Harddrive crashed?

**Sorry if this isn't the correct forum, but I didn't see a technical support forum**

A few days ago, I was using my PC and as I clicked on my icon to play one of my online games, the screen suddenly went blank. No sound, nothing. I thought something might be wrong with the monitor, but there still should have been sound since the game I was about to play has intro music. After waiting a few minutes, I tried the monitor from my second PC (that currently works fine) and still nothing appears on the screen. The tower was still running, but sounded a little quieter than usual. I held down the power button to turn it off and then restarted. Once again, nothing was being sent to the monitor. The PC made no beeping sounds, and just seemed to run and not go any further. I've had trouble with harddrives crashing in the past, but I've also had trouble with memory sticks going bad. I remember the symptoms of the past problems were exactly like this, but I can't remember which problem had this exact symptom.

I seem to remember that when my harddrive crashed in the past, the PC would still go to a prompt screen, but no further and when the memory stick failed, it was similar to what is happening now. Is there a way for me to diagnose the problem?

 

Have you considered trying a different video card to see if it is that that has failed?

 

welcome to the forum,your in the right place ,read this announcement and post again with the info it requests,if your unsure of what hardware you have, use one of the recommended software programs

http://forums.majorgeeks.com/announcement.php?f=22

describe the problem again in detail,try to recall anything you did different around the time of the crash,also could you explain what happens now when you turn on your computer and what you see on screen if anything

 

Thanks for the welcome. I'm glad I stumbled across this board
Here are my PCs specs:

CPU - 2.8 ghz
RAM - 512 DDR
Hard Drive - Western Digital 80 gig
Operating System - Windows XP
Graphics Card - GeForce FX
Purchased around 2 years ago

I can't really think of anything I was doing differently than normal when it happened. I had just logged on to 'Playonline' (My son and I are FFXI nerds) and clicked the button that normally starts the game. I have a router that splits my cable internet connection and the PC he was using started the game fine and he was able to log on to his character. My screen went completely blank and I heard a faint snapping sound, but it was unclear whether the sound came from my monitor or the tower (sounded more like the sound the monitor makes when I shut down).

When I turn my computer on now, my screen stays blank. When I connect my second monitor, it says 'No Signal' on the screen. The lights on the front of the tower turn on, and the fans startup. It sounds basically like it always did except it's more of a constant soft hum as opposed to the occasional ticks it would previously make when starting up.

 

As yargwel said it sounds like a video card problem,without a picture on the screen its impossible to check anything else,the best course of action would be to test another videocard in there,if this fails you could be looking any mumber of other problems with one or more of the other components,its almost impossible to work out which component is bad without installing it in another machine.

First though try resetting your cmos jumper,your motherboard manual will show you where its located,if your motherboard doesnt have one you will have to remove the cmos battery,for the cmos jumper unplug your comp from the AC,remove the jumper and place in the reset position for 20 secs,"the time isnt really important,but the longer we leave it we know its cleared"then you MUST replace it in the normal position before trying to start your computer,with the cmos battery its just the same unplug from the AC,remove the battery for 20 secs then replace,this will set your bios back to default the fail safe settings for it to boot,periodically touch the case to make sure your body hasnt absorbed any static electricity which can fry components

 

Motherboard = ASUS P4PE/LAN/1394/SATA-UAY

Ok, I reset the CMOS jumper and it didn't seem to help. I still didn't get anything other than the fans when I turned it on. I removed my RAM sticks, Hard Drive and my graphics card and then tried to start it again. What worries me is that there are no beeps at all, it just starts the fans and doesn't seem to do anything else. Does this mean that it's most likely the motherboard? The little green light on the motherboard is lit while the unit is plugged in. If I need to replace the motherboard, what is a good replacement for the one I have, that would most likely be compatible with the processor that worked on the one I have? Is the ASUS P4PE still available anywhere?

 

What I would try is to have the HDD unplugged and the video card removed. Put the RAM in and then boot from a bootable floppy to see (hear) if you get any POST beeps.

If it does make a note of the number of beeps and whether they are short or long or any combination.

You could then try either putting the HDD back but not the video card and seeing if it POSTs or the other way round put the video card back but not the HDD and boot from a floppy.

HTH

 

if ur moniter made the snap noise then it prolly shorted out. my old moniter did taht but caused no damage to my videocard.. yours may have but idk