Nothing on screen

IggyStooge · 22 Nov 2008 at 18:46

Hello all,

A relatives PC has gone wrong recently and ive been asked to have a look at it :eek:

but im a bit stuck for ideas after trying a few things. Its an aging system - Athlon XP, 512 Ram, 6800GT, 80GB Samsung HD. The problem is that it starts up (there is power to the MOBO [EPOX EP-8KMM3I] cos the CPU fan is spinning) but nothing gets displayed on screen (No BIOS, nothing) The Monitor has been tested on my PC and works fine. I took the HD and Graphics Card to a mates and they work fine also. I tried a different HD in the PC in question and nothing is displayed on screen. I have tried the memory (a stick at a time in different slots). Anyone have an idea what the problem might be please? Anything else I can try? Could the MOBO be broken even if the fan is still working? :confused:

Any advice is much appreciated, Thanks

Iggy

RJC · 22 Nov 2008 at 18:50

It does sound like a faulty motherboard, if the cpu was faulty I would have thought it would display some of the post screen.

The fan may be fed form a different area of the board which is not affected.

Redgie · 22 Nov 2008 at 19:01

As said, the problem area isn't necessarily affecting the fan.

Whats the beep situation like? Do you get the usual A-OK 1 beep on boot?

If everything is working seperately except the board, then theirs your answer! But keep trying, try as many of the components as possible in the same system with another board, if they work, you've got your problem

J.B · 22 Nov 2008 at 22:21

Got to be the board of the CPU as it sounds like you've pretty extensively tested everything else, unfortunatly, these are the hardest to diagnose.
The only thing I could suggest if check if a mate has an old machine that will take this bits. You just need to swap the CPU with one you know works.

Failing that you could just fork out for replacement parts, they arent too expensive these days.

IggyStooge · 23 Nov 2008 at 12:14

Thanks for your advice guys. Its been decided to buy some new parts.

Aiming to keep it pretty cheap (Under £200 - relatives arnt big gamers but do play some)

So far ive come up with this

GIGABYTE GA-MA770-DS3 £70.49 (has ide so i can use the exsisting harddrive (5yr old Spinpoint) and DVD-RW - am i right thinking i can do this?)

Athlon X2 2.2Ghz £29.36

OCZ 2GB Ram £25.84

Also my old 8800 GTS (im gonna get a Radeon 4850 i think)

They have a 400w PSU - will it be enough to power the above? If so Ill get a faster X2 for them.

Thanks

IggyStooge · 23 Nov 2008 at 17:39

Anyone know if the 400w PSU will be sufficient? It is an oldish one, says for pentium 4 on it. Itd be good if itll do the job. Itll need to power a couple of fans and DVD Drive as well as what ive mentioned above. Any advice would be great thanks.

Eatchipz · 23 Nov 2008 at 18:02

I don't think I would risk the PSU! And it wont have the right connections for the graphics card!.

IggyStooge · 23 Nov 2008 at 18:20

Thats unfortunate but I was expecting as much.

How about the Antec Basic 500W PSU or can anyone recommend a more suitable one for under £50?