Right then.

I come home today to a PC that was working fine last night.

When I boot [or attempt to] the PC, It beeps once, as per usual but the monitor is receiving no signal. Once or twice I have managed to get it to boot - to a low resolution screen. [More on this later].

What I have tried:

1. Reseating everything
2. Booting with bare minimum.
3. Resetting CMOS, removing battery.
4. Different graphics card - still blank screen.
5. The other port on the graphics card

When it did boot and I ran windows update - it detected that the card was not installed... tried to install it but when it came to rebooting, it of course wouldn't boot. Fucker.

Downsides, can't get to post screen, bios screen or boot menu.

Any suggestions are most welcome.

specs at the mo

specs wrote:
Operating System
MS Windows 7 32-bit SP1
CPU
AMD Phenom X4 9600 50 °C
Agena 65nm Technology
RAM
4.0GB Dual-Channel DDR2 @ 334MHz 5-5-5-15
Motherboard
ASUSTeK Computer INC. CROSSHAIR (Socket AM2 )
Graphics
SyncMaster @ 1440x900
512MB GeForce 8800 GT (nVidia) 67 °C
Hard Drives
750GB Hitachi Hitachi HDS721075KLA SCSI Disk Device (SCSI)
Optical Drives
TSSTcorp DVD-ROM SH-D163B SCSI CdRom Device
PHILIPS DVDR1628P1 ATA Device
ELBY CLONEDRIVE SCSI CdRom Device
Audio
High Definition Audio Device

Go for the power supply my friend, go for the power supply. Use Ocrams if you need.

You think I'm derf, per chance?

Oh yeah, hah, nice blond moment there.

Not a faulty graphics card, swapped that bitch into my flatmates machine and it worked just fine. Hopefully it is the PSU and not the mobo. Does the fact it beeps mean the mobo is ok?

Not the PSU, fuck.

Ok so current situation is:

1. New PSU - not the problem.
2. New Motherboard (well, second hand) so unlikely to be the problem.
3. Checked hard drive in my flat mates machine, works fine.
4. Took out CPU, cleaned it of thermal paste, re-applied.

On the new motherboard, there is no beep when you turn it on. The speaker is definitely plugged in.
Tried remove the CMOS battery, to no avail.

Haven't switched back to the old MoBo yet (Tired).

Worried that it's the PSU as so far I have swapped everything else out and one way or another had the same problem.

Ideas people?

Symptoms are still that there is no output from the machine. This time, no beep either. When touching the heat sink after about 5 minutes of operation it is hot. Not searingly hot, but hot enough that it is uncomfortable to hold. I don't have any kind of electronic thermometer that I could use to give you a reading; but I really am starting to think that the CPU is kaput.


Cheers.

Could be a lot of stuff. Here's what I would do...

You've eliminated the graphics card, PSU and mobo... that's good.

1. detach every part that doesn't HAVE to be connected. So pull all but 1 stick of RAM, any PCI cards, any CD/DVD-ROMS, all but your primary hard drive, etc. You should basically have mobo, CPU, 1 stick of RAM, graphics card, and primary HD and that's it.
2. Try booting. If it doesn't and you have an extra stick of RAM handy, swap it out. Could be RAM.
3. If it still doesn't boot, switch primary hard drive (including cable).
4. If it still doesn't boot, if you can, switch out your CPU.

if at some point it starts booting, then just slowly start adding your hardware back in again until it stops working.

An alternative is to use your flatmate's PC to test all your components individually. Just make sure it's actually compatible with your RAM, CPU, etc before plugging them in.

I've done the RAM thing but not with the minimum... yet. Will do that later today.

I can't test the CPU as the only other PC here isn't AM2, but will try everything else and post back.

At this point I'd almost say bring it in with a professional tbh. Switching out CPU's is a pain, and even if that's not the problem then it may still be a pain to find it!

Yea, you're entertaining "ridiculously complicated" territory. I've been through it, and it's not a lot of fun. I actually go through it regularly in my job... still not a lot of fun. Not much you can do about it, though.

OK, new processor arrived. Decided to try it in the old mobo first. Now, I'm getting the same symptoms, but with a post beep. However this time, the LCD Poster on the back is working. Is it possible I was double fucked?

The poster freezes on check vram. Tried changing PCI-e slots, nothing. Some googling leads me to believe it's the CMOS chip.

Every once in a while it'll hang on CMOS ERR too.

Not sure if I can get a new CMOS chip for this board, but first I'm gonna try the other graphics card.

If you have hardware failing on your motherboard, it's time to get a new motherboard. No point trying to replace chips... if one part is bad, chances are other parts are too, or will be soon. If your PSU burped up some bad current or something, all kinds of crap on that motherboard (and various other parts ) could all be bad.

I suggest you roll over and buy a new motherboard, preferably something with on-board video and sound so you can eliminate bad hardware easier. Alternately, you could take it to a "professional". They may be idiots, but they'd at least have a stack of known-good equipment to test your gear on.

New motherboard did it. Well, the second one did.

Not at first, but after a few boots everything was ok. Would have been an easy find if I had all the spare parts to begin with - but with all the stuff I ended up buying I have enough (minus the HDD) to build a new PC to sell on.

Why not use them to improve your own PC? Assuming they are newer and thus superior parts.