[Carrera23]

Hey Everyone,

I have search all over this site to see if anyone else has a problem like mine. I have found some things to try and nothing works, so I am going to try and put out my story and see if anyone can help.

Three nights ago, my husband's computer just randomly shut off. When he tried to turn it on, he was not able to get it started again. He noticed that the back of the computer felt warmer than normal. He put his desk fan to the back of the computer to try and cool it off and came back to it about an hour or two later. The computer booted up after a few tries and let us know it had over heated, but it was working fine with the desk fan behind it for the rest of the night. (Also had the AC off in the house when this happen and it was getting quite warm, so we turned the AC on too.) To be safe, we decided to power down the computer for the night. The next night, around 10, almost 24 hours after turning it off, it would not come on. The only thing that would happen was the power button on the front of the case would light up and a green light on the motherboard would light up, but no fan no nothing!

Next morning I contacted my father who works and builds computers about the problem. I was thinking it was the power supply dieing. He told me I needed a new heatsink/fan for the processor. So yesterday I went out to get a new one and for more grins and help for the computer, I also bought a new case fan to put on the back of the case. (The old one was probably lucky if it was spinning from being so gunked up for the past 7 years.) I finally had gotten everything installed last night and still... nothing, just the power button light and the green light on the motherboard. I we out again last night and bought a new power supply. Computer finally starts running after flipping the switch. All fans are blowing, all lights, including the light on our graphics card, everything looks peachy-keen! Except that we have nothing on the screen. We have the orange power light on the monitor (like when its asleep) and that is just black on the screen.

I test the monitor out on my computer, monitor works. I have tried plugging in the monitor cord to the second port on the graphics card, nothing. I have tried taking all the RAM out and swapping it around threw the computer, nothing. I do have have extra RAM to test with, unless I take mine out of my computer and try it in my husbands. I have also tried pulling out the graphics card and putting it back in to make sure it was in right, nothing. I also have tried hooking the monitor up to the connection with the graphics card that is in the motherboard, nothing there either.

Also, if it helps, the hard drive light on the front of the computer stays solid, (not blinking at all). And there are no beeps at all when trying to start the computer. So the only thing I can think it is, is either bad motherboard, bad processor, or bad graphics card. Any help would relive this throbbing in my head, lol. Thank a bunch guys!

*EDIT* I guess I should let you know some of the specs that I know off the top of my head.

500W Power Supply
About 2GB of Ram (4 512 Sticks)
Ndiva Geforce 9800 GTX Graphics Card
I dont know the Processor off the top of my head, sorry.

Anything else you need, let me know, I will be sure to try and figure it out for ya.

Edited by Carrera23, 30 June 2010 - 07:47 AM.

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Hello Carrera23 sorry to hear you are having this issue

The name and model of the motherboard would be helpful, info can usually
be found by the CPU and pci slots.
Couple of things to check;
When you replaced the HS & fan did you clean off the old thermal compound
& replace it with a fresh amount and when you tried the onboard gfx port did
you remove the add on gfx card first.

[phillpower2]

Hello Carrera23 sorry to hear you are having this issue

The name and model of the motherboard would be helpful, info can usually
be found by the CPU and pci slots.
Couple of things to check;
When you replaced the HS & fan did you clean off the old thermal compound
& replace it with a fresh amount and when you tried the onboard gfx port did
you remove the add on gfx card first.

[Carrera23]

The Name and Model of the MB is...
Intel LGA775

And yep, I cleaned up the thermal paste before putting it on. I also took out the cards. I felt pretty good when I read that because I had actually already had it out of the computer before I left for the store. I did not know I should that that out first tho.

[phillpower2]

Is there any other information on the MB, the other info is the
CPU details

[Carrera23]

Sorry about that... I got the Canada number, but the number under that has a sticker over it that would be kind of hard to get to at the moment to peal off. But if it helps...

Canada ICES-003 Class B

[phillpower2]

I will have a look and see what I can find with that info,
I was hoping for a name like asrock, asus, gigabyte or similar.
I am looking to find a MB manual so we can look at clearing
the CMOS.
I will post back with an update if I can find anything

[phillpower2]

I can`t find a MB manual using the information provided although that is the name of the MB,
if you look for the manual online yourself be careful, there are some unsafe looking links listed.
Is the computer a custom build or a named brand such as dell or hp,
What I was looking for was how to clear the CMOS (restore MB factory settings)see method below
Please make sure you remove the power cord + take anti static precautions (touch a bare metal
part of the computer case)before doing the following; Press the power on button to dispel any
possible charge left in the system,
If you look at the MB you will see a small silver CR2032 battery, remove this for about 20-30
seconds and then replace it (use a new one if you have one), double check that all connections
are securely in place and for now leave out the add on gfx card, reassemble the computer and
connect the monitor and power up, the hope here is that if the psu went bad that it hasn`t
taken the MB, CPU or memory with it,
Good luck

Edited by phillpower2, 30 June 2010 - 03:36 PM.

[Carrera23]

Thanks for the heads up on some of the sites out there. My computer is a mix, lol. Its a Gateway, but all the RAM, Graphic Card, and now power supply and heatsink/fan are custom. But everything else is still the Gateway stuff from 6 years ago. I will see what I can try and pull off today. Ill update when I try it. Im hoping it did not take any of it either. Because if it did. The computer is out of commission for a little bit longer.

[Carrera23]

Here is an update...

I did not have another battery, but pull the battery out for 30 seconds like you said. Still no dice. Starting to look pretty bleak for this computer. I also took a long shot to see if there way anyways I could use my RAM from my computer to try and see if it was a RAM problem, but it's different kinds, so could not try that. Any other ideas or does it look like next payday I am going to be spending more money? lol

[phillpower2]

Has the dell computer case got a model name or number on it, we may
be able to find the MB information using that info.
Has the CMOS battery ever been replaced as it may be shot, try using
the one out of your own computer for now, they don`t cost much to
replace by the way & always worth having a spare.
Here is a link showing 2 methods for clearing the CMOS;
http://www.spotht.co...clear-cmos.html
I would also recommend trying one stick of memory in each slot until
you have tried each one in every slot.
Here is another link for you to look at for guidance, it is not all
relevant but a lot of it is;
http://www.tomshardw...61145_13_0.html
If none of the above helps I would suggest a barebones set-up outside
of the case

Edited by phillpower2, 01 July 2010 - 04:16 PM.