HELP bst m8's fudged his comp!!!

Solouko · 10 Apr 2006 at 17:16

GUYS HELP!!

My best friend has messed up his computer, he’s installed a new SATA drive in his comp (this is his second SATA Drive) and used it with the intension of replacing his IDE drive.

Anyway, he powered the drive (which had a MOLEX connector instead of a SATA power cable) with the same cable that went to his ATI X700 graphics card (which had a ploppy drive power connector on it). Anyway, now his monitor will not come on when he switches the computer on, he just get’s the ‘no signal’ message. He’s tried taking the drive out, he’s tried swapping the graphics card for a Gforce 4 that doesn’t require aux power from the PSU and he’s also tried every cable connection he can imaging, any idea what the hell he’s done wrong and how he can fix it?

all drives were installed on raid 0

processor is some kind of P4

xirokx · 10 Apr 2006 at 17:21

could have killed the mobo?

Dark_Angel · 10 Apr 2006 at 17:22

Has he tried to reset the CMOS?

Also does the CPU fans and everything else turn? he could possibly try to reseat his CPU I suppose, and MAKE SURE to check the ram is seated right.

Solouko · 10 Apr 2006 at 17:31

Dark_Angel said:
Has he tried to reset the CMOS?

Also does the CPU fans and everything else turn? he could possibly try to reseat his CPU I suppose, and MAKE SURE to check the ram is seated right.

i think he has tried to reset the CEMOS but yes all the fans and s sturf come on, everything springs into life except the monitor, and he's checked every connection too

bbreezeuk · 10 Apr 2006 at 17:46

try running the HDD off a diferent power line thats not connected to the graphics card if you get what i mean

Ultra_Extreme · 10 Apr 2006 at 17:49

id say mobo's dead m8. As stated, check RAM and CPU seating first but sounds like classic mobo death to me. As a last resort take the board out, safely seat it on an antistatic bag, use 1 stick of RAM (preferably from another comp) and a GFX card that DEFINATELY works and power these up with a PSU (again preferably from another comp)

This is pretty much the bare minimum for testing and if it still doesnt come up its quids in for a new board im afraid.

PS if it does turn out to be the mobo tell your M8 not to skimp on the PSU next time.

bbreezeuk · 10 Apr 2006 at 17:53

his mobo surly cannoted be borked if the fans and stuff still power up, try taking out the new drive and see if it works how he had his comp before without any new parts

L_D · 10 Apr 2006 at 18:07

try another monitor.

Does he get the beep at startup to indicate that the power on self test has completed successfully?

Defcon5 · 10 Apr 2006 at 19:01

What make is the psu? I hope it doesnt start with Q and end in Tec!

What was the drive that he tried to install?

WJA96 · 10 Apr 2006 at 19:05

You really need a PCI VGA card to test the board with.

Brizzles · 10 Apr 2006 at 19:52

" (which had a ploppy drive power connector on it)"

I'm worried about that drive , have you tried cleaning it ?

:eek:

acharris · 10 Apr 2006 at 19:58

bbreezeuk said:
his mobo surly cannoted be borked if the fans and stuff still power up, try taking out the new drive and see if it works how he had his comp before without any new parts

Yes, all the fans and drives will still power up and come to life as they are powered from the PSU via the molex connectors, and the board is always recieving power from the PSU when turned on as long as the PSU ain't totally dead, as that what lights the led's and also fans, and led's only require a small amout of power light.

HD don't give errors like that, it is usually no boot or not seen by the bios a dead drive.

Anthony

Solouko · 10 Apr 2006 at 20:02

WJA96 said:
You really need a PCI VGA card to test the board with.

done that.. done everything, changed the graphics car, psu even tried running it bare minimum.. nothing

even tried 2 different PC speakers because the boards just not made ANY noise...

i mean if you take the ram out and well everything out and power a mobo you get warning bleeps.. but nothing, so its pretty much a cirtanty the mobo has gone to the silicon beyonde

the mobo is Gigabyte btw... who i think are the worst mobo manufacturer EVER... as i've had this peice of crap *kicks computer * for 3 years.. and i've had nothing but greif ;__; both this and my mum's computer are both Gigabyte mobos and oh my god their cheppness shines through! *ends rant*

anyone know where my m8 can get a 748 P4 mobo from ASAP... when i mean ASAP i mean by tomorrow morning, he's got a website to run and he's loosing money without his comp (about £40 a day)

Booner! · 10 Apr 2006 at 20:32

just had the same problem... bought £300+ of stuff for an old 478 system and the thing all starts up and everything works/spins... though the monitor says "no input" but i have used onboard VGA and X800 GTO card, the MOBO is old and the CPU is old , but everything else is hand picked and should work fine, but yeh having same problem and need solution.. gonna have to buy board by sounds of it

realscot · 10 Apr 2006 at 20:54

i'd say board too

When I upgraded my brother in laws 478 celly to a new board that had an agp slot... yes the crappy pcw one didn't even have an agp slot!... all i got was the black screen. I tried everything too, including testing the brand new agp card in another machine (it worked fine in there) RMA'd the new MSI board and they tested it and found it faulty and sent me a new one. New board in, job sorted.

If he's that desperate tell him to go to every one of his local computer shops someone must have a 478 board lying about, failing that if he's loosing £40 a day surely u can get a new board and processor for under £100 locally. Granted you won't be getting much bang for your buck, but it'll get him back online.
I think your m8 has learned a lesson today, if you have an online business or rely on being able to access the internet for your job, always have a backup!! even if it is an old K6 or P3 or even older, it'll still get u online!

jellybeard999 · 10 Apr 2006 at 21:03

dead bios mate

try a hotflash, changing the battery, and if it comes down to it, order a pre flashed bios chip

Solouko · 10 Apr 2006 at 22:07

jellybeard999 said:
dead bios mate

try a hotflash, changing the battery, and if it comes down to it, order a pre flashed bios chip

how the hell can you flash the bios? he cant even get a picture on the screen :confused:

and the bios chip doesn't even come out on his mobo which is very stupid and unusual <_<

Booner! · 10 Apr 2006 at 22:48

yeh i cant see anything on screen, or hear bleeps, thats whats wierd about this situation :rolleyes:

monkeypants · 11 Apr 2006 at 00:00

Is the 4-pin power connector plugged into the board? That's what gets me a lot of the time. :rolleyes:

jellybeard999 · 11 Apr 2006 at 03:07

Solouko said:
how the hell can you flash the bios? he cant even get a picture on the screen

and the bios chip doesn't even come out on his mobo which is very stupid and unusual <_<

thats why i said HOTflash :rolleyes:

http://www.wimsbios.com/HTML1/faq.html#q9

Note: I'm not responsible for any damage this method may do to you or your computer !

Replace the corrupt chip by a working one. The best option is to take the working BIOS chip from a motherboard which has the same chipset although that's not absolutely necessary. It just has to give you a chance of booting into DOS. Before pulling the working BIOS chip out of it's original motherboard, set the System BIOS cacheable option in the BIOS to enabled.
After you have put the working BIOS in the motherboard with the corrupt BIOS boot the system to DOS (with a floppy or HD).
Now replace (while the computer is powered on) the working BIOS chip with the corrupt one.
Flash an appropriate BIOS to the corrupt BIOS and reboot.