Pc won't boot. Failed drive?

[TheNiceGuy]

Hello all
I have the pc in my sig. Posting from iPhone right now.
Today I turned on the pc, and it spools up as normal, power and HD led indicators on case light up as normal, monitor wakes up, for about 3 seconds. Then HD goes quiet. Only power led on case, and CPU/ mb fans remain on. Nothing comes up on screen, nothing. I need to hold down power switch to force a power off, as if it had locked up.
What is the cause? How can I fix it?
Is this likely a failed HD?

 

[stargazr]

You could tell if it's the HDD by trying to boot from a live CD. The thing is, you say there is no screen activity. If POST successfully completes, there should be a few screens before it tries to load OS. Do you normally see these screens, and hear a one-beep code?
If so it seems like a video problem. Try to get into BIOS for a screen image test. Check your monitor cable, re-seat your video card. Do you have any spare parts to troubleshoot like another video card and monitor?

 

[TheNiceGuy]

Thanks for the reply.
I'm thinking it's a mb issue. Which will be bad as I imagine my hardware will not be supported on any mb sold new now.
I disconnected the drives, and same issue. If it was a video issue, the rest of it would boot and carry on as normal, for example, it makes quite a bit of recognizable noises and LEDs during and after boot up. But after hitting the power button, I get a few seconds of strtup noise then silence, just the case power led solid.
No spares, just a USB HD.

 

[discerning]

Re-seat the RAM, try again.

 

[TheNiceGuy]

Ok, I'll try when I get home thanks.

 

[TheNiceGuy]

You mean power off, then remove and reinstall ram? Just tried it and it didn't do anything.

 

[MtnMan]

Any beeps?

Try booting with just one stick of RAM, then swap RAM and try again.

 

[TheNiceGuy]

Yikes! You're a genious!
No beeps. Pulled 1 ram stick and Voom! Startup!

Bios asked and I said default. Now I'm in windows as normal!
I'll try shutting down and adding the 2nd stick again.

EDIT: Just tried and no-go with 2 sticks. 1 stick works OK though. Typing this from PC now thanks! FWIW, I have been useing these 2 sticks together since build 3 years ago. Any ideas?

 

[Mongrelchops]

Try to narrow down if it is a faulty stick - or the slot on your Motherboard - try each stick in the first slot - and see if it works. Guessing its DDR2?

 

[TheNiceGuy]

Thanks for the tip. Yup, its a bum stick. The goodf stick works in both slots. 2GB UMAX Pulsar DDR2, 800, 128x8, CL5. D48002GF3-73BNJ1.
Can you buy this stuff anymore? What would work in my Mobo?

 

[MtnMan]

Thanks for the tip. Yup, its a bum stick. The goodf stick works in both slots. 2GB UMAX Pulsar DDR2, 800, 128x8, CL5. D48002GF3-73BNJ1.
Can you buy this stuff anymore? What would work in my Mobo?

Go to http://www.crucial.com/index.aspx or to http://www.kingston.com/ and it can test your system and specify exactly what you need to order.