PC won't start

[Carlito]

PC specs:
System Manufacturer: ECS
BIOS: Default System BIOS
DirectX Version: 10
Operating System: 32Bit Windows7
Motherboard: Elitegroup P4M900T-M2 Supports DDR2 667 up to 4GB
Power Supply Unit: 450Watt
Hard Drive: (C)Seagate 160GB SATA
RAM: 4GB (2x2GB DDR2 800)
Graphics Card: Zotac NVidia GeForce 8600GT; 512MB
Sound: On board
Display: Dell 21.1" wide LCD

Hi all

I've been having this problem now for a few days. I press the power switch on my pc, everything goes on, like the cpu fan, dvd drive, graphics card fan, front panel lights and even the num lock, scroll lock and caps lock lights flash once. Everything happens as would normally happen, except that the screen doesn't go on. Normally there's those numbers that come up showing memory and drive tests before Windows starts. That doesn't happen. The "loading" light on the front panel comes on and stays on for a while and then goes off again, but nothing happens. I wait for the single beep to say that the pc is starting, but nothing. The pc is on, but just doesn't start Windows.

The first time it happened, I turned on the pc by pressing the power switch and nothing happened(at least as desribed above). Then I pressed and held the power switch to turn it off. Pressed power again and it came on. But now it doesn't come on at all.

Is there anyone who might know what could possibly be the problem. Am I supposed to upgrade the mobo or a new power supply? Someone posted a similar problem and a possible solution might be that his/her "card is not seated correctly". I doubt that this is what's happening to me. Please help...

Thanks

 

[Archean]

Have you cleaned out your PC in a while?

Try to POST with minimum hardware, i.e. one stick of RAM, NO HDD and DVD/CD. If that works, attach peripherals one by one and see what happens.

If that doesn't work, take out your graphic card and attach your monitor to onboard vga.

 

[Carlito]

Thanks Archean. I'll try this and let you know of the results.

 

[fiftythebe]

try to strip up your pc, and re-connect components one by one, each time restart your machine to see if the problem will continue, if you are patient and careful you will definitely catch the culprit.

 

[Carlito]

Okay. So there I was. Ready to take the pc apart. I took off the side cover, flipped it on it's side, fiddled with the graphics card and turned on the power.... What? It just went on. Miracle, I tell ya. I asked a friend what he thinks and he says that there might've been some memory stuck somewhere. Caused by static. Or something to that effect. Don't know what that means, so I'm not exactly sure. Perhaps the gpu wasn't seated snuggly. But by less than a millimetre? No. I doubt it. Surely that couldn't have caused the problem, cause it felt fine. Didn't feel out of place or anything. I mean...it was working fine a while ago. In this case, I'm leaning more towards the 'memory stuck' point. The way he explained it made sense. Although, he did also say that the process of elimination, which you guys speak of, would possibly have lead me to the problem component.

So thanks for the help guys.

 

[Leeky]

Sounds like a loose connection, or something to that effect to me.

Never heard of memory being "stuck" before, thats a new one on me! I'd be interested to hear what the experts on here have to say about this though.

 

[Carlito]

Apparently the card stores memory until shut down or restart. Similar to RAM cards and HDD's storing memory. So when you shut down or restart, this memory gets freed up again. Hence a pc being faster after a reboot. Possibly, this memory was not freed up in the correct manner and therefore, my pc wouldn't start. But like I said...it's a bit of a boggle and I'm not saying that this is 100% fact. It's still a mystery to me.