[cheesyPeach]

Last night around 6:00 i was running iTunes, Photoshop, Maya 2009, about 3 google chrome windows with about 10 tabs on each, a ton of windows explorer windows, and WMP and VLC media player when i decided i wanted to play starcraft.

i was enjoying a nice TvP on python when my screen froze. At fist i thought starcraft had crashed because my audio was playing as normal. the game music and my itunes music kept playing as normal. i waited for about 10 minutes but my keyboard and mouse were unresponsive. I turned off the power, waited a bit, then turnd it back on.

Now my computer will not even begin to boot. The lights come on, the fans start but my monitor does not receive a signal and my keyboard and mouse do not light up. I tried 3 other working monitors, so that is not the problem.

What should i do now?

Computer:
Dell XPS 420 (stock)
http://www.dell.com/...s...t_420&s=gen

running Windows 7 Ultimate + 2 extra GBs of RAM

[Advertisements]

How old is the system and is there a warranty on it?
It sounds to me like you may have a failed motherboard.

The lights come on, the fans start but my monitor does not receive a signal and my keyboard and mouse do not light up.

What lights come on exactly?
Power
Hard Drive
Cd\DVD Drive

[rshaffer61]

How old is the system and is there a warranty on it?
It sounds to me like you may have a failed motherboard.

The lights come on, the fans start but my monitor does not receive a signal and my keyboard and mouse do not light up.

What lights come on exactly?
Power
Hard Drive
Cd\DVD Drive

[cheesyPeach]

How old is the system and is there a warranty on it?
It sounds to me like you may have a failed motherboard.

The lights come on, the fans start but my monitor does not receive a signal and my keyboard and mouse do not light up.

What lights come on exactly?
Power
Hard Drive
Cd\DVD Drive

wow thanks for the fast reply

sadly there is no warranty, its about 3 or 4 years old. and the lights are light on the front... o.O i dont know what they are called but here is a pic
http://regmedia.co.u...l_xps_420_2.jpg
light 1 3 and 4 turn on but 2 does not.

is there a way i can test the motherboard by taking out the ram or something?

[rshaffer61]

Ok those are the front panel lights which means the motherboard is receiving some kind of power since these are usually connected directly to the motherboard.
This is not a uncommon occurrence with a motherboard going bad.
There is a little testing we can do so let's see what happens.

Disconnect everything from the Motherboard except

• keyboard
• mouse
• video output
• 20+4 powercable
• 4/8 pin 12v wire both coming from the powersupply,
• Cpu fan wire
• power and reset button to the case
• case speaker

Now you should have NOTHING connected to the motherboard except what was listed above.

The goal here is just to test the mobo:

Turn system on and see if it posts now.