off with my power button (not power going in) before and now when i walked upstairs, the computer was turned on and there was a funky smell in the room.. when i tried to turn it off with the power button, it just wouldn't go off... even after holding it for like a minute, so i had to finally unplug it.......

Is my computer just possessed??? and is it possible for a virus to do these things?? some night

 

[modedepe]

Funky smell? PSU?

Here's a thought since I'm having a problem on a system I just built. The 20 pin motherboard connector for some reason isn't making a good connection so it doesn't always start when I press the power switch. But then if I give the connector a shove the thing will start up. Sometimes I'll leave the thing alone for a while and it'll shut off cause of this. Just thought I'd throw that out for you.

 

[robtk3]

Something is fried. Power supply, motherboard, CPU or whatever. If you are not comfortable opening the case yourself take it to someone that knows computer hardware.

 

[ChrisQuintero]

I'm comforatable working with the hardware... i built the whole system myself... but wouldn't want to fry something else.... i think i'll start taking it apart piece by piece to see what's melted... and i'll really ceck into the PSU thanks... it has sufficient voltage (420W) but it did come with the case and so could be quite cheap... and i'll check the connector too... thanks for the suggestions.. any more?

 

[ChrisQuintero]

Eh... update... so i went and got another PSU today... i'm sure the smell was coming from the old one... i installed it, and still no dice.. it just did was it was doing before. My motherboard was still yet to post

My next step was to take out the cpu and see if the motherboard would post.. upon taking it out, the motherboard finally gave me the voice message of "no cpu installed" and upon reinstalling it, it went back to what it did previously..

The acrid smell definately eminated from the power supply, and i'll take it to be tested tomorrow to see if it was indeed a culprit.. but with a new PSU nothing improved? upon removing the cpu, it showed no signs of melting or damage in anyway. The stock heatsink is on it, and i've never begun to overclock it in any way. It seems to be a motherboard issue because the board won't post or give video signal with the cpu in. Shouldn't it do that or am i mistaken.

What seems to be the culprit???

 

[modedepe]

The PSU might have blown and taken out other components with it.

 

[ChrisQuintero]

seems like an obvious question i know, but ... then could the PSU have taken out only that small of a section of the mobo.... posts without cpu in but with it in it doesn't?..

 

[VirtualLarry]

Originally posted by: ChrisQuintero
I'm afraid that'd it'd be kind of risky to try any of these suggestions.. I walked back upstairs to my computer and somehow the computer turned on by itself??????? no lie.. it was fully off with my power button (not power going in) before and now when i walked upstairs, the computer was turned on and there was a funky smell in the room.. when i tried to turn it off with the power button, it just wouldn't go off... even after holding it for like a minute, so i had to finally unplug it.......

Yep. Board dead. Time to RMA.

(Edit: The key info here is that the board powered-on by itself, and then refused to power-off. While the PSU may have been what went out in smoke, the board was definately dead one way or another, because it is responsible for ATX power-on/off duties. Also, when a cheap generic PSU goes, the first thing that it usually takes out is the board - although oftentimes the CPU and usually the RAM is ok, and secondarily the drives.)

Originally posted by: ChrisQuintero
Is my computer just possessed??? and is it possible for a virus to do these things?? some night

Spiritual influence on your computer? Possible, but not enough additional background information to say.
Virus? Nope. Viruses, contrary to popular rumors, cannot make the "magic smoke" escape from computer components. Only hardware failure does.

Edit: A possible explaination for the whole missing-CPU = voice-post thing, could be that the chip that handles the voice-post, is powered from the +5V rail, whereas the CPU is powered by a regulator onboard the mobo, and that is powered by the +12V rail, and that circuitry is somehow fried, too much to allow the CPU to complete post, but still somehow allowing the CPU's presence in the socket to be detected. Just a theory, could be wrong, not sure entirely how those voice-post things are wired up at the circuit level.

 

[mrSHEiK124]

Dead mobo, happened to my first A7N8X-E, left for school one morning, came back to a lifeless PC, RMA'd the mobo, poof, fixed it.

 

[Boobers]

Try another video card. Those Sapphire vid cards are dodgy sometimes.

It may be a problem with the "power up" sequence of you hardware. You could try unplugging the power feed to the vid card, power on the computer, then plug in the vid card power feed. This has worked for others...YMMV

There also seems to be issues with Asus boards and Sapphire vid cards...Do you have the latest BIOS?...do a search...

 

[ChrisQuintero]

Yeah... i had just downloaded the latest Bios about 2 weeks ago.. and i've tried unplugging, plugging in every component in sequence and the only time the motherboard will do the voice post, is when i take out the cpu... looks like a RMA is in my future..

on another note, i doubt it, but has anyone else tried to access ASUS's site and either sign up for an account or submit a tech question?... i keep on getting internal error messages both yesterday and today... anyways.. thanks for the suggestions