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Serious Problem- System wont boot... AT ALL

N

NotoriousTAT

Member
First off this is what I have.

1800XP - ECS K7S5A - 512mb DDR266 - Maxtor 40GB 7200 - MSI Geforce 4 Ti4200 - 24x CDRW - 16x DVD - Pioneer 2x DVD-RW.

So this is what happened, I was in the process of making a copy of Black hawk down and I walked away for like an hour with the screensaver on. When I came back there was only a black screen, no signal what soever on the monitor, yet my two case fans and the processor fan where spinning at top speed. I tried ctrl - alt - delet but there was no response. Eventually after like 30mins of trying to reset or power down the computer I had to pull the cord to turn it off. I gave it a day to cool down and when I turned it on, it went imediately to the same state which I had pulled the plug - Screen had no signal, fans were spinning top speed. None of the case lights Flash or come on when I turn it on, not even the Led's for the drives. When you hit the eject button for any of the drives, nothing happens. I get no response.

What could be the cause. I only have a 300wt power supply could that be it. Or could I have fried the processor, motherboard, or something like that. Before I go speend 200+ on another processor, motherboard, and fan I would like be sure about exactly what is wrong. Please help - I'm a colleg student with limit funds to waste. Thanks
 
The first thing I would test is the mobo. Check to make sure that it is properly seated on teh stand offs and not shorting off in anyway. DO you have another computer or access to one where you could try the CPU?
 
Not at the moment. I have another cpu at my house, but it's not a socket A. Its a rather old Pentium II 333. I'll check out your suggestion first, but If i did in fact kill my processor, would I be able to see the damage externally.
 
No, you would not nessiscarly be able to see the damage to your processor with the naked eye. Did you check to see if the CPU fan was still spinning?

Peace,
will
 
As soon as I plug the computer in the cpu fan and my two case fans (that are connected through the motherboard) start spinning at full speed as if I were playing a game or something. The GPU fan doesnt spin though.
 
How long have you been running this set-up? Have you tried and cpu-intensive tasks before, like encoding a movie into divx or run Prime95? If you were just burning a movie it shouldn't be the processor the went wrong. It sounds like it could either be a power supply problem and a motherboard problem. I would think its a power supply problem because the drives get their power from the power supply and their not ejecting. Do the drives light's come on? I would call the company that makes you power supply ask them if you could send yours back for a replacement if its under warranty. 300w should be enough but the amount of power isn't as important as the quality of the power. If the replacement doesn't work i would just get a new power supply, a enermax or a antec, those are pretty reliable.
 
Originally posted by: NotoriousTAT
As soon as I plug the computer in the cpu fan and my two case fans (that are connected through the motherboard) start spinning at full speed as if I were playing a game or something. The GPU fan doesnt spin though.
Click to expand...
Now I am leaning even more towards the mobo. I had an ECS K7S5A do the same thing to me.

 
Is there anyway I can test these components or should I just bite the bullet and buy new components. If so in what order should I get new components. Motherboard - Power Supply - processor Which First??
 
Actually in response to Krk3561 I have done a few labor intensive tasks. I have ripped 4 or 5 dvd's and re-encoded some mpeg-2 movies, along with hours of high resolution gaming. When I try to start the computer now though, no lights come on ( not the hard drive led, power led, or the dvd drive led's) with the exception of my cold cathode inside the case.
For cooling I have two 4000rpm exhaust fans, the power supply fan, and an AMD approved Coolermaster heatsink and fan. I did not use any thermal grease when I installed the processor though. (Stupid decision on my part)
 
Originally posted by: NotoriousTAT
Is there anyway I can test these components or should I just bite the bullet and buy new components. If so in what order should I get new components. Motherboard - Power Supply - processor Which First??
Click to expand...
Mobo first. How long have you had the mobo and are you able to RMA it?

 
I bought and assembled the system in late march early april and it has workder perfectly since. I am not not familar with RMA, but if it has something to do with returning it than I cant. I bought every component seperately to save money. Few if any parts came with a warrenty.
 
Originally posted by: NotoriousTAT
I bought and assembled the system in late march early april and it has workder perfectly since. I am not not familar with RMA, but if it has something to do with returning it than I cant. I bought every component seperately to save money. Few if any parts came with a warrenty.
Click to expand...
Usually ECS Mobos carry a 1 year warranty. You may want to contact the retailer you purchased the board from and find out what kind of warranty the board carried.
 
My parents computer supposedly just did the same thing... I say supposedly because I haven't made it home from college to help them with it yet. I would appreciate it if you keep me informed of what the problem was/is.

I built their system about 2 years ago, heres the specs as best I remember:

Abit KT7
AMD Thunderbird 900MHz
2 sticks of 128MB PC133 =256MB
Generic 48X CD-ROM
40GB Deskstar 60GXP primary
20GB Samsung backup
Geforce2 MX (dont remember what brand)

Same thing, fans spin, no power to hard drive, cd-rom, etc. Monitor says check cable because no signal...
 
By the way the system has been stable for over 6 months...and no one was doing any kind of hardware work on it at all. In fact, I doubt anyone in my family was running anything besides AOL IM and Word. I have stress tested it with gaming, 3DMark, etc. Could it be that the mobo just crapped out? I'm hoping I can solve it by removing all cables and cleaning...
 
You may have fried your processor with the fact that you didn't use the thermal grease between the CPU and the heatsink. This may have caused a non heat transfer and therefore fried it. Try your CPU on someone else's mahcine.
 
Originally posted by: Savillian
You may have fried your processor with the fact that you didn't use the thermal grease between the CPU and the heatsink. This may have caused a non heat transfer and therefore fried it. Try your CPU on someone else's mahcine.
Click to expand...

IMHO I don't think that it's the CPU.... I've built a ton of machines without using grease.... in most cases you really don't need the grease or at least extra grease.... most HSF's come with a little circle of compound that works just fine. Now ini your case running high intense CPU activities I would've used extra grease but that's neither here nor there now.

My guess is PSU or Motherboard. If you have access to a PSU I'd try that first. It sounds like the impluse switch is stuck.... When you press the power button it impluses a ground ....

Just my opinion,
zGhost
 
could I use my cold cathode to test the power supply leads to my IDE drives. Also the AGP slot doesnt seem to be getting power becuase the GPU fan doesnt spin.
 
Well first off the I'm pretty sure that the video card is one of the first things to post. If the video card went bad (because fan died etc) the computer won't boot. You won't even get to the drive checks. Since the video card fan doesn't work that would be the first thing I would check, then move the the MB.

 
Interesting, I'll check that. I just installed that motherboard a week prior to the system crash. I still have my old one though. I'll put it in for now.
 
OK here's an update on my situation:

I tried unplugging all of the leads from the power supply and just connecting the motherboard connector. I turned the computer on and after about 10 seconds I heard a loud pop and then the thing shut down. The pop definately came from the PS. It also smelled burnt 🙁 So i bought a new 300W PS from the store assuming that that had to be what was wrong. However, once installed, the new PS does the same thing as old (ie fans spin up, no post). I think im going to try taking everything off, removing the motherboard and reseating it in the case tomorrow. Hopefully I can fix whatever is going on.

Also, before my old PS popped, I would turn the system off completely with everything plugged in. If I shook the case a bit, the fans would mysteriously start :Q It's like it has a mind of its own. :Q Can I get confirmation from anybody that this means my mobo was shorting somewhere?

Also do you think that my PS could have fried my mobo in the process of "popping"? 🙁
 
UPDATE: So far. I have checked all connections and cables, switched to new IDE cables, and tested the power supply feeds with my cold cathode. Since my AGP fan doesnt spin and my system led's don't light--- Isn't it likely that the problem is the motherboard. Or do the Led's and AGP Fans only respond to information sent from the processor. Before I go off wasting money I would like someone's opinion from what we already know.
 
System LEDs? Like the power light doesn't come on? If the power light doesn't come on, but the fans start spinning then I would agree that it's the MB. Just because of the fact that the LED's and the AGP aren't getting power. But again if the memory, processor, or video card are bad none of the drive lights will flash, because all three are checked before the drives. Did you try another video card? If you leave it one for 30 sec does it beep at all? Or I should ask do you even have a system speaker?
 
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