Dead Machine: Diagnostic advice requested

Hello everyone. My pc is dead. well almost, it's barely a step above a dead hunk of metal, but it's still functionless.

Symptoms:
When powered on, the videocard fan starts up in high gear, as it always does. However it usually slows down and becomes quieter after 3-5 seconds. Now, it doesn't. It stays at top speed forever.

Nothing displays onscreen at all. The monitor states that it has no input signal. Another point of interest is that ejecting the CD tray still functions.

I've tried leaving it for up to an hour to see if it would progress even to the POST screen, but it doesn't.

Before it happened:
Last night I went out and left the machine on, as I often do. It was just sitting on the desktop running little else except an animated screensaver.

When I returned, about 4 hours later, the screen was black. Not in the sense that a black screen was being displayed, but in the sense of that "really black" colour that a monitor only ever shows when it's completely turned off. I thought it might have been in hibernation but no prodding of keys would fix it. I switched it off via the power switch on front, and it hasn't worked since.

It's also worth noting that my chipset fan has been underperforming, and that chipset burnout is a possibility. At startup it usually complained "Your chipset fan fail or speed too low"

What I've tried
-unplugging all SATA and IDE devices. no effect
-replacing the video card. Luckily I had another spare, functional graphics card lying around. The fan is different sounding now, but it still runs permanantly at high speed on startup.

My machine has no onboard video at all, it requires a PCI-e card to output any display signal


I would guess that motherboard failure is the most likely issue here. but I'd request any assistance in eliminating other possible causes before that

system info: recalled from memory:
AMD athlon 3200+ dualcore processor 1.8 Ghz
Nvidia 8800 GTS 512 vid card (now running a radeon X1800 XT)
4 GB DDR 400 ram
corsair CX500 power supply
asus a8n-SLI deluxe motherboard, with underperforming chipset fan

 

Ya, the ASUS A8N series did have an issue with the chipset fan, blah blah, press F1 to continue. I didn't really think it was that bad so for 3 years I ran it almost 24/7, luck of the draw I guess. Then a friend heard about my issue and sent me a fan that he had extra, fixed F1 issue right away. AFAIK, it's still running today.

 

Try unplugging the power cable & press & hold the power button for a few seconds, it will drain the system, then plug it up & hit the power button, anything?

Get a power supply tester & check that out.

I'd pull the RAM too, so it is just a mobo & video card and power it up.

Still no POST?

 

Try a new Mobo Battery as this could be one of the problems.
Nothing displays onscreen at all. The monitor states that it has no input signal

 

not at home just now, will try these things soon.

Is there a possibility of the power supply being the cause? I have three other PSUs that I could test with, but this one is only a few months old, bought on recommendation from a friend, of Corsair's quality.

the battery mentioned, is that a CMOS battery or something different? I'm thinking of the little coin shaped batteries that are about 2.5cm diameter

 

Yes thats the battery I was on about.. seems a bit strange for PSU (Corsair) to go that quick but to make sure I would try another seeing you have a spare available. But I am still thinking on trying new battery and suggestions put by foogoo, Reseat your memory.

 

I'm back home, and good news!
I removed 3/4 of my ram sticks, and it posts!

Going to be spending a while poking at it making sure everything's ok. I haven't actually tested it since last night so it's possible something else entirely was the problem and removing the ram was coincidental, but we shall see. Will post updates later!

 

Hooray!

Following a bit of extra testing, I can thoroughly conclude that the problem is a dead ram stick. One of my four 1GB sticks causes it to never post, in any slot. the others work fine.

I wonder if it's still under warranty. probably not....


Thanks everyone! :wave

 

hello everyone. bumping this thread.

the same problem has occurred again. same pc.
i turned the pc on from hibernation and it showed only black. had to forcibly power it off. it turned back on fine, but froze at the desktop a few minutes after starting up. power off and on again, and it wouldn't start, exact same problem as described in the OP.

The same solution has worked too, i removed a memory stick at random and now it works, i've not had time to thoroughly test whether or not it was the stick or the slot, will soon.

there was also a farther casualty though. my (ps2) keyboard stopped functioning. atm i'm typing from another computer, i brought the keyboard along to test and it works just fine here, so i think something on the mainboard got damaged.

are all signs pointing to motherboard failure now ?