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Geek Culture / computer tech problems

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large_nostril
21
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Joined: 5th Feb 2003
Location: United States
Posted: 6th Apr 2003 08:11
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Everytime I turn on my computer, nothing appears on the monitor. This doesn't make sense to me. Not even the startup screen that is built into the BIOS appears. I have no clue why this would do this. I've tried 3 different monitors and 2 different gfx cards, and still nothing. However, one time (out of about 350 tries) the BIOS screen appeared and then froze. Any suggestions? (By the way, it shouldn't be the gfx card since the card isn't even needed to get to bios)
If you want fresh underwear in the morning, take it off the night before.
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Easily Confused
22
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Joined: 22nd Oct 2002
Location: U.K. Earth. (turn right at Venus)
Posted: 6th Apr 2003 08:18 Edited at: 6th Apr 2003 08:33
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I saw something like this with my mother's PC and her hard drive died, I hope that's not happening to you. Check and see if you can still boot from a floppy.

It could be a handful of things, a loose monitor cable, processor not sitting in it's socket properly, power drain on the mother board (especaily if you have added new hardware recently), faulty RAM chips.

It's tricky to pin down an exact cause.

Programming anything is an art, and you can't rush art.
Unless your name is Bob Ross, then you can do it in thirty minutes.
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the_winch
21
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Joined: 1st Feb 2003
Location: Oxford, UK
Posted: 6th Apr 2003 18:19
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Take the computer to bits completly. Just plug in the speaker and the powersupply and turn it on. It should beep. If it doesn't blow it with compressed air. Try it again. Then put in the grafics card and connect the monitor, somthing should appear on the screen, if it doesn't try with the processor and heatsink in. Then the memory. If it is still not doing anything then it is proberly a motherboad problem.

If it works until you put componant x in then its proberly componant x causing the trouble

If its started working asseble it all out of the case and try it again. Hover the case and put it all back in the case and try. If it's working not in the case but won't work in the case then part of the case could be touching something it shouldn't.

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Kangaroo2
22
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Joined: 26th Sep 2002
Location: United Kingdom
Posted: 6th Apr 2003 18:30
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As pretty much said above, any loose, incorectly fitted or faulty components on the motherboard may cause this Good luck fixing it

Coming Soon! Kangaroo2 Studio... wait and quiver with anticipation! lol
samjones@kangaroo2.com - http://www.kangaroo2.com - If the apocalypse comes, email me
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large_nostril
21
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Joined: 5th Feb 2003
Location: United States
Posted: 6th Apr 2003 22:36
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Things I know I can eliminate as the source of the problem are the monitor, gfx card, hard drive, memory,

It could be the power supply but it shouldn't be. I mean, everything else gets power. The monitor starts like any normal monitor with the little green LED showing. Then after about 5-10 seconds, it clicks and turns yellow.

I am inclined to think that it's the motherboard. Thus, I was thinking about getting a new one. I don't have a lot of money so I was thinking of getting a 810LR AMD Duron 1.1GHz for $68. Any suggestions?

If you have any more suggestions on fixing my problem, they are very welcome.

If you want fresh underwear in the morning, take it off the night before.
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Shadow Robert
22
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Joined: 22nd Sep 2002
Location: Hertfordshire, England
Posted: 7th Apr 2003 07:13
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does your motherboard still bleep and do the boot up routine?
because if so this is a very common problem with Via based motherboard - oftenly with Montiors capable of 'Sleep Mode'

its caused by a problem with the BIOS which doesn't initilise the AGP socket properly ... try a PCI card (if you have one), if that still doesn't work take the system apart completely (including CPU & Ram) wait around 30 seconds, then rebuild it. Should work then, but you'll have to make sure you go into the BIOS and turn of Flash/User BIOS instructions - and goto the motherboard website get a new BIOS Flash.
Oftenly this problem comes up because of either the Motherboard isn't 100% supporting the Monitor modes, or there is a Virus in the BIOS... it is quite annoying and i had alot of problems when i got one of the new 'Sleep Mode' monitors - affected the whole graphics card. Though i've found the combination of new drivers for the Motherboard & Graphics card fixxed it nicely - and useing a WindowsXP-FAT32 also seems to have prevent alot more problems in the motherboard.

Tsu'va Oni Ni Jyuuko Fiori Sei Tau!
One block follows the suit ... the whole suit of blocks is the path ... what have you found?
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the_winch
21
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Joined: 1st Feb 2003
Location: Oxford, UK
Posted: 7th Apr 2003 23:40
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If you have taken the whole thing apart placed the mother board on a clean surface with just the speaker and power supply in and start it and it still doesn't beep even after a blast of compressed air or a hover I cant see how it can be anything other that the mother board.

I take it you don't know anybody capable of flashing the bios or you would have them looking at it know insted of asking for help on the internet so that options out.

I either leave it in a cupboard for a week and then try it or just buy a new one.

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EdzUp
22
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Joined: 8th Sep 2002
Location: UK
Posted: 8th Apr 2003 00:39
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Normally if the system doesnt boot into the BIOS POST (Power On Self Test) then it can either be a motherboard fault or a ram fault, on rare occurances it can be a Processor fault but this is rare. Normally you would see this sort of damage after a thunder storm when the computer was still connected to the phone system (I have seen one computer completely fragged like that even the GFX card bios was wiped).

As people have said above try the computer with JUST the ram and video card in and see if anything comes up, if nothing does try changing the ram (if you have any spare or take the ram out, if you run the computer without ram it should chuck a ram refresh error (loads of beeps). If you dont get anything then you may need to take it to someone for a look over.

-EdzUp
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large_nostril
21
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Joined: 5th Feb 2003
Location: United States
Posted: 8th Apr 2003 06:27
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I finally got it working. I had to take the system apart about 4 times for it to finally respond. On the forth time I just got so pissed that I ripped the bios chips out and put them back in, then it worked. I don't think that was the best move but it worked.

Now I have a new problem. I have three HDs. Two of them work (the ones with all my stuff). The third however doesn't work at all, and that's my good drive (7200 / 180 GB). It used to always work, but now I get an error saying "Remove All Media and Disks and then press Enter to Restart". I only get this error when it's in the system and set as the boot drive (master). The drive also does the same thing on two other systems; any suggestions? I have it in FAT32 if that helps at all.

If you want fresh underwear in the morning, take it off the night before.
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EdzUp
22
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Joined: 8th Sep 2002
Location: UK
Posted: 11th Apr 2003 22:36
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It sounds like its either become corrupted or the drive is buggered.

-EdzUp
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