Problems booting

I've taken it to mind to hook up a spare computer to my television to see how we like using it to stream programs and play movies.

The machine worked fine the last time I used it, maybe a few months ago. The only hardware change has been to exchange the monitor for my TV.

When I give the machine power, it posts but never begins loading windows. I can go into the bios and change settings. Thinking it was possibly a problem with the os installation, I set it to boot from disc- intending to format as there is nothing but a clean install of xp on the drive- but upon restarting, the machine once again posted and then went to a dead black screen; it will not boot to disc or do anything at all after posting.

I'm thinking it's a cpu issue, but before I go off and order a new one I wanted to see if anyone here had any other ides.

Thx!

Asus M3N-HT Deluxe
AMD Athlon 64 x2 2.7ghz
4gb crucial 800mhz
2x nvidia evga 9500gt
40gb ide hdd

 

Have you opened the case and examined the motherboard for any blown (ballooned, i.e. rounded on the top) capacitors (the little soda can looking things sticking up)?

Another thing you can check is for dust collection, especially important areas such as RAM cards, CPU heatsink, and any heatsinks on the motherboard. Use compressed air and a vacuum with hose attachment to remove any dust.

Finally, if all of that checks out, and you are still experiencing issues, you can try removing one of your graphics cards, and if that still doesn't help, try re-seating the RAM.

I'm no expert with your particular problem, but it's obviously not the hard drive since you can't boot from disk... so those are the things I would troubleshoot first.

 

The mobo visually looks fine, all the capacitors are sitting pretty and that is not something I would have thought to look for if you hadn't mentioned it. Dust and stuff I keep cleaned out periodically and in this case gave it a go over before I powered it up from sitting.

I should have mentioned I booted with each stick of ram individually already. I have since removed all peripherals and tried booting with only the cpu and ram getting power to see if it would tell me I was missing a boot drive; nothing.

Since I posted I've realized neither the hdd or rom is showing up in the bios- both are connected by a single ide cable. I swapped out the cable and still no luck. Given that, I'm wondering if the problem might not be the southbridge, though hopefully it's just the ide port on the mobo. I'm borrowing a spare sata drive from a friend tomorrow to test that idea.

Any further consideration is much appreciated!

 

Hmm... yeah, it sounds like you have it narrowed down. That sucks.

 

Might also be a weak or failing power supply.

 

Is there a reliable, safe way to test a psu? I would be happy to invest in whatever was required if so (within reason!) as that would be a pretty handy thing to be able to do.

 

I'm sure there are plenty of good multimeters out on the market.
Get what you pay for, so not something to really skimp on.

 

Ok thanks, I guess I will just have to dig up some info on multimeters and how to use them; I've never had any real experience testing electrical equipment before, but that's a start. Do you have any personal recommendations?

 

No personal preferences.
Only ones I ever used either belonged to the company I worked for, or one I had borrowed.

 

Testing if a PSU gives out the proper voltages is easy but not very revealing as the volts shown on the VMM are not under load. It'll just show if it's working 'til the cows come home. I'm thinling PSU also, how old is it and what make/power?

I've had a machine not boot because I added a second hard drive. If removed then it booted, not much headroom eh?

 

It's a Antec 550W with 2x 20A 12V rails. I guess it's creeping up on 4 years old now that I think about it. Maybe we're on to something here! Be a site easier to switch the psu out and if that's not it I wouldn't mind having an extra sitting around.

 

Well, you should in theory have plenty of power as I have a 2 year old Antec 500W powering my OC'd Q6600 and a pair of 9800GTs but one never knows.