PC will not start

[samuraibeerman]

I have a new PC (3 weeks old). It worked great until I decided to install a new sound card (creative sound blaster 5.1).

Since installing the sound card I've been unable to start the PC. After depressing the On switch only the cooling fan begins and nothing else. The hard disk drive does not start, the computer screen remains blank.

After this I removed the sound card and checked all the hardware connections but the problem persists.

Any ideas on how I may be able to use my PC again?

 

[rohmor]

Samuraibeerman,

You may have done these already, but it was not made clear if you did.

Unplug all cards and connectors (including keyboard and mouse). Reconnect each at a time, powering up after each reconnection.

See if you get any change of symptoms along the way.

My suspicions:
Video card (if not integrated) (check seating carefully)
Power Supply

Substitute if you can.

I hope it works or leads you closer to the cause.

rohmor.

 

[Grenage]

You say the Fans come on, are these wired up directly to your Power Supply ? - if this is so make sure your Power connector is on the motherboard properly by removing it and putting it back again and double check the connections on the back (Mouse and Keyboard connectors not in the right way around).

If that fails remove your sound card and try and boot it up again. Hope you get it working.

 

[samuraibeerman]

Thanks for your assistance rohmor & Grenage,

I tried the following;

1.) Disconnected everything from the bus (sound card, video card, keyboard, mouse, network card, CD, DVD, floppy drive, hard disk drive, etc.). The CD, DVD, floppy drive and hard disk drives were still connected to the power.

2.) Turned on the power and noticed that the CD & DVD lights flashed (as they usually do at startup) and that via the disk eject buttons I was now able to open and close the CD & DVD trays. I also heard a familiar relay click that was normally heard shortly after power startup

3.) I then turned the power off and then started a series of reconnecting the drives to the bus. As per above the power-up sequence appeared normal until I connected the hard disk drive. Once the hard disk drive was re-connected to the bus the CD & DVD lights no longer flashed (as they usually do at startup) and via the eject buttons I unable to open and close the CD & DVD trays. The familiar relay click heard normally shortly after power startup did not happen.

4.) As a last test I reconnected the sound card, video card, keyboard, mouse & network card but had the same symptoms. Whenever the hard disk was connected to the bus the CD & DVD lights no longer flashed at startup, I was unable to open and close the CD & DVD trays and the familiar relay click heard shortly after power startup did not happen.

Any ideas? Could it be that the hard disk drive is causing these problems?

 

[mainegeek]

Double check the data cables on all the drives.Make sure
they are in the proper controllers, also note pin 1 orientation.Inspect the edge of the cables for cuts, scrapes
and check the power lead connection for the hard drive. I would leave the sound card out until you can get the system
up and running.

 

[ami123]

U can also check the jumpers for the CD/DVD and the hard disks and ensure that they are set in a non-conflicting manner.
amit
crazy_indian@lycos.com

to bug is human to debug devine

 

[rohmor]

Be careful now. Lets think back a bit.

Everything was fine until the attempted install of the sound card. Hence, if nothing else was disturbed, the settings and cables for the drives should have been fine. (unless samuraibeerman might be forgetting other actions he may have performed during the attempt).

It still isn't clear whether you have obtained video on the screen at any point.

At this point, I say disconnect all drives (power AND data)except floppy, remove all cards except video. Get a boot diskette and attempt to boot the system from floppy.

If it is unable to boot from floppy, default all BIOS settings and try the floppy boot again. If it still fails to boot from floppy then the problem would be localized to the mobo, power supply, and video card.

At that point I'd then try an alternate power supply.

If it does boot from floppy, it would then be all downhill from there.

Hope you've already solved it though.

Rohmor.

 

[mainegeek]

rohmor I think you missed samuraibeerman's 2nd post above.

 

[Mulga]

samuraibeerman,
I agree with rohmor up to a point in that the problem stems from the installation of the sound card. Now the sound card itself is probably not at fault as you have removed it but the problem remains. I hate to say this and hope I am wrong but I suspect you have damaged the motherboard during the installation. This could have occured in several ways, one the pressure exerted to push the card in may have fractured the board, possibly it was already weakened in some way and a bit extra completed the job. Also possibly a static dischage may have occurred when you touched the board or if it was inadvertently left plugged into the mains power during the installation this could also have caused it as ATX boards have power to them even when supposedly switched off. As I say, I hope I am wrong but it must be considered. All things are possible except skiing through a revolving door.

 

[Grenage]

Ok lets work on the assumption that the hardware is ok with the exception of the Soundcard for now, so if we leave that out of the system completely for now, you at least know what you have left should work.

Like said above it's important to make sure the IDE cables going from the Hard Drive and CD drives are snug, and pin 1 (normally a red line down the cable) is pointing the correct way. This will be shown on your Motherboard manual or by a little "1" on next to the IDE port where the cable plugs in.

For the CPU make sure the fan is plugged in properly and the lever is down on the side to hold the processor is in place, it should be very firmly seated.

Check the Graphics card is in the slot firmly along with any other cards you might have in place.

If the above is all ok then what I would do in your situation is leave the soundcard and network cards out, and the graphics card in. Then unplug your Hard Drive from the motherboard and try to boot it up. If it works then Try plugging the Hard drive back in, if it doesnt work then plug the IDE cable in the opposite direction on the motherboard end, and then the Hard Drive end, and then both.

Hopefully one of these configurations will help you.

 

[rohmor]

No mainegeek. I did see the post.

I still maintain that the troubleshooting process should be kept simple and methodical.

Note: We still aren't sure of how far into boot the PC goes.
(Do we get video or not?)


Lets at least confirm the status of the basic system itself.
And that entails removing/unplugging everything that is not required for the boot process.

Reading samuraibeerman's 2nd post, it is clear that he had not removed power to the drives. What if the power supply is contributing to the problem (eg. too much load)?

Also, if the PC ends up not booting from floppy under the minimal config., CD, DVD, hard disk cable orientation etc.
obviously would not figure in being the primary symptom cause.

I think we really need another update from samuraibeerman at this point though.

Rohmor.

 

[Grenage]

While normally I would agree, If no more power is being taken by the PSU than before, and it boots up until the hard drive is plugged in, you can pretty much write out Power Supply failure.

I'd bet money it's just IDE ribbon cables the wrong way round.

 

[mainegeek]

DITO!!

 

[mainegeek]

Unplug the power cord from the wall for a minutes or so.
If there is a rocker switch on the back of the tower turn it off first. Maybe static charge.

 

[mistanapesis]

I would take ell the cards out and just leave Floppy drive(A), memory(seated properly) and the Video card installed, with keyboard and mouse in their correct connections, If all is well you should at least get something on screen. If not you could try clearing and resetting the BIOS(as has been mentioned) If you still get nothing then I can only come to the conclussion its Video card or Mother board :-(. Id definately check video card and Memory are seated properly. If your unsure....Dont do it!

 

[rohmor]

Re samuraibeerman's 2nd post:

3) "....... As per above the power-up sequence appeared normal until I connected the hard disk drive. ......"

Does "power-up sequence appeared normal" mean that video appeared and OS loaded? (eg. from diskette)

I did not assume that. I will wait until samuraibeerman
confirms this.

Is that a fair approach Grenage and mainegeek?

Rohmor.

 

[samuraibeerman]

You guys are great, thanks for all the suggestions.

Unfortunately due to the way my computer is acting, I'm getting more confused. I’ve disconnected, connected and re-checked as many connections as possible and the new sound card has been permanently removed.

I appear to have an intermittent problem, sometimes the hard disk and CD drives start and sometimes they don't. Usually (but not always) the drives start after I re-adjust some of the bus connections or in one case unplugged the video card. So I now think the problem is in the motherboard or video card, since the original problem I have never seen any display on the monitor (the monitor is okay, it works fine when connected to another PC). I don't have extra cards to start swapping to check which ones are functioning or failing.

I may have to go to a computer repair shop

 

[samuraibeerman]

You guys are great, thanks for all the suggestions.

Unfortunately due to the way my computer is acting, I'm getting more confused. I’ve disconnected, connected and re-checked as many connections as possible and the new sound card has been permanently removed.

I appear to have an intermittent problem, sometimes the hard disk and CD drives start and sometimes they don't. Usually (but not always) the drives start after I re-adjust some of the bus connections or in one case unplugged the video card. So I now think the problem is in the motherboard or video card, since the original problem I have never seen any display on the monitor (the monitor is okay, it works fine when connected to another PC). I don't have extra cards to start swapping to check which ones are functioning or failing, i.e. I may have to go to a computer repair shop

 

[samuraibeerman]

rohmor,

Sorry for being ignorant but could you tell me how I can reset the BIOS? I forget which key I need to hold down.

samuraibeerman

 

[mistanapesis]

To clear the BIOS back to default there should be a jumper on your motherboard, Usually near the battery, from my experience 3 pins, move the jumper fom pins 1-2 to 2-3 then move it back to 1-2. Depends on your motherboard, It will tell you in motherboard manual. If your unsure....Dont do it!