I need some help :(

Goose · 22 Jan 2009 at 10:47

My computer is about 4 or 5 years old but has always been super reliable, never had any problems at all.

I hit the power on button and then went to bathroom while it booted up. I returned to find message on my monitor saying "no input source" or something to that effect. I shut it down, left in a minute then tried again. This time it booted it fine, no problems.

After about 5 minutes thought the screen suddenly went blank with the same error message about no input source. The computer hadn't shutdown or anything though so i turned it off. Now, it wont boot up at all.

It powers on and everying, i can hear the fans going, but it doesn't boot. I cant hear any hard drive activity and there are none of the usual beeps.

I opened the case and tried again and all i could notice was a flashing light on one of my 2 hard drives. I tried unplugging it but still it wouldn't boot. Plugged it back in and unplugged the other hard drive. Still it wouldn't boot (althought the light on the other drive no longer flashed).

Basically, i have no idea whats gone wrong. Could it be the graphics card? Would a faulty graphics card stop the computer from booting?

Any help would be gratefully appreciated.

Thanks.

bobbydigital · 22 Jan 2009 at 10:51

No input source can be any part of your hardware, be it ram/cpu/motherboard/psu which are all required to give an output signal. The fact that it booted a second time time then screen cut off after that makes me think it could possibly be faulty graphics card, so I would try test that first.

Then test psu, also try each stick of ram one by one. Failing that its cpu/motherboard.

khushy · 22 Jan 2009 at 10:56

just a quick check - SWAP the cables on your HDD's - if it starts up now you know its your boot drive thats gone!

khushy

Admiral Huddy · 22 Jan 2009 at 11:00

Yes but you would normally get a POST error?

Make sure the card is securely in place and the power connections are tight.

Can you test the card in another PC?

or get another test card?

Goose · 22 Jan 2009 at 12:42

Thanks guys.

I'm gonna try and borrow another gfx card as i think thats the most likely source of the problem. I'm pretty certain its not a simple case of a loose connection as the PC is never moved.

Admiral Huddy · 28 Jan 2009 at 09:17

Did you get to the bottom of this Goose?

Dave · 17 Jun 2009 at 23:14

I'd like to give this thread a big bump! I'm having an almost identical problem. My power cut out (powercut) and my PC wouldn't load. I reset the CMOS and worked out a couple of problems (GPU fan wouldn't spin -> too much dust!) and it all loads/spins up now, but I get no signal output to the monitor.

Tried my old 6600GT (which I know works - using it in my old PC now to type this!) but that didn't work either. I'm really hoping that it's not a problem with the boot hard drive, but thanking my lucky stars I backed everything up on my external hard drive only a couple of weeks ago!

Would like to know if it was a HDD problem in the end, or if it was solved some other way

Dauthi · 18 Jun 2009 at 01:48

Dave said:
(GPU fan wouldn't spin -> too much dust!)

Never heard of that happening till about 6 months ago but since i've heard card overheating from clogged fans a few times since seem to be on the rise for some reason.

Dave · 18 Jun 2009 at 10:28

Just to give this another bump - the PC now won't even give a GPU output signal even with both hard drives disconnected - what could be wrong? Everything else spins up fine . . .

jas72 · 18 Jun 2009 at 12:36

could be your PSU. If it's gubbed it won't be supplying power to certain parts of your PC.

My PSU went wonky and i started having resets and no output. Put a new PSU in then noticed the capacitors on the motherboard were leaking (not a good sign) the MB failed shortly after.

Did you try another gfx card?

Dave · 18 Jun 2009 at 13:01

jas72 said:
could be your PSU. If it's gubbed it won't be supplying power to certain parts of your PC.

My PSU went wonky and i started having resets and no output. Put a new PSU in then noticed the capacitors on the motherboard were leaking (not a good sign) the MB failed shortly after.

Did you try another gfx card?

Yep - tried my 6600GT which works. (know that as I'm using it now

) Going to try shifting the hard drives across to the old PC this evening to see if they're OK - if they're OK too then I shall put the PSU into the new PC and see if it's the PSU that's gone. (one in the old PC is a 480W Tagan, should be more than enough for the newer PC - C2D/8800GT)

jas72 · 18 Jun 2009 at 13:05

Apparently it's not the wattage that counts but the amps on the rails.

Dave · 18 Jun 2009 at 13:15

jas72 said:
Apparently it's not the wattage that counts but the amps on the rails.

Aye, I checked the Tagan PSU against the 8800GT demands and it's more than enough. Will report back later on this evening when I get around to doing it - can't be bothered to do it now, it's lunch time