[arabcamel]

I built this computer myself. I have been running it for almost a year now. I was using it today and while I was in Firefox with 4 tabs open, it froze. I turned it off by holding the power button down for 5 seconds. When I tried to turn it back on, it didn't work. When I turn it on, I hear the fans running, the CDrom turns on, I hear the hard drives start to work (although they don't sound as they usually do) and even the video card's fan is running. While all this happens, the monitor still stays off and the computer does not boot. I noticed that the computer does not continue to make sounds as if the hard drive was booting windows, so that indicated to me that it was not a monitor issue.

About 2 days ago, this happened and when I turned my computer off, I unplugged the power to the video cable and turned the computer on and it worked. A message came up telling me that I should check the cable connection to my video card, but windows still opened up. I beleive that must mean I have a built in videocard on my motherboard. Nevertheless, the issue occured after I was able to bypass the Nvidia video card.

Please let me know what I can do to fix this! Thank you.

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sounds like the power supply may have died. It's also possible the video card is bad....

[shard92]

sounds like the power supply may have died. It's also possible the video card is bad....

[arabcamel]

Shard92, how can I determine which one it is?

[shard92]

replace them. if the motherboard has a vga plug built in you can pull the video card and try booting otherwise you would need to replace the power supply to see if that cures your ills... ( that would be cheaper than replacing the video card unless you have one laying around )

[arabcamel]

the fan on my video card works and my motherboard has a green light that turns on. Do either indicate that either piece is okay?

[shard92]

no not neccessarily... I would try the power supply though as that is your most likely canidate....

[illogical]

If it's not posting at all, the 1st suspect would be RAM, followed by the Graphics then the CPU, doesn't appear like a PSU problem.

[arabcamel]

If it's not posting at all, the 1st suspect would be RAM, followed by the Graphics then the CPU, doesn't appear like a PSU problem.

I have an extra stick of memory so I can try that, but would the graphics card not allow the computer to start? Normally, I can hear the hard drives working and starting windows, but with this recent issue, it turns on and there is initial sound of the hard drives, but then that sound goes away and only the fans are on. Would this indicate that it is NOT the graphics card, or am I wrong?

I don't have an extra video card, so if I took out the video card and turned on the computer, would it go through the process of starting windows even without a video card? I can do this and listen to see if it sounds like its loading windows or not.

[shard92]

If it's not posting at all, the 1st suspect would be RAM, followed by the Graphics then the CPU, doesn't appear like a PSU problem.

actually I have seen this many times and it often is the power supply.... then most likely if it is spinning but no video is either the graphics card or the motherboard.... I have rarely seen a memory issue where you wouldn't at least get video....

[shard92]

If it's not posting at all, the 1st suspect would be RAM, followed by the Graphics then the CPU, doesn't appear like a PSU problem.

I have an extra stick of memory so I can try that, but would the graphics card not allow the computer to start? Normally, I can hear the hard drives working and starting windows, but with this recent issue, it turns on and there is initial sound of the hard drives, but then that sound goes away and only the fans are on. Would this indicate that it is NOT the graphics card, or am I wrong?

I don't have an extra video card, so if I took out the video card and turned on the computer, would it go through the process of starting windows even without a video card? I can do this and listen to see if it sounds like its loading windows or not.

Unless it has on-board video, no it would not boot... it may however beep at you... if it doesn't it could be a newer board that doesn't do that or the motherboard could be bad.

[illogical]

If it's not posting at all, the 1st suspect would be RAM, followed by the Graphics then the CPU, doesn't appear like a PSU problem.

actually I have seen this many times and it often is the power supply.... then most likely if it is spinning but no video is either the graphics card or the motherboard.... I have rarely seen a memory issue where you wouldn't at least get video....

All depends on the BIOS post test sequence most common is;

The system
BIOS is what starts the computer
running when you turn it on. The following are the steps that a typical boot sequence involves. Of course this will vary by the manufacturer of your hardware, BIOS
, etc., and especially by what peripherals you have in the PC. Here is what generally happens when you turn on your system power:

1. The internal power supply turns on and initializes. The power supply takes some time until it can generate reliable power for the rest of the computer, and having it turn on prematurely could potentially lead to damage. Therefore, the chipset will generate a reset signal to the processor (the same as if you held the reset button down for a while on your case) until it receives the Power Good signal from the power supply.
2. When the reset button is released, the processor will be ready to start executing. When the processor first starts up, it is suffering from amnesia; there is nothing at all in the memory to execute. Of course processor makers know this will happen, so they pre-program the processor to always look at the same place in the system BIOS ROM for the start of the BIOS boot program. This is normally location FFFF0h, right at the end of the system memory. They put it there so that the size of the ROM can be changed without creating compatibility problems. Since there are only 16 bytes left from there to the end of conventional memory, this location just contains a "jump" instruction telling the processor where to go to find the real BIOS startup program.
3. The BIOS performs the power-on self test (POST). If there are any fatal errors, the boot process stops. POST beep codes can be found in this area of the Troubleshooting Expert.
4. The BIOS looks for the video card. In particular, it looks for the video card's built in BIOS program and runs it. This BIOS is normally found at location C000h in memory. The system BIOS executes the video card BIOS, which initializes the video card. Most modern cards will display information on the screen about the video card. (This is why on a modern PC you usually see something on the screen about the video card before you see the messages from the system BIOS itself).
5. The BIOS then looks for other devices' ROMs to see if any of them have BIOSes. Normally, the IDE/ATA hard disk BIOS will be found at C8000h and executed. If any other device BIOSes are found, they are executed as well.
6. The BIOS displays its startup screen.

So if the system RAM has a problem you get nowhere, from the initial post it appears that all voltages are present so why anyone would suspect the PSU in this scenario beats me, not to say it may not ultimately be a PSU problem but not the 1st place to look.

[arabcamel]

If it's not posting at all, the 1st suspect would be RAM, followed by the Graphics then the CPU, doesn't appear like a PSU problem.

actually I have seen this many times and it often is the power supply.... then most likely if it is spinning but no video is either the graphics card or the motherboard.... I have rarely seen a memory issue where you wouldn't at least get video....

All depends on the BIOS post test sequence most common is;

The system
BIOS is what starts the computer
running when you turn it on. The following are the steps that a typical boot sequence involves. Of course this will vary by the manufacturer of your hardware, BIOS
, etc., and especially by what peripherals you have in the PC. Here is what generally happens when you turn on your system power:

1. The internal power supply turns on and initializes. The power supply takes some time until it can generate reliable power for the rest of the computer, and having it turn on prematurely could potentially lead to damage. Therefore, the chipset will generate a reset signal to the processor (the same as if you held the reset button down for a while on your case) until it receives the Power Good signal from the power supply.
2. When the reset button is released, the processor will be ready to start executing. When the processor first starts up, it is suffering from amnesia; there is nothing at all in the memory to execute. Of course processor makers know this will happen, so they pre-program the processor to always look at the same place in the system BIOS ROM for the start of the BIOS boot program. This is normally location FFFF0h, right at the end of the system memory. They put it there so that the size of the ROM can be changed without creating compatibility problems. Since there are only 16 bytes left from there to the end of conventional memory, this location just contains a "jump" instruction telling the processor where to go to find the real BIOS startup program.
3. The BIOS performs the power-on self test (POST). If there are any fatal errors, the boot process stops. POST beep codes can be found in this area of the Troubleshooting Expert.
4. The BIOS looks for the video card. In particular, it looks for the video card's built in BIOS program and runs it. This BIOS is normally found at location C000h in memory. The system BIOS executes the video card BIOS, which initializes the video card. Most modern cards will display information on the screen about the video card. (This is why on a modern PC you usually see something on the screen about the video card before you see the messages from the system BIOS itself).
5. The BIOS then looks for other devices' ROMs to see if any of them have BIOSes. Normally, the IDE/ATA hard disk BIOS will be found at C8000h and executed. If any other device BIOSes are found, they are executed as well.
6. The BIOS displays its startup screen.

So if the system RAM has a problem you get nowhere, from the initial post it appears that all voltages are present so why anyone would suspect the PSU in this scenario beats me, not to say it may not ultimately be a PSU problem but not the 1st place to look.

So are you recommending that I check the RAM first?

[illogical]

Most Certainly

[arabcamel]

I have replaced the RAM with an extra stick I have. So unless they are both corrupt, that is not the issue. I will try a different stick of RAM anyways, just in case.

I have also bought a brand new Power Supply and tried that and it still didn't work.

I have also bought a brand new video card and tried that and it still didn't work.

I think the next step is to try a different CPU.

Do you think I am right? or should I try somethingn else?

[baula]

apology for not reading all thread above. worth a try to do this method. remove each and every components from the case(ie means mobo also) place the mobo on non metal board or on the books or any kinda paper and now just plug
1. One stick RAM
2. Use inbuild VGA if not use AGP video card
3. Make sure CPU and its fan attached nicely
4. plug monitor's cable back.
5. plug PSU cable

then power on the system. let see what happen?

if u still didn't see any display again remove RAM only and power on
at this time u must heard long beeps....if nothing happen that mean something wrong with ur mobo.

some where u mention that everything work only the monitor did get signal, have u try another monitor?