Black screen after POST, sometimes 'No keyboard detected'

[danza]

Hi all,

My basic spec is as follows:

-Vista
-Asus P5K-VM
-E6850 @ stock 3ghz
-Geil Ultra 4gb PC6400 @ stock
-8800GT @ stock

A short while ago, the power switch became dislodged in my Antec 300, and would jam on. This means that unless it's pressed carefully, the switch jams, the PC powers on, gets to the end of POST and switches off immediately after. Upon re-powering on, it goes through POST and comes up with the message 'Overclocking failed' or somesuch thing. I then have to enter and exit the BIOS making no changes and it carries on as normal.

Until Saturday. The wife jammed the switch by accident, and it did the whole switching off after POST. She left it switched off and used the laptop instead. When I came to use it I switched it on, and it went through post to stay locked on a black screen before the Vista progress bar appears. I left it for 10 minutes or so, and nothing happened, so I reset the PC, and it was fine at the next boot attempt.

However, it appears to be getting flakier and flakier, and hanging at the black screen at the same point more frequently. Sometimes it throws the message up that there's no keyboard detected, and again I must reset.

It always gets into Windows if the progress bar appears. Could it be that my motherboard is on it's last legs?

Any thoughts?

 

[Admiral Huddy]

Not necessarily.

I would check your memory first using the Memtest86+ to verify your memory is functioning correctly or you could just try testing your system with just one stick of RAM (assuming you are using more thasn one stick) trying different slots and so forth.

If the RAM fails in on slot but not another, then it's either a faulty Slot (mobo) or memory controller. If the same RAM fails in both slots, but the other stick is fine, then you have found a faulty stick of RAM.. You see whee I'm going here yeah?

Next, check your PSU. You can follow my guide here
http://www.huddysworld.co.uk/index....rking&catid=40:techie-talk-hardware&Itemid=72

Next HDD, run a CHKDSK /r from a command line - CHKDSK checks disk volumes for problems and attempts to repair any sectors and/or system files that it finds

Lastly, check the manufacturer of your HDD and download the Disk Diagnostic software from the manufacturers website. All of the top manufacturers have one. These are normally bootable CDS. Run a disk scan to verify your HDD.

Once you've eliminated the above, you can start pointing at the motherboard.

 

[danza]

Forgot about this thread!

Thanks for the reply Huddy. Strangely, ever since I posted on here about the issue, it hasn't done it again (10 or so boots with no issue).

I'm going to let the sleeping dog lie for now, but will definitely go down your suggested root if it goes mad again.

Cheers.

 

[danza]

Started getting black screens again recently. Now becoming more and more frequent. I'm going to have to do some testing now as I can't be without my PC!