Computer won't boot (no display or beeps)

[mmarron]

For some odd reason, my customer-built PC stops working every few months w/the same problem. The computer won't boot (no display on the monitor and no beeps). The first time I thought it was a bad power supply, so I replaced that and it worked again. The next time, I thought it was a bad motherboard, so I got a new motherboard (also upgraded the processor and RAM). That fixed it the second time. Now this time, I'm quite frustrated as most of the parts are less than a year old now. I tried several setups, such as without the HDs (I have two) and PCI cards installed. In addition, I tried plugging it into a wall (instead of a powerstrip) and other rooms. Still no beep. I even went as far as trying to boot it w/only the motherboard, power supply, and processor. Still no beep! Here's my setup:

300/600 Watt ATX Power supply (tried both)
AMD Athlon XP 1.6ghz processor
512mb 333mhz SDRAM
40/60 Western Digital/Segate HD's
1.44 Floppy Drive
Philips CD-R/RW drive
Unknown type DVD-ROM drive
Gigabye motherboard w/on board video, sound, and ethernet

Is it safe to say that the motherboard and/or processor shorted or failed? Is there anything else I should've tried? Thanks!!

 

[TKoch]

It might be a power problem. You might have "dirty" power or surges (the surge protector may not work). If a power problem shorts the components, then they won't work until replaced, but later you will have the same problem again.

Use a voltmeter to test the power outlet.
If you end up replacing parts again and it works, it might be a good idea to plug it into another room with a new surge protector

- Trevor
CCNA, CCNT, A+, NET +

 

[sector512]

Hi,

Awhile back you mentioned that you were getting a - CMOS Checksum Error - Have you trid replacing the Battery that powers the CMOS? You might not be getting enough power to keep the CMOS powered properly. Thus, giving you all these problems on THAT Motherboard.

 

[mmarron]

Well I got a tried using a new HD and guess what? It only works when the new HD is a single drive, but it works. I guess I'm S.O.L. on the other HDs. I'm pretty sure a bad wall outlet was the cause of this repeated failure, as it only happened when it was hooked to an exterior wall. I've already moved the powerstrip to an interior wall and I plan to use my new external HD to back up files in case this happens again.

If anyone knows of anyway to extract files from these drives, you'd be my hero. I suppose I could take it to some repair place, but then they'd see my mp3s on there and think I stole them (I backup up most of my CDs to make mixed CDs and mp3 CDs for work). If not, that's okay. I really appreciate everyone's help and advice. I'm glad I found this forum!

 

[penybont]

You say that it only works when it is a single drive. Since there should be two IDE slots on the motherboard, have you tried connecting a second hard drive onto the other IDE slot. Then on start-up, scan for hard drives and see if it recognises the second hard drive.
If this does work, then copy the files you need to keep onto the hard drive you are using.

 

[BadBigBen]

Hey glad to hear that you found the prob... was about to suggest to try it with just one drive...

check your jumpering on the drives one should be master the other slave (and totally ignore the Cable Select settings) if they are on one IDE cable... if not do as mentioned before and try it on the second IDE port as Master and the CD as slave...

good luck with the tinkering...

Ben