[DarkMystic122]

Hi there Im new to this place excuse me if Im not good at explaining here's my problem, I turn on my computer and the only thing that seems to turn on is the fans over the cpu. The other drives and motherboard dont seem to be turning on themselves although the lights that let me know the computer power is on and the light that tells me the hard drive is being read is also on but that one is on all the time. On the Monitor the screen continues to be blank there is no BIOS that that comes up on the screen when I start up the computer. Nor do the Cd-Rom or DVD-Rom drives eject when I hit the eject button. Does this mean that some of the wires in my Power Supply Unit may be damaged and that I need to get a new one? Or is there another problem here? I made sure that all the cables in the back of the computer are connected properly and none of the wires within the tower has been tampered with. Thanks for the help if anyone can answer this for me.

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Has this just happened all of a sudden?
Has anything changed (ie hardware added, removed etc) before this problem occured?
Also, do you hear any beeps after you turn the system on?

[Samm]

Has this just happened all of a sudden?
Has anything changed (ie hardware added, removed etc) before this problem occured?
Also, do you hear any beeps after you turn the system on?

[DarkMystic122]

Yea this recently just happened all of a sudden. The only thing I did before ( 3 days before) this happened was I just dusted the computer inside and out with a soft bristle brush. I tried to dust out the fan in the Power Supply Unit and I thought that might have contributed to the problem. Even as I did the inside of the tower all I dusted was just the spaced between the slots and the voids where there was no hardware. And I didnt move any of the wires or cables while doing so.

[Samm]

Its not clear from your post but did you actually open the psu up to dust the fan?
Was this a synthetic brush you used?
Also, I still need to know if you hear any beeps after you power on.

[DarkMystic122]

Sorry Im not good with descriptions sometimes but I didnt open the the power supply unit to do so I wen from the outside of the fan grill outside of the PSU box and brushed outward to bring the dust out. And when I turn the computer on there are no beeps. And the brush is synthetic.

Edited by DarkMystic122, 17 May 2005 - 01:31 PM.

[Samm]

OK, good that you didn't open the psu up at least. A synthetic brush is not a good idea however due to the static that builds up in them. Static & computers don't go together well as I'm sure you know. For future reference, you should use canned air to dust the inside of a computer.

Anyway, on to the immediate problem.
I want you to try a few things (I suggest you wear a static strap before doing this) :

1. Disconnect the power lead from computer & then disconnect the internal power connector (20 pin ATX connector) that goes to the motherboard.

2. Remove all PCI cards from the system leaving only the video card in place. (make a note of what cards go in which slots though, so you can replace them later in the same order)

3. Disconnect all drive cabling at the motherboard (ie hard drive, optical drives, floppy drive). Leave the cables connected to the drives themselves though if you wish. Unplug the power lead to the hard drive but leave power connected to the optical drives.

4. Disconnect all external devices except for the keyboard & monitor.

5. Locate the Clear CMOS jumper & set it to clear for approx 10 seconds. If you don't know how to do this, tell me & I'll explain.

6. Reconnect the internal power to the motherboard & then reconnect the PSU's external power lead.

Try to boot the system again.

[DarkMystic122]

On step #5 I do need an explanation Im not sure of how to do that step.

[Samm]

Clearing the bios :

First you need to locate the clear cmos jumper on the motherboard - if you have the motherboard manual handy then you can look it up in there. Otherwise I tell you how to locate it without that :

1. The motherboard should be relatively free from obstruction by now as you will have unplugged all the drive cabling from it by this stage. Look for the bios battery - this will be a small silver disc shaped battery that is mounted on the motherboard.
The jumper you want should be the one closest to this battery. It will consist of 3 pins but two will be covered by the plastic jumper cap. It is usually labelled something like CLR_CMOS or CL_RTC etc. The keyword to look for will be either cmos, bios or RTC (real time clock). Occasionally its refered to as CLR_PSWD (password).

If you have more than one jumper header near the battery & you can't figure out which one is which, let me know what each are labelled & I'll tell you the right one.

2. Once you have found it, you will see that the jumper is placed over pins 1+2
eg
[ . . ].
1 2 3
If the pins aren't marked with a number, don't worry just assume that the jumpered pins are 1+2.
Reposition the jumper so that it covers pins 2+3 instead. Leave it like this for 10 seconds or so then return it to it's original position (pins 1+2).

[DarkMystic122]

Ok I followed through on what you said I cleared BIOS and then hooked the video card back into place then put the internal motherboard back into place then I placed the external power lead. I turned it on and the problem is still there. There's still nothing showing up on the screen. I hooked up the power to one of the cd drives and pressed the eject button on them and they still wont eject. So what shall I do now?

Edited by DarkMystic122, 19 May 2005 - 10:45 AM.

[Samm]

Does the CPU fan turn?
Do the keyboard lights flash up quickly after powering on?
Are there any beeps?
When you pressed the eject button on the CDROM, did the light on the front of it come on?

[DarkMystic122]

The CPU fan turns on. The lights on the keyboard do not turn on. The light on the CD drive does not turn on when I pressed the eject button. There are no beeps as well.

[Samm]

Ok, next I want to remove all the RAM modules from the system.
Then boot it up again. You should hear lots of beeps (Make sure the system speaker is connected obviously).
If you don't hear any beeps, remove the video card as well, then power up the system. Again check for beeps.

Let me know if you hear any.

Also, let me know what the exact make & model of your motherboard so I can look it up.
Do you happen to have another power supply you test the system with as well?

[DarkMystic122]

I will remove the Ram Modules and video card thing tonight tonight, unfortunately I dont know the make of the motherboard unfortunately. If you need the specs of it or a pic of it I can do that if it helps. The motherboard was bought back in 1999 and installed by a friend is all I know of. Back then I wasn't computer savvy.

[Samm]

A picture of it, if it gives a clear birdseye view of the board, should be fine. Otherwise the specs will do, or both.

[nixx]

Might as well give the processer too if you know it. There should be several power cords coming out of the psu that look thike this:
[. . . .] (4 to 6 of these connect to optical devices and hd)
[: : : : : : : : : : :]or[: : : : : : : : : : :] (main mb power, both work)
[....] (connects to floppy)
[: :] (atx power for pentium 4 and higher end AMDs. connects to mb under cpu)
[: : : :] (like the 4 pin atx, but for bigger P4s)
[----] (auxilary power for some MBs)

make sure if there is a slot for it, its plugged in firmly.
make sure the psu is also at least 350wts

Nixx