System will not boot

[JSSheridan]

I'm having trouble with a system I built. Until this weekend, I had not had problems with it. Over the weekend, the system would lock up and require a hard restart. When I had to restart it tonight, it would not boot up. Turning the system on, I hear and see everything spin up, but nothing appears on my monitor and I don't hear anything from the speaker. I cleared the CMOS for 10 minutes. I have unplugged all the peripherals and taken out all the drives, CPU, memory, and video card, but I am not making any progress. I don't have spare parts to replace or check my components, so I'm stuck at guessing. My guess is the MB is toast. What's your guess?

Specs

AMD Athlon 64 X2 3800+
Asus M2NPV-VM
Crucial 1GB DDR2 x2
MSI 8600GTS
Antec 500W Earthwatts PSU
etc.

 

[JustaGeek]

Try booting with a single memory module.

Someone just had a similar problem, and bad memory was a culprit.

 

[JSSheridan]

Originally posted by: JustaGeek
Try booting with a single memory module.

Someone just had a similar problem, and bad memory was a culprit.

Thanks, but this didn't work.

 

[ralphk]

You have a few clues here, but I'm not sure about everything.

You said you see 'everything spin up'. Does that mean you see the hard drive light come on? (I'll guess yes)

If there's just no video, I'd attack that first, because you gotta see something if there's activity from the HD and you want to go further.

That would mean checking the monitor for power, checking cables, and substituting another monitor. (borrow one or check it with a friends)

If the monitors OK and you still have no video, then check your video card. (if you have one)

 

[Electric Amish]

So, no beep sequence at all?

Try this:

Remove the video card and then boot. Do you get a beep sequence? Yes, then there maybe a video card problem. No, move on.
Replace video card and remove all RAM chips and then boot. Do you get a beep sequence? Yes, then there maybe a RAM problem. No, move on.
Replace RAM and remove CPU and boot. Do you get a beep sequence? Yes, then there maybe a CPU problem. No, move on.
Remove all RAM chips and the video card and keep CPU out and then boot. Do you get a beep sequence? Yes, then there maybe a Motherboard problem.

 

[JSSheridan]

Originally posted by: ralphk
You have a few clues here, but I'm not sure about everything.

You said you see 'everything spin up'. Does that mean you see the hard drive light come on? (I'll guess yes)

If there's just no video, I'd attack that first, because you gotta see something if there's activity from the HD and you want to go further.

That would mean checking the monitor for power, checking cables, and substituting another monitor. (borrow one or check it with a friends)

If the monitors OK and you still have no video, then check your video card. (if you have one)

Thanks. Monitor works, I'm using it now. I don't get a signal from the video card or the integrated video.

Originally posted by: Electric Amish
So, no beep sequence at all?

Try this:

Remove the video card and then boot. Do you get a beep sequence? Yes, then there maybe a video card problem. No, move on.
Replace video card and remove all RAM chips and then boot. Do you get a beep sequence? Yes, then there maybe a RAM problem. No, move on.
Replace RAM and remove CPU and boot. Do you get a beep sequence? Yes, then there maybe a CPU problem. No, move on.
Remove all RAM chips and the video card and keep CPU out and then boot. Do you get a beep sequence? Yes, then there maybe a Motherboard problem.

Tried all of the above with no luck. Nothing is in the board now (no CPU, memory or video card) and I don't get any beeps.

Maybe if I can order a MB tonight with overnight shipping, it will get here on Friday.