What's wrong with my PC: "No Signal" message.

In early 2002 I prchased a Dell Dimension 4400 PC with specs as follows:
Windows XP Home Edition
1.6Ghz Pentium 4 Processer
256MB DDR RAM
nVidia Geforce 2 MX
40GB HDD
CD/DVD Drive

However in 2005 this PC became infected with a virus which I was unable to remove. I eventually bought a new PC late that year.
In the last few days I have decided to retrieve this PC from the attic, format the hard drive and reinstall windows. At first everything went smootly and I reached about halfway of the windows installation. I then shut down the PC to get some shut-eye. However when I rebooted it the next morning the monitor displayed the message "No Signal". A few days later I returned to my PC and to my delight, it booted to the middle of the XP installation where I had left off. Unfortunately I was forced to reboot because the PC froze. When I rebooted (without touching any hardware) the monitor gave me the same message: "No Signal".
I have sinse established that on the rare occasion that it does boot, I can hear the spinning of a drive (not sure if it is the CD/DVD Drive or The Hard drive) and when it doesn't I hear no drive.

Deos anybody have any ideas as to what may be wrong with my computer?

 

The first things I would suspect are a loose video cable, or possibly, a video card that is coming unseated. Check that the cable is securely attached, and reseat the video card if that doesn't help.

 

Thankyou for your prompt response but I am afraid I have already tried this

 

Just to make sure we're clear:

The machine will boot (with video) intermittently, and other times, it will not do anything?

Or does it boot without video?

Do you get beep codes when you power on the machine?

 

When I get the no signal message I can hear it doing something (although I dont know what) but I can hear no drive spinning. Hope this helps. I dont get any beep codes. When I dont get the message everything appears to work fine.

 

You gotta remember the components you have are old and at this point probably pretty beat. My guess is that since it is sometimes coming on and off that your hard drive is on its last leg and choosing to work sometimes.....I just had a PC die on me with similar symptoms (no signal message, could hear things, everything was spinning) only difference was there was no HD activity, but it still wouldn't even let me get to the bios. I swapped the HD and it was fine/

 

How sure are you that it was a drive you heard running and not a fan?

You don't usually hear Dell drives running, they click and clack sometimes.

If you got no signal on the screen I would venture that the pc is not running, rather than the drive not running. Check through for cobwebs etc, especially in the power supply. A TINY squirt of WD40 on the fans might help. It is quite possible that the storage conditions may have led one or more electrolytic capacitor to deteriorate. These may reform with use.

Take out all pci cards, memory modules, the processor and reseat.
Disconnect and reconnect all power connectors. The wiping action of this manouver displaces oxide films.

If you come to suspect the power supply this Dell probably has nonstandard wiring for the power. Post again before you consider psu replacement or testing.

 

Now that you mention it I'm not sure at all.I just heard something spinning. I will post back when I have tried your suggestions.
Thanks for the help.
I do not think the PSU is at fault because I can hear something running and the light on the front turns on.

 

I was working on a computer with a similar problem and it was a bad power switch. Sometimes it would work fine then other times it would stick and obviously wouldn't boot up. Although you probably would hear something at least starting up then shut back off. Worth a try though.

 

Would this still happen even when i'm trying to boot off the windows cd?

 

Your pc should 'boot' to the bios even without a hard drive. It will not boot to windows setup without a hard drive as setup looks for one it expects to install to.

It's easy enough to separate test the h drive and rest of the system.

Did you do the things I suggested?
Examine the boards carefully. Are there any signs of exudate (gooey stuff) round any of the little cylindrical packages?

A dicky power supply can still show partial operation.

 

I have taken these steps and I continue to get the no signal message. I have established that both my PSU and my fans are in working order.

I have deceided to follow goldfinger7476's suggestion and purchase a new hard drive.
Will any IDE hard drive be compatible with my pc?

 

From the pc age I would expect you need a drive with less than 137 GB as this was the limit for motherboards/Xp at that time.

However, unless you can get it to start to the big blue DELL, with no hard drive attached, you have something more fundamental wrong that needs addressing first. Examine the video connector at both cable and pc very carefully I have seen all sorts of damaged pins and the like preventing output.

 

A further thought.

Quite a few Dells, of that era, used RAMBUS memory.
What does it say on the modules?
Do you have any empty slots?
With RAMBUS you MUST have all slots occupied, either with a functional memory module or a 'dummy' module specially supplied.
If you don't then you will get no video.

 

I will post back 2morrow
thankyou 4 ur help

 

On day 1 I found gooey stuff on the graphics card. Does this mean it has 'died'?



By the way I have deceided not to purchase a HD based on what studiot said.

 

I dont think it is rambus memory because the label of the module has a 'M' with a ring around it on it.

Thanks to everyone for you're help

 

http://www.badcaps.net/ident/

If it looks like these, you will need a new video card.

 

My card shows no of these symtoms (the goo was not beside any cylinderical yolks) but I think a part of the card might be burnt out. I will post photos later.

 

Attached pic of a RAMBUS module taken from a Dell.

Note the double key in the middle and the double sets of contacts with a wide gap in the middle.

 

My memory modules look nothing like that.
Thanks again for your help to date.

In your opinion would the most likely causes for my lack of video be either power related or graphics card related-would they be the two main candidates?

 

For it is written "rejoice that thou hast not the RAMBUS for the RIMM modules are frightfully expensive."

Earlier this year I had a lightning damaged Dell 4550 and 8200. Both had blown motherboards. Once I replaced the motherboards I still could not get video until I also replaced the keyboards, which were also damaged. This is an unusual fault.

Since you Dell was stored and started unreliably I would expect that some component has deteriorated in storage. I highlighted the capacitors because these deteriorate whenever the correct voltage is not maintained across them i.e. when the power is off. Normally they reform (somewhat) when power is applied but the deterioration can be too far gone if left long enough and they then fail completely. This has been a characteristic of electronic equipment since the beginning.

There will be upto 100 of the capacitors spread out over the motherboard, in the powersupply and on any plugged in boards. Any one of these (or more )could have failed with varying seriousness of effect depending upon location.

Memory chips, and modules are not susceptible to storage deterioration, but may fail at the slight electrical overstress that occurs at switchon. The modules do not contain these capacitors.

I normally start with the suggestions about connectors contacts etc because it costs nothing to check and the checks are easy to do.
If you are sure you have done all of these including the processor then the next thing is to test by substitution. If you cant borrow a spare graphics card take the old one to a shop and ask them to test it for you. They will hope to sell a replacement if it is broken so may do it for nothing or take the cost of the test off the price of a replacement. Dell fitted some quite good cards back then, but they cna be had quite cheaply these days.

Good luck

 

This seems to happen a lot with dell monitors. The solution they give is turn off the monitor for at least 15 sec while rebooting. then it should come up ok. Also the last few yearss (dont know about earlier) the supply a seperate cd for monitors. You dont need to install it as such (even with a clean install) but if having problems its worth a try.

(I know nothing but thought i'd give my 2 cents worth anyway)

 

Attatched are two photos of my graphics card. In the area I have circled on the back you will see that one of the dots which are meant to b white is black and has a burnt appearance. This was the source of the gooey substance which I mentioned earlier. This area is directly opposite the thing with the green sticker in area circled on the front. Would this suggest this part of the card has died and I need replacing?

 

Can't really make out anything amiss on the back picture but is there a broken track at the circled dot? The black dot looks more like a soldered connection than a component. I presume you mean grey/silver rather than white. If so it may simply need resoldering to fix. Scrape any covering varnish/goo away first.


The gadget on the front is a silicon chip. If it had suffered heat damage I would have though that the papaer label would shows signs, but it still may have failed.

Sorry I can't be more helpful here.

 

If by broken track you mean is it on one of the black lines then yes.

If there was goo coming out of the silicon chip would that not straight away suggest that it has failed?


Thankyou studiot for your continued Help.

 

Goo doesn't come out of silicon chips - think glass - they just fuse (overheat) spectacularly or die quietly with no outward signs.

By track I mean the strips of metal (they may be disguised by varnish) NOT the plastic gaps between the metal. These provide the connections between the components. The component leads pass through the board and are soldered to the tracks at the circular dots you see all over the board. Or in the case of that joint perhaps not well soldered. The goo would thsn be the residue from the soldering flux used. This melts and disappears with proper soldering.
From the picture it looks like one of these rather than a surface mount microscopic component which has failed. Look at the tiny rectangular packages labelled C174 etc to the left of the circled dot. If one of these has failed repair is uneconomic.