Power, but nothing happens...

slipd · 25 Jan 2012 at 23:45

Hey guys,

I've got a vista machine that isn't used that often but usually gets fired up at least weekly, this week however it won't come on at all... it powers up but there's no post or vga output?! I thought at first it might be the mainboard so I cleared the cmos and replaced the cmos battery - no change.

I haven't really got a clue and this stage although a friend has suggested it might be the power supply, even though we have power

Any ideas?

stulid · 25 Jan 2012 at 23:53

Sounds dumb, but the monitor cable is connected securely?

Can you tell if its even posting just by any beeps or activity?

slipd · 26 Jan 2012 at 00:02

Ha, you made me go and check the obvious

But, no, they're nice and securely fitted.

Apart from the power coming on, lights and fan noise, I get nothing...

stulid · 26 Jan 2012 at 00:03

Re seat everything (RAM, GFX card, cables and connectors)

slipd · 28 Jan 2012 at 19:17

Some progress... after clearing the cmos again and powering up I was greeted with a long post beep - still no vga though. I checked out the beep code and it turns out it was the memory?!

I've swapped the sticks around and the machine booted fine for a couple of days and then today its gone back to how it has been; the computer starts up as normal and you can log on to your account and access what you want for a few seconds/minutes then the screen goes black and reboots!

My next approach is to try the ram sticks on their own :rolleyes:

Am I working along the right lines?

slipd · 10 Feb 2012 at 16:49

Still having major issues with this machine - starting to think it might be terminal...

After having a play around; re-seating things, changing the memory round and even introducing new memory AND a different psu - all known to be working, I'm still having issues

Currently at the point where I would go in and reset the bios to get a post! What else could it be? Could it be the motherboard or cpu? Those two items and the gpu are the only things I've not touched.

Surveyor · 10 Feb 2012 at 17:01

sam.wheale said:
Could it be the motherboard or cpu?

It could be and out of the two it's more likely to be the motherboard.

Curio · 10 Feb 2012 at 19:07

Yeah, almost certainly the motherboard. I'd unplug everything, take the board out, check nothing is shorting anywhere (between the back of the board and the mounting plate of the case, for example) and plug it all in again. I had similar issues once and it turned out a screw had gotten wedged back there :rolleyes:

Once you've ruled that out......new board time.