Computer won`t boot, nothing on monitor etc.

[jallenm]

i have a computer from where i work that i am looking at for them but i cant find out whats wrong. one day the monitor showed nothing. i tryed changing monitors nothing. i put that pc card into another computer that i have and it works so its not that. now i noticed i have no light on the motherboard. the cd rom light comes on like its starting and the fan runs but that seems to be all. i get nothing on the screen.

 

[Boogityboo04]

Could the motherboard have come disconnected from the PSU, or just failed?

BTW. Please put a more descriptive title)

 

[jallenm]

Computer Wont boot

i checked the psu connection and it seems ok. i also tried making a boot disk and that didnt work either

 

[Tmagic650]

Can you clear the bios? Unplug the AC power, and take out the CMOS battery for a few minutes. Reinstall the battery and try turning on the PC

 

[jallenm]

i tried that but i dont know how long the battery needs to be out so ill try again and leave it out for 10 min just to make sure its out long enough thanks for ur help. its been down for few weeks and cant figure this one out.

 

[Tmagic650]

5 minutes is usually more than enough time. Is there a CMOS jumper near the battery? If this still doesn't help, the motherboard is probably toast. Make very sure that you unplug the power cord from the computer to the wall plug (AC house current source)

 

[jallenm]

tryed battery not luck

i tryed clearing the bios but had not luck booting..there is a jumper next to the battery... how could i test the motherboard

 

[Tmagic650]

One other thing to do, is to remove all the PCI cards except video if you have one. Pull the CD ROM(s) and floppy cables from the motherboard. All you need is video, cpu, memory and power to POST. No hard drive is even needed...

Note:
if you have a PCI or an AGP video card, these cards can keep a computer from booting or posting if they are bad

 

[jallenm]

i had the power cord unplugged... i will try to remove everything and see if that works if it works that means its one of the cards right? thanks for your help

 

[Tmagic650]

"i will try to remove everything and see if that works if it works that means its one of the cards right?"

Yes! I have seen PCI cards including modems, NICs. and AGP video cards cause NO POST or NO BOOT. Incorrect Bios settings can cause no boot, but that's what the "clearing the CMOS" is supposed to correct

 

[jallenm]

ok i unplugged every thing except the video card and it still didnt boot.. i have tested the video card by putting it in another computer and it works fine... so does that mean the motherboard is messed up and how can i test to make sure before i either buy a new motherboard or new computer?

 

[Tmagic650]

I would say the motherboard is bad... There is nothing more that I can say

 

[jallenm]

is there anyway to test just the motherboard? i guess im just going to have to take it in if not. thanks for all ur help. i wish there were more people willing to help it took me almost 2 weeks just to get anyone to help.

 

[Tmagic650]

I repair a lot of older computers, or to say it in another way, computers that are long out of warranty. The steps we have taken here, are usually all that I do before scrapping a motherboard... Have you swapped out the power supply? Just a thought... Sorry about the delay in replying to your post. This is a big site, and the guys and gals here do there best to answer what they can, as best they can. I just got here myself.

Good luck

 

[jallenm]

i dont have another power supply to put in but i think im goin to have it looked at by someone thanks for all your help when i said it took that long to get help i meant on other sites and other things like chat on yahoo. techspot was very helpfull and i would recommend it to anyone. thanks again for your help.