No Video after "deleting allsorts"

I've got this HP Media center PC that belongs to a friend, in her words...

"i was gonna sell the PC so i deleted everything off it yesterday....." (i tried to find out what, but she does not know what she deleted, although she said she deleted the families usernames aswell as the other unknown stuff)

Again in her words....

"then when i turned it on today it said no signal recieved on the monitor"

**********

I have tried another known good monitor and lead but it still happens, it has a PCI-E Video card but i dont have another PC with a PCIE slot to test it in.

Not to mention i don't think it is hardware failure as what are the odds of that happening at the same time little-miss-knows-nothing decided to savage her OS.



Any ideas, as the only thing i can think of is to buy a new Card and see if it works, and that costs about £30


Q


P.S. Hello everbody

 

Hi Q,

I guess there is no onboard video? Are you using a new monitor or do you hopefully have a CRT?

Maybe try booting from any bootable CD to see if you get anything.

Unplug and pull the battery for a minute or two to clear the CMOS.

 

No onboard video.

i have been using a TFT LCD that is about 3yrs old and also tried another similar aged one, the owners monitor is also an LCD.
I've got a CRT monitor upstairs so ill give that a go (didn't realise ther could be a difference)


Tried booting from Ubuntu and UBCD and it didnt make any difference.


Will also try the CMOS idea now.



Thanks Sach.

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Another thing i have noticed is when you turn the computer on the keyboard lights flash and the PC sounds like it boots windows but the Caps lock & num lock key lights do not respond to pressing the key???

 

I'm not sure about the keyboard, is it USB or PS/2?

 

It is a PS2 keyboard

 

I don't know clearing CMOS is probably the same thing but maybe try booting with no card. Then try again with the card installed.

I can't think of anything else to try. Unless you have a PCI video card and it has a PCI slot.

 

Cleared the CMOS and made no difference
Tried the CRT monitor and it did absolutely nothing... no message like with teh LCD not even a flicker, the lil light went green for about 3 secs then went to amber as if it went to sleep.


I'll try removing the card and rebooting now, and no i aint got a PCI card either

 

No discs other than a standard XP home install disc. but it doesnt boot any disc, and i get the same result with the hard drive removed.

And no recovery partition (250GB)

tried removing and rebooting without the card and no joy.

 

I'm not sure if this is worthwhile to you depends on how many blank CDs you have lying around. I had put together an iso that loads to a DOS environment and starts NTFS4DOS. I added two commands to turn the Caps lock light on and off. I think it would tell you if the PC could get through POST and load a DOS environment and accept keyboard commands. It won't help figure out the display problem but might help you decide if you want to put money into a video card. You have to write it as an image file using imgburn or similar burning software.

Change.iso Typing on will turn your Caps Lock light on typing off will turn the light off.

Boot from CD.
Wait 45 seconds (wait time is necessary for NTFS4DOS EULA to scroll). Type yes <enter>.
Wait 30 seconds (wait time for NTFS4DOS to start). Now type on and verify that the Caps Lock light has turned on and then type off and see that it goes off. (You can repeat as many times as you like)

Eject the CD and Ctrl+Alt+Del to restart.

 

Nice one for the effort sach2 but unfortunately it didn't work.

I reckon im gonna have to take the plunge and get a new card tomorow.


Thanks again mate

Q

 

If you get a chance would you check that Cd in your regular computer. I know it works in my two computers but would like to know if it works for others.

 

It does indeed work with my regular PC, it also works in some older-than-dirt Dell opti.

 

I've just noticed, the vid card has an s-video out, is it worth seeing if that puts anything out (ive never used one before and i havnt got a cable so ill have to go the comp shop)

But if that works, that means the mobo is good (doesn't it?) and it must be the card?

Edit: btw, that disc works in 7 out of 8 comps in here (3PC's & 4 Laptops, onr of which is booting from an old usb CD drive)

 

Oh noes!

Bad news.... i took the Vid card down to the Comp shop today and they tested it for me, and it works

So im thinking it must be the MOBO (unless anyone else has an alternative idea?)


Thanks for the help guys/gals, especially you sach.




Q

 

Let's see...

When you have the HD installed you see/hear activity for a full minute or so like Windows is loading? And/or when you had the CD in you heard it spin up like it was loading? [I just want to make sure you aren't stuck at a BIOS screen asking to set the date]

The keyboard never responds to the num lock or caps lock buttons?

I don't have any ideas yet but want to make sure of the symptoms. What model HP is it?

 

The HDD sounds like it is starting up windows yes. (and boots windows when connected to another PC.)

The CD didn't sound like it tried to read it, but it did sound like it spun it somewhat, although the thing has 3 BIG fans inside it and is quite loud with them, so it is hard to tell for sure, but the drive works connected to another PC.

The keyboard never responds to caps lock or numlock, have left it going for hours to test.

The model is HP Media Center M7425 uk

XP Home edition
250 GB Sata HDD
1GB RAM
2.8Ghz (i think)

http://h10025.www1.hp.com/ewfrf/wc/product?product=1846660&lc=en&cc=be&dlc=nl&lang=nl&cc=be



Thanks, Q

 

I just can't come up with anything except the keyboard is making me wonder if it is going through POST or not. Maybe try booting with no CMOS battery? Some PCs will boot with no battery some will not.

 

There isn't much you can try,you should remove everything from the comp 'including processor' and all fans 'unplug blow out then replace',vid card,mem 'one stick then try the other',CPU and try to boot.

Next thing I'd try is checking all the voltages on the power supply to see if they are stable,if you have a spare PSU try that.

EDIT Usually if the motherboard has gone it won't turn on at all,no fans nothing,also try tapping del. as is booting up,make sure you have some thermal paste handy before removing the CPU.

 

Cheers folks, i've got myself few spare hours, a pack of beers and an empty house

I'll get cracking now and report back soon with the latest.


Q

 

Sorry peeps i never got round to reporting my findings...

I Followed Rikky's last post but went further and completely stripped the MOBO bare, gave everything a good cleaning (pure alchohol and canned air)

Put it all back together and it just worked, kind of wish i had done and tested, step by step so i could be sure what it was, but i'd put my money on the processor (blind hunch)


Thanks once again for the help.


Q