Help when I turn on my computer it does nothing

[zach334455]

Ok when i turn on my computer it comes on for a cuple seconds and then shuts off and comes back on agin but nothing happens on the screen

i think it might be the ram my motherboard takes ddr400/333 and my ram looks like ecc ram

but when i take the ram out it dose the same thing? so can anyone help?

 

[EXCellR8]

for starters, the motherboard won't work without RAM installed anyways, so that's not really a good test. did the computer recently suffer from a power surge or have you changed any of the hardware recently? lastly, what is the brand and model of the motherboard and power supply, or if you bought the computer at a store what manufacturer/assembler (i.e. Dell, eMach, HP etc...) is it?

 

[zach334455]

no no hardwear canges this is a new custom computer
mother board is fic 915g pentium 4 3.20ghz socket lga775

 

[zach334455]

oh and the power supply is 450w atx matx p

 

[esbo]

no no hardwear canges this is a new custom computer
mother board is fic 915g pentium 4 3.20ghz socket lga775

Has it ever worked?
Sounds like a major error, is it put together correctly?

I would try disassembling and re assembling again with the *absolute* minimum components. It won't cost you anything to do that.

Can you test the power rails with a multimeter?

 

[esbo]

Test what you can, the power supply outputs. then connect that to the mobo and test again.
Not sure what after that, visual inspection of board?

Your ram 'looks like' ecc? Hmmmmmm there is clue there is you are unsure what RAM you have!!

The wrong ram will not work.

 

[zach334455]

the ram is ddr pc3200 and it fits the mobo but i think it is ecc the listing did not give much info
i do know the mobo takes ddr 400/333 sdram support so i will try that and see if it makes a difference

 

[ruready2]

With all due respect, you don't make guesses about the correct ram. Installing the wrong ram will fry your MB quick, fast and in a hurry. In fact, your symptoms describe a fried MB to me. If it were another piece of the hardware more times than not you would get a BSOD. You should disconnect everything except for the basics that are needed e.g... power supply, ram, hdd and graphics. If it still have the issue my guess is the MB. As someone above has already asked,, has it ever worked? After further thought.. might be a graphics issue since you are not getting anything on the monitor.

 

[zach334455]

ok so any sugestions on what i can do to test or fix this

 

[zach334455]

ok if i unplug the 12v atx plug it dosent shut off and on but there is still no picture

 

[ruready2]

Try my first suggestion first. Make sure you have only the basics connected. What device are you unplugging it from? "it dosent shut off and on" does that mean it will stay on or that it will not come on at all?

 

[zach334455]

ok with only the esentials connected i turn it on and it will run for a second and turn back off
then it will turn back on and stay on

when i unplug the 12v atx and turn it on it stays on

nothing happens on the screen during any of this

 

[ruready2]

Are you unplugging the entire plug or just the yellow wire which is the 12v? What device are you unplugging it from? Is the graphics integrated or a card? If it is a card remove it and turn the pc on.

 

[zach334455]

no the 12v plug on the mobo

my graphics are inagrated and i have a card

 

[esbo]

the ram is ddr pc3200 and it fits the mobo but i think it is ecc the listing did not give much info
i do know the mobo takes ddr 400/333 sdram support so i will try that and see if it makes a difference

I have PC3200 and it specifies non-ecc, most of the ram I see when I look for ram for my PC is non-ecc, so I would be highly suspicious you should have non-ecc ram.

 

[esbo]

ok with only the esentials connected i turn it on and it will run for a second and turn back off
then it will turn back on and stay on

when i unplug the 12v atx and turn it on it stays on

nothing happens on the screen during any of this

OK. I am not sure how you managed that but it suggests the problem is on the 12v line, which I think is mainly peripherals, ie drives and stuff.

I don't think the main board ie CPU and memory needs 12v.

What is only essentials? Can you remove drives? You don't need any drives connected to test basic startup stuff. (I think)

OK so it does stay in the second time? That's an improvement isn't it? (but rather confusing?)

 

[zach334455]

ok there are no drives connected (still nothing)

when i turn it on with only the Esentials it will come on for a second then it will turn off then it will come back on and stay on (nothing on the screen)


when i disconnect the 12v atx it just stays on and dose nothing els
(nothing on the screen)

i think i may posibly have the wrong kind of ram witch would explan no video on the screen
but not the rebooting

i do have a cuple questions.

1: would running the computer with no processor hurt the mobo

2: would running the computer with the wrong ram hurt the mobo

i did both of thease just in atempt to test the psu but i was not thinking and left the mobo connected, I ran it with (wrong ram?) and no processor for a time.

3: is there anyone els that has had thease simtoms and knows how to fix it?

 

[zach334455]

ok and the mhz is not spesifid on the ram or the listing i got it from all it says is ddr 2gb
2x1gb ddr sdram looks like low density ram for servers? (high density, low density, what is the difference? i know one is more commonly used in servers and the other desktops, but i dont know, it apears to be ecc and it is not specified? so i ordered the correct ram ddr400 to try should come tommarow. if is not the problem i will keep talking to you smart people who know what you are doing

(i am 13 years old so excuse my bad spelling and grammer . thank you guys for the help.)

 

[esbo]

ok and the mhz is not spesifid on the ram or the listing i got it from all it says is ddr 2gb
2x1gb ddr sdram looks like low density ram for servers? (high density, low density, what is the difference? i know one is more commonly used in servers and the other desktops, but i dont know, it apears to be ecc and it is not specified? so i ordered the correct ram ddr400 to try should come tommarow. if is not the problem i will keep talking to you smart people who know what you are doing

(i am 13 years old so excuse my bad spelling and grammer . thank you guys for the help.)

I don't think running with out a processor in would do any harm, same goes for ram.
No ram and a processor should I think give beeps for a memory fault.
No processor would I imagine do nothing.
I would expect fans are connected directly to power, but I am not 100%.

There is more on the high density thing here but it's rather confusing, the stuff I said about chips on each side does not seem to be right so forget that.
http://www.1ststop.net/

I doubt running without processor or ram is harmful because you are just supplying power to things which will be doing nothing.

I think on mine which is low density it has chips on each side of the memory module
High density may be on both sides, but I have one 256 module which is I think low density (because that is what it uses) which only has chip on one side, but then it is only 256meg not 1 gig.

My RAM is low density, but it is DDR so DDR2 might be different, the cheap RAM for
mine is usually high density but they warn it will only work on a few motherboards.
I would be more concerned if it was high density,but I am not 100%.
However if it worked before with that RAM it should obviously still work.

So it seems it is a bit different with out the 12V supply connected?
However it still does not work, so it would seem it is not just 12V that has a problem.


When I screwed up adding more ram to mine I think at one point the PC hardly
did anything, this was because I had the modlue incorrectly or badly seated.
Other times it gave beeps.
I mean if you were say shorting across any of the data lines the computer would not
do anything (proberly) because it would not even be able to read from the static
memory it uses to boot up because you will have corrupted the data lines.

Anyway good luck, that Paul is a useful person to have helping you!

 

[zach334455]

ok i resived the new ram. unfortunitly that is not the problem

but there is nothing els it could really be besides the mobo

 

[zach334455]

i could be the psu (it seemed to be geting awful hot now that i think about it)

can anyone tell me how to test the psu

 

[esbo]

Do you have a multimeter?
I picked one up for £5-£10, no need to pay much more, handy too have anyway.

Just check the pins on the connectors match the appropriate connectors, ie 12V, 5V and probably 3.5V?

You would probably also want to test it with it connected to your computer so you just need to find a convenient place which supposed to be at those voltages.

Mabe you can stick a probe intot he back of a connector whilst it is connected, so that will show what it is like under load.

Obviously be careful if there is a fault with the PS then you could be dealing with 250 volts!!

So you would expect them to be steady and very close to the stated levels.

PSU's do tend to get hot I expect although there is hot and there is hot, I have no idea what
they should be but they do have fans on for a reason because they expect generate
heat in stepping down the voltage.

I notice all the mini transformers in plugs for say my modem gets pretty hot.

I think typically they lose 20%-25% of the power used in the PSU.

If you have not got a metre it is somewhat more diffficult, so get one if you don't
have one.

Mouse seems to indicate you have 5V, but it could be unstable.

A PS2 also is a 5V connection so strange that does not light up
but maybe the lights are software/hardware controlled.