No boot - No beep - Blank screen

[TheOneNOnlyQ]

PART 1
I normally keep my machine running 24/7 - with a day or 2 off every few weeks. I went on vacation earlier this month and had it off for a week. When I went to turn it back on, nothing showed on the monitor. I figured the monitor was having "issues", so I unplugged it and plugged in another, turned it back on and everything was OK. Last week, the power went off in my house for a few seconds. Because its an ATX, I went to turn it back on. Again, no picture displayed. No beeps heard. And it sounds like its going through a loop of some kind. The little red light I normally see flashing and the sound it makes when it is "working" isnt there. (I do have another red light that stays on showing theres power) My assumption is either a bad HD or motherboard. Any ideas?
(I had heard that several people had problems when they updated their XP with a service pack fm Microsoft. I downloaded an update but never installed it because of what I heard.)

PART 2
I dont believe there's anything wrong with the power supply. Its running - same sound - good supply of air coming out. I built this machine approx 9 months ago. No problems up until now. The power supply was new. The motherboard was used so that may give credance to the CMOS battery dying. Im gonna guess, the only way to check and see if thats the problem is to buy a new one and replace it? Could this possibly have something to do with the BIOS perhaps hiccouping when she was cut off?
Oh BTW there shouldnt be any power surge damage because she didnt come back on when the power came back on - I turned her on (ATX).
Also, I havent moved her at all or added any hardware (or new boot changing software for that matter) to her since I built her so everything should be still seated correctly. Right?

 

[mainegeek]

Try booting with all the cards removed except for the video.
One of them might have taken a hit. Probably the Nic.

 

[TheOneNOnlyQ]

I dont have any cards in her. She has onboard video and sound. :-(

 

[mainegeek]

Try it with the drives disconnected and try clearing
the cmos. Does the cpu fan spin? It could be the cpu
or the system board.

 

[edfair]

Pull all offboard connectors except power and power-on.
You're looking for some semblance of a video splash screen or of keyboard lights (other than the power on flash).
If nothing there you have lost the cpu, the m/b, or one of the supplies in the P/S.

Hard drive will spin up without being connected and CDR will flash at least once.

You could try reseating the processor and memory. One of those might resolve the issue.

And you could pull the power-on jumper and try to crank it up with a screwdriver blade. Ed Fair
unixstuff@juno.com
Any advice I give is my best judgement based on my interpretation of the facts you supply. Help increase my knowledge by providing some feedback, good or bad, on any advice I have given.

 

[Kicket]

clear cmos will do
ff

 

[TheOneNOnlyQ]

Yes the CPU and power supply fans work. The CDRoms lights light up.
OK clearing the CMOS will be my first try (as well as reseating all connections). Is there some other indication that would tell me the if CMOS battery is dead????

 

[Accessdabbler]

Does your computer keep the time properly? A dead battery will mean your clock will always start back up at 12:00.

The battery doesn't really power the CMOS. CMOS is on a flash ROM chip that doesn't need any power to keep its settings.

If you have access to a voltmeter, you can test the power supply. You should be able to read 12V, 5V and 3.3V (or values close to that).

Most systems will "beep" shortly after they are turned on. This is done before the POST and is the only way for the computer to tell you if the speaker works. If you don't hear this first beep I would blame bad BIOS.

If the BIOS has been corrupted (it can happen), you will need to flash it. Again, find the motherboard's manufacturer and download the latest BIOS.

Do the fans on the motherboard work?

 

[mainegeek]

I concur with Edfair.

Accessdabbler,

You lost me on the purpose of a cmos battery, pc speaker
and how it relates to POST code beeps. Also how to update
a bios on a very unstable system with no display??

I'm not the sharpest tool in the shed.......

 

[Accessdabbler]

When you first turn the system on, the CPU starts up. Then the speaker beeps. The POST can't test the speaker, it doesn't have ears! The beep is there to tell you that the speaker (a piece of hardware) is working. No beep means: 1. The speaker doesn't work or, 2. It's not connected or, 3. The BIOS can't tell the speaker to beep.

If #3 is the problem, it's likely the motherboard or BIOS is damaged (though, I suppose some BIOSs might allow you to turn off the speaker beep).

In the old days, the CMOS used to reside on a separate chip. A battery was needed to keep the CMOS "alive" as well as the system time. Now the CMOS is part of the BIOS chip and uses a type of flash ROM that retains its settings, even without power. The battery now only keeps the system time. He didn't say how old his mobo was.

About flashing a corrupted BIOS, I was wrong. If the BIOS is screwed and won't work, the chip must be replaced. There are companies that will flash a corrupt BIOS chip for you (

http://www.badflash.com)

but that still entails removing the chip.

 

[SQLScholar]

Can i just say that as far as i am aware not all (actually not many) system speakers test on boot. None of my home computers beep on startup - and i know the system speakers work and there is no problems.

Just my view anywayz

Dan ----------------------------------------
There are 2 types of computer, the prototype and the obsolete!!

 

[ceh4702]

A bad hard drive does not keep the system from displaying something on the screen even if it is just a blinking cursor or a invalid system disk error.

A Power Supply can be bad and still be able to run fans fine. A 12v fan can probably run on 9 volts easy. What kind of motherboard is it?

If the CPU was bad, the fans would probably just stop and the system would shut down. If just the fan on the CPU was bad maybe the system would do the same thing. If on-board video went bad you could easily see the problem you are seeing.

If you can disable onboard video with a jumper, try a cheap PCI 1-4 meg video card to see if you can get a video signal. Often things like this can be caused by the motherboard grounding out.

This motherboard probably just needs to be replaced. If you do not like my post feel free to point out your opinion or my errors.

 

[TheOneNOnlyQ]

I donno.
Now that I think about it Plank, Im not 100% sure my system speakers gave me ANY beep before this problem. I vaguely remember wondering why she didnt beep when I was putting her together, but she worked fine so I forgot about it. (And yes, Im sure I have the system speakers connected correctly)
Last night I took off all connectors. All I left connected was the power supply and processor. Again, no beep.
Soooooo I took a power supply off an old machine that I had sitting around not working. It has those old style connectors that connect fm the power supply to the power button, reset button, LEDs... Well, I didnt have anything to connect them to on this machine. But I plugged her up anyway. Anddd lets just say one of those connectors must have touched one of the other unconnected connectors and made some pretty blue sparks so I unplugged it. I plugged it back up the way it was - and it still does the same thing.
Yesssss I know that may very well have completely fried everything.
So now, Im going to get another NEW power supply and try to hook that up. If that doesnt do it - I have a nice new Athlon bare bones kit in the back of a UPS truck somewhere in the Montana area on its way to me. I was trying to salvage this one as a third one for my kids to use. But...

 

[mainegeek]

Accessdabbler,
The pc speaker is there to aid the user in determining
post code beeps. One or two beeps usually signify a successful post. A series of long and/or short beeps is
emitted through the pc speaker to aid the user in determining post errors especially when there is no display present to see the code #'s or error returns from the post.
These beeps are like morse code which the user can then use
in determining what area of the post has failed. Post code error beeps vary depending on the bios that is on the board
ie: Award, AMI, Pheonix, the beeps can then be looked up.
So the pc speaker isn't simply there for the POST to test it and make it beep. How it beeps is what's significant.


Also,if you where to remove your cmos battery, clear your cmos and reboot with the battery left out, you would be surprised at what actually can get retained and what can't without it.

This is my understanding it......