Weird POST problem

[ALienBC]

My awesome OCUK-sourced workhorse PC has failed in a way I can't understand... any clues?

It's built around a Gigabyte P965 DS4.

My other half switched it on the other day (bad karma immediately). It hung on "Memo..." and she just left it there, probably half the day.

I tried a couple of reboots, same problem: it looked like it was beginning the mem check and hanging there.

I followed the usual steps - reseated everything, checked all connections... same result.

Next I tried single RAM sticks, which to do I had to remove the GFX card. When I reassembled and tried to boot, I had no video signal.

With GFX installed and no RAM in at all, it beeps constantly at me as you'd expect. No video signal.

With GFX and RAM installed, it just hangs there... no beep. Still no video signal.

I tried booting with an old GFX card and it screams at me immediately - one long, painfully loud, continuous beep. And no video signal. I shut it down pretty sharpish.

Any ideas? Could it be the PSU? Or am I looking at a dead mobo?


Full specs:

DS4
Conroe 2.4GHz
6GB
460 GTX
Enermax Liberty 620

Thx...
~abc

 

[ALienBC]

I've did clear CMOS, yes.

I can test a few things in my gaming rig, assuming the RAM is compatible... since I now need to use the gaming rig for work, I'm a bit reticent though. Can't afford 2 dead PCs

Also I felt dirty installing Office on it. Hey ho.


/edit... nah, can't check the RAM. DDR2 in the DS4, newer rig DDR3.

 

[ALienBC]

Right... I can't fix it. As far as I can tell, every component is working fine but the system doesn't post (I can make it complain (beeps) about GPU power, or missing RAM, but it doesn't beep for anything else). Fans spin, disks appear active, but no keyboard lights, no video signal, nada.

I guess my old DS4 mobo is dead, then, or possibly the conroe e6600 sat in it. Either way I don't think it's worth finding a replacement on fleabay or something.

The dead system had all of my DAW apps, sound editing tools etc etc, which is going to be a PITA to sort out on a new PC. It's not just a question of data... I need to poke around in the apps to see what plugins etc were installed. So I'd dearly like to get the old OS up and running...

I have a much more modern i5 system. What I'm wondering is:

- if I hook up the disks from the old system to the new, will Win 7 Pro be clever enough to sort out the total mismatch in motherboard drivers - at least enough to get a working windows install so I can poke around and try to recover stuff?

- if somehow that works, what's the best way to go about setting up dual-boot for the old OS and the current OS in my new rig, without borking the new OS? Whenever I've tried adding old OS disks to a PC in the past, it invariably kills off one or both OSs.


Thanking you for any words of wisdom

~abc

(failing all of this I guess I'll just drink too much and buy a new audio PC... but I'd rather recover my old one if humanly possible