No display? Computer seems to boot when left standing.

Hey all,

I'm a tiny bit stumped as to what might be the problem. I'm attempting to fix a desktop PC for a friend. I received it and was simply told that it wasn't working.

Now,

The machine is running Windows XP. I succeeded on getting it to boot the first time I ran it, which took me to the Windows XP login screen. I waited at the login screen for about a minute, after which it gave a Blue Screen of Death.

It was quite quick, so I'm unsure, but I think the error code ended in 9 or 9c. It looked somewhat like 0x0000009. The display dropped at this point, so I can't confirm much more.

Following this error, I was unable to switch the computer off by pressing or holding the power button. I removed the cable, and tried again. No display.

I tested the power supply from my own computer, which I can confirm works perfectly, and still got zero display. I tried clearing CMOS, nothing.

I tested both RAM (there were two DDR2 1gb sticks), as well as a stick of my own. Nothing, although twice now when fiddling with the RAM combination / slots, I've had the system show the sort of manufacturer logo you get just before / during POST.. but the system stalls there, and rebooting simply results in going back to no display.

Any idea what could be the problem? I've even tried running the system on a wooden table outside of the case at the suggestion of a friend, and starting it with a flathead screwdriver between the power pins. That still results in no display.

Fans and everything are lighting up and spinning, and very interesting to note is that it seems the computer boots properly for a little bit if left standing for awhile. It only lasts a bit, though, and then it is back to booting with no display.

Notes: The computer is running Windows XP and uses a Intel dg31pr desktop board.

Shout if you need to know anything, and thanks in advance for any help!

 

Can you pull the system drive and attach it to your computer as a second drive? If you can, can you then go to the drive letter it was assigned\Windows\minidump and attach the dump as a ZIP archive to your next post?

 

Are you able to boot into safe mode. Have you checked all the connections inside the tower, SATA, IDE etc?

 

I'm not sure whether you think the computer is booting up, but you have no display, or whether the computer fails to boot ?
If the former, ignore the rest of this post.
Leaving the PC for a while and it booting normally while trying to reboot after powering up unsuccessfully results in failure to boot may (I'm not sure) indicate m/b capacitor trouble. Have a look for failed capacitors. (a long shot)

Dumb_Question
23.March.2014