[smoiu]

Hi there, I'm really hoping someone here can offer me some help.

My computer has been running perfectly fine lately, but after returning from work i got back to see both monitors on standby and the computer whiring away as usual. Moving the mouse around did nothing however and pressing the power button did not turn it off. After holding down the power button to manually turn it off i tried turning it back on - the fans powered up, the hard drive light flashed, dvd drive light flashed and the usb mouse turned on and off intermitantly as it always does when booting up,along with the numlock light on the usb keyboard.

Still no sign of life from either monitor however. I tried unplugging one, nothing, tried plugging it into the second graphics card and still nothing. The first thing i tried was unplugging one of the gpu's and rebooting but that made no difference either.

I've tried searching for suggestions and the only solid thing which popped up was to try and reset the motherboard bios. So i took out the cmos battery, waited for 20 minutes before plugging it back in and then booted up with one gpu. Still nothing on the monitor.

There's no indication from the motherboard that it is failing post, it 'sounds' like it is booting up fine, everything apart from the fact neither motherboard sees anything at all. I dont think the motherboard has ever beeped on booting up, but i could be wrong, it's certainly making no noise at all right now apart from the fans/HD. The optical output on the soundcard is also on if that's of any consequence.

I'm at my wits end now and am really hoping someone on here can offer a suggestion, if i had some sort of error message to work with i'd be happier, or if i'd done something that i could undo i'd at least have something to try, but i just don't have a clue what's going on, i can't even see at what point the boot is failing!

system specs (around 14 months old):

Intel® Core™ 2 Duo E6850 Dual Core Processor(3.0GHz,4MB Cache,1333MHz)
Windows Vista™ Home Premium Edition
550W PSU
PCI-Express Mainboard - SLI nForce 650i SLI(C55) - Intel Core 2 Duo/Quad-Core - ATX
4GB DDR2 667MHz Memory -( 4x 1GB )
3x500GB Serial ATA Hard Drive with 16MB Buffer (no raid)
LightScribe Super Format 20x Dual Layer DVD Writer +R/-R/RW/RAM
2 x 512MB nVIDIA GeForce 8800GT - SLi Configuration
24" Iiyama B2403WS LCD Widescreen TFT Monitor + built in speakers
21" Samsung syncmaster
Creative Labs Sound Blaster X-Fi Xtreme Gamer Sound Card (oem)
Creative Inspire A500 - 5.1 Surround Speakers
Logitech Wave USB keyboard
Microsoft Habu mouse
Multi-format Memory Card Reader (matx)

I have no second machine to try any componants in unfortunately.


Thank you very much in advance for any assistance offered, it will be highly appreciated.

Smoiu

[edit] forgot to add, after it has done what it wants to do and the mouse has stabilised withno flickering of its built in led (i assume it gets to the windows log in screen and then stops but could be any step) it instantly switches off after just pressing the power switch, without any pause, shutdown or whatever. in the lead up to that pressing the power button doesn't do anything that i can tell.

Edited by smoiu, 30 March 2009 - 11:43 AM.

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Do you have access to a different monitor?
Need to make sure its not the monitors themselves

[rshaffer61]

Do you have access to a different monitor?
Need to make sure its not the monitors themselves

[smoiu]

Well i have two myself, both act the same way - if they arnt plugged in they say no source, if i plug them in they go black and eventually to standby. Not likely both would go is it? I'll try and use them in my netbook which im on now, will have to try and dig out a VGA cable.

[rshaffer61]

Just want to make sure it's not the monitors.
Actually I have 5 systems running in my house now and yes I have seen monitors go out at the same time.
It's unlikely since they are different brands.
The next issue would be the video cards themselves
Let me know what you find out

[SRX660]

1. Find another monitor to try. This lets you know it is the problem or not.

2. Try one video card in all slots by itself. Windows should revert to non-sli, but you may need to set the BIOS to non-sli.

3. Try another Known good video card.

4.Switch memory modules out and use just one. Check that all memory modules work in the computer seperately without problems.

5. If none of the above works you will probably need a new motherboard.

As a after thought please turn off all power modes except "always on".

SRX660

[smoiu]

The monitors both work with my netbook through VGA, i cant try with HDMI as the netbook doesnt have an output for it.

[rshaffer61]

Thanks SX660... always good to have a second set of eyes look at the problem.
Try as SRX suggested... Option 2

Edited by rshaffer61, 30 March 2009 - 12:15 PM.

[smoiu]

Thanks a lot for the replys guys

1. Find another monitor to try. This lets you know it is the problem or not.
The monitors both work fine with my netbook so i guess i can rule that out?
2. Try one video card in all slots by itself. Windows should revert to non-sli, but you may need to set the BIOS to non-sli.
I've tried each graphics card in each slot, but i can't get to the bios to change anything, it doesn't show a thing
3. Try another Known good video card.

Could be a problem, all i have lying around is a TNT2 I had laptops between this PC and my last. I'm not really sure where i can lay my hands on one either.
4.Switch memory modules out and use just one. Check that all memory modules work in the computer seperately without problems.
Will do now, should have done that earlier!
5. If none of the above works you will probably need a new motherboard.
This is what i guessed, though i wish i knew what on earth happened, and how my machine *seems* to be running fine aside from the non-display!
As a after thought please turn off all power modes except "always on".
Sorry, i'm not sure what you mean here, power modes on the PC or the monitors? I dont think the monitors have power modes and i can't access anything on the pc at all
SRX660

Edited by smoiu, 30 March 2009 - 12:22 PM.

[smoiu]

I tried changing the Ram around, tried one stick in each slot with two different slots, no change. I also tried no sticks of ram, the fans come on but no USB devices show any signs of life and the power button didn't shut down the pc at any point, i needed to hold it down to manually turn it off.

[edit] Oh and i also tried connecting the gpu with a vga cable, as i found one earlier - no difference either

Edited by smoiu, 30 March 2009 - 12:35 PM.

[rshaffer61]

With no ram in it at all you should have gotten system beeps. Are you saying you did not get the beeps?
The only option is to find a video card to use. This will eliminate the possibility of it being both video cards being bad.
If it still does not boot up then as SRX660 said.. it's prob the mb.

Edited by rshaffer61, 30 March 2009 - 12:33 PM.

[smoiu]

No system beeps at all, but i dont ever remember my pc making system beeps. Then again it's the sort of thing you (or rather I ) forget is there unless you're looking for it, and i've never had a problem posting before.

[rshaffer61]

Every system I have ever worked on if the ram is taking out completely the system will beep.
If you are not getting these beeps then I'm sure SRX660 is correct.
The mb seems to be the problem.

[smoiu]

Yeah, it looks like the mobo is the problem to me, I just wish i knew why. Arnt the system beeps meant to sound when something is wrong though? Seems wierd that something is wrong and yet they arnt sounding? I just figured there was no speaker built into the motherboard, i certainly can't see one.

Also i'm confused as to why everything seems to be booting up fine behind the scenes, unless i'm just being optimistic?

[rshaffer61]

Systems beeps are code. For a certain amount of beeps it means a particular problem.
As far as it seems booting you have to understand that hd's, cd\dvd , case, and anything not directly dependent on the mb will bootup. They are powered directed by the power supply.
The things that have to depend on mb are any cards like the video, cpu, ram, sound card
These items are powered directly by the mb.
I hope this answers your questions. Feel free to ask any other questions. I will try to answer as best as I can.

[smoiu]

Yep, i've used the codes to figure out problems in the past, though only on friends computers as i've never had anything this serious happen with my own machine before. I've seen them on led dispays actually on the motherboard before, and it's just been a case of matching up the code to the problem and searching for answers, i just dont understand why i've got no noise at all, if things are powering up in any sort of order (and the fact the mouse turns on when there is ram in there and doesnt when there is nothing) then it shows the motherboard is doing *something* so surely there should be error codes :S i've looked through my mobo manual and there's no mention of them though which is unusual, usually there's a chart of somesort.