Nothing displayed on boot + £600 upgrade suggestions

skudzy

skudzy

skudzy

Associate
Joined
16 Sep 2007
Posts
40
Combining the two points in one here as the upgrade might resolve my initial problem. So I've had my build for about 3 years now with no issues until it froze up the other day. Hasn't started up properly since. I press the power button and everything looks and sounds like it's on but absolutely nothing is displayed on the monitors. They look like they don't even get a signal (eg a 'lit' blank display). I've tried a barebones boot with just motherboard and graphics card but still nothing. Also tried resetting cmos. Any thoughts on this? I'm thinking either power supply or graphics card is the problem.

This whole thing has prompted me to start thinking about doing an upgrade as it's been playing on my mind. Below is my current spec (excluding HDD) and I'm looking to spend up to £600. I occasionally play games so want a decent graphics card (1024Mb GDDR5?) but general speed of running things is important to me. What suggestions do you have on improving my spec? What are the weak points?

Very much appreciate any and all help and comments on this.

Current Spec:
Abit IP35-E (Socket 775) PCI-Express DDR2 Motherboard
Antec P182 Super Midi Tower Case - No PSU (Gun Metal Black)
Samsung SH-S203BEBN 20x20 DVD±RW Dual Layer Serial ATA ReWriter (Black)
OCZ 2GB (4 x 1GB) PC2-6400C4 Dual Channel Platinum Revision 2 XTC Series DDR2 (OCZ2P800R22GK)
Intel Core 2 Quad Pro Q6600 "Energy Efficient 95W Edition" 2.40GHz (1066FSB)
Corsair HX 520W ATX2.2 Modular SLI Compliant PSU (CMPSU-520HXUK)
OcUK GeForce 8800 GTS 640MB GDDR3 HDTV/Dual DVI (PCI-Express)
 
Apologies, but just in case this got missed and someone might be able to help me out I'm bumping this the once. Been without a working pc for a week now so hoping for some advice.

Cheers.
 
Do you have a speaker in the case? If so what are the beeps on post. There is a beep code if the graphics card is kaputt. Can you not borrow a PSU to test and rule it out as a cause?
 
Maybe its best to figure out the problem first, have you tried removing RAM leaving only 1 stick in. Trying different sticks
 
Although you could buy this lot and reuse some of your kit, if the PSU is at fault there is enough budget to buy a new one

capturemff.jpg
 
As for boot problems, every motherboard I know has some form of coded system on boot. Either in the form of leds, beeps, or digits.

Also, does your card has onboard graphics? Basically, start with the minimum, move ram into different slots, ect... Could a host of different things, but if it actually boot (fans, starting, hard drives reading, ...), without displaying anything, the GPU like a good guess.
I'd borrow an identical (at least a nvidia) graphics card from someone and try again.
 
most of the motherboards will at least beep, however, for that u'll need to make sure the speaker is plugged in, seems less and less cases are actually coming with one now.

some motherboards do have them built in now, and u can get them seperartly if needed.

but without it, or without a top end motherboard that has other diagnostics on it like the LED's on the DFI's
would make it very difficult to identify the problem.

first thing to do is make sure u have a speaker and that its plugged in, then listen out for what beeps, the pattern of beeps tells you the problem, althou its different depending on the bios type.
 
It would definitely be best to diagnose the problem, then you can reuse more equipment.
You could always buy a new graphics card first, it might fix your problem and if it doesnt then you can use it with a new mobo, cpu, etc
 
Three times my PSU died the computer wouldnt fire up at all (Just happened yesterday too), so im really leaning towards graphics card.. if you say the system is fired up but the monitors arent on. could you borrow a graphics card of somebody, you only need it for a few minutes really. If it works then youll pretty much know what to spend your money on.
 
Thanks for the suggestions. The motherboard has never emitted beeps on start up and there is no indication of LEDs that mean anything. I've tried booting with one stick of RAM and switching it around but still nothing. Unfortunately I don't have spare parts to swap in and out so I might just go ahead and order the upgrade parts. If it doesn't work after fitting the new stuff then it's obviously the power supply and I'll have to replace that as well.
 
I quite like the look of olivier renault's first set. If I need to replace the power supply then I was thinking of the Corsair TX 650W ATX SLi Compliant one (or should I be going for less than 650W?).
 
No 650W would be a good size. The corsair is a good choice.
Maybe olivier renault's 2nd spec would be worth considering as it is rumoured that AMD's next gen of CPU's will be compatible as opposed to the intel spec.

Both are good systems
 
Last edited:
You must log in or register to reply here.
Back
Top Bottom