[spotmaster]

My son went to turn on his comp and it would not boot, the lights flash on the dvd and the cdrom, but won't go any further, there is not even a post beep, I removed his video card and tried it in my machine and it works fine, that is the extent of my knowlege even though I built his machine, I am ignorant when it comes to being able to fix.

Any suggestions would be apprecieated.

I did wonder about the battery on the M/B

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Hi spotmaster...

No beep during POST can mean a bad power supply, a bad processor, or a bad motherboard...among other things. It could be something as simple as a loose power connector, so check your cableing both outside and inside the case. The most common cause of this is the low voltage side of the power supply going out.

Do the fans (power supply and cpu) spin? Can you hear the Hard Drive spin up?

wannabe1

[wannabe1]

Hi spotmaster...

No beep during POST can mean a bad power supply, a bad processor, or a bad motherboard...among other things. It could be something as simple as a loose power connector, so check your cableing both outside and inside the case. The most common cause of this is the low voltage side of the power supply going out.

Do the fans (power supply and cpu) spin? Can you hear the Hard Drive spin up?

wannabe1

[spotmaster]

I plugged in with covers off, all the fans run, I have three, I put my hand on the H/D and cannot feel or hear any movement, in addition I have two lights on the front, one shows green and one is amber, I am assuming the amber one is the H/D, it is on solid and not flickering like it should when the H/D is active.

[wannabe1]

spotmaster...

This does not bode well for the Hard Drive...

You might try a different power connector on the drive (swap one from the cd-rom, perhaps) just to double check, but this is sure sounding like the drive has gone bad.

wannabe1

[spotmaster]

I took the power cable from the CDrom and swapped it, and your right no change, now just to be sure, it was just the power cable that you suggested and not the ribbon cable, correct ?

[wannabe1]

spotmaster...

The ribbon is primarily for data transfer and such, so yes, you changed the correct cable. The actual power to the drive is provided by the power cable from the power supply. It sounds like the power is there, but the drive is not spinning up which still points to a bad hard drive. There is still a possibility that the power supply is not providing the proper voltage, but without being able to check it, it's pretty tough to say. If you have another power supply laying around, you could try swapping that out, but I still lean towards a bad Hard Drive.

wannabe1

[spotmaster]

Unfortunately I don't have another power supply and I also am suspect of the H/D, I want to thank you for taking the time to help me and making the process simple and easy to understand, just one more thing, what do you think about using an external H/D for a replacement and is there a way of transferring the old data from the old drive to the new one or is this something that I would have to take into a shop to have done.

[wannabe1]

spotmaster...

You are more than welcome for the help...

You will be better off in the long run with an internal hard drive...plus they are less expensive. Unfortunately, if the old drive is not spinning, I know of no way to retrieve the data from it other than taking it to a computer forensics specialist...a very spendy proposition.

wannabe1

[spotmaster]

Ok, and thanks again, I am sure that I will have other probs in the future and look forward to the same experience.

Take care