happy new year crash?

kensuguro · Post by **kensuguro** » Thu Jan 01, 2004 12:55 am

30 minutes to new years, my PC crashes. Or, I had left the room and came back only to find that it's frozen. So, I casually do a reboot. Whatever was wrong with the PC, I don't get the usual post screen. Instead, I get a "no input" error from my monitor. All my HDs seem to spin off fine. And that's as far as the boot process goes. Another strange thing is that the power button stops working, as in I can't shut it down with the "long" power button press. But it starts up fine with the power button.

I'm guessing:
1. I'm out of motherboard's onboard battery (do they still have batteries?)
2. My video card died again

What else would you guess?

Stubbe · Post by **Stubbe** » Thu Jan 01, 2004 3:15 pm

Oups, bad luck, yes your mobo still have its own battery, which might have gone dead.

Since you don't get a POST screen, this might have happened, taking the BIOS with it in the fall. Try replace it, or check you mobo manual, the board often has a possibillity to hard-reset the BIOS to default-values, in case your BIOS got messed up somehow.

That's my 2 cents, hope you get it solved !

Enjoy the new year !

Thomas

Nestor · Post by **Nestor** » Thu Jan 01, 2004 11:39 pm

Sorry about that Ken.

It could also be your MOBO, having an incorrect feeding power to your Video Card. It is perhaps to hight, or it is damaged. I would check this also, because the message could be related to the video card.

spacef · Post by **spacef** » Fri Jan 02, 2004 5:02 am

It happened to me a few times, but then it didn't happen anymore...
mysterious....
Solution : try to switch computer off (mobo switch not the computer "power off" switch) - or unplug the computer - and switch monitor off.
Then, a few minutes later, monitor on, mobo on, computer on.
For unknown reasons, it could work (It may have to do with accumulation of static electricity).
good luck....

[ This Message was edited by: spacef on 2004-01-02 05:12 ]

kensuguro · Post by **kensuguro** » Fri Jan 02, 2004 8:39 am

sheesh! I hate running around trying to fix my PC in a time like this. Anyhow, I've tried replacing the batteries on the mobo with no luck. Well, I guess it was a good chance to change it after all.

It seems to boil down to the video card. There is a slight possibility that the agp slot is doing something strange, as my older video card died recently. I'm going to try using a PCI video card to see what's going on.

So, about agp ports regulating wrong electric currents.. is this known to happen? How would I make sure that it's feeding the wrong voltage, and how would I fix it? I'm using p4t-e with an Asustek radeon 9600xt by the way.

Nestor · Post by **Nestor** » Fri Jan 02, 2004 5:40 pm

Yes indeed, in this moment all we want is to have a rest, very understandable.

To your question:
It is not very common, but a MOBO may eventually have very small variations in power throughput for different reasons. Wrong electric current can be one of the causes to your problem, very small variations in electric power, different to the one specified by the manufacturer, may signify overheat, this is enough for a card to start behaving badly, or even die.

This could be cause also by your power supply, if the “out” power is unstable. You should check your power supply too I think.

I don't know how to test it at home; I don’t think you should nevertheless just in case you brake it. The best you can do is going to the manufacturer directly and explain the problem. I hope you still have some guaranty time left.

astroman · Post by **astroman** » Fri Jan 02, 2004 8:06 pm

Ken, if you look at the AGP connector you see 2 stages of contacts one above the other.
Sometimes, depending on the position of the mobo inside the computercase, only a very small torsion is enough to plug it off and thus producing bad (or dangerous) connections.
I had this frequently with an older case where even heat expansion was enough to produce that effect.

good luck, Tom

Post by **hubird** » Fri Jan 02, 2004 10:55 pm

this is terrible, Ken.
I can't say any usefull.
hope you find a solution soon

kensuguro · Post by **kensuguro** » Sat Jan 03, 2004 2:56 am

I tried a PCI video card with no success. The motherboard's power LED lights up, so it's probably not a powerbox issue (maybe). I'm just guessing that my motherboard died for some reason. If it was anything else, I should get past the CMOS post yeah? I've yet to unplug ALL cards to check if a certain dead card is causing this problem.

I just hope all my data is intact. Oh what the heck, maybe I was due in for an hardware upgrade anyway.

next to nothing · Post by **next to nothing** » Sat Jan 03, 2004 9:34 am

hi there ken.

ok, straight on. im no technichan, and u prolly know everything here, but what the heck

here's a few general things to check.

First of all, do u get any beeps on startup? if u do, u are on your way. there are guides to translate these beeps to whatever the problem is. i know u get beeps if your videocard is malfunctioning. check the manual or gooogle for this.

Second, check your ram. if u have two sticks, remove one, see what happens. if u have any spare ones u know work, try these as well.

btw, u should also do a proper BIOS reset. if that doesnt work either, try another PSU.

Phew, good luck mate!

[ This Message was edited by: piddi on 2004-01-03 09:37 ]

darkrezin · Post by **darkrezin** » Sat Jan 03, 2004 9:50 am

I would suggest unplugging everything from the motherboard (HD cables, PCI cards (except a known working graphics card) and then try powering on. If you still get nothing then it'smost probably the motherboard. It can be the PSU or CPU sometimes in these situations but it is highly unlikely.

peace

kensuguro · Post by **kensuguro** » Sat Jan 03, 2004 10:29 am

thanx dudes. I did try the "unplug everything" test, which didn't work. So, I'm guessing it's either the motherboard, CPU, or PSU. I've yet to check up on these. The strange thing is, I get no beeps at all. (only if I totally unplug the CPU)

But I'm leaning towards renewing everything. I was planning to get one by July anyway. But man, it still sucks cuz I'll have nothing to work on for the next month or so. Not to mension the money it takes for a full upgrade!

[ This Message was edited by: kensuguro on 2004-01-03 10:30 ]

Nestor · Post by **Nestor** » Sat Jan 03, 2004 4:55 pm

There it seems to be your MOBO... Another good idea is to get your MOBO to a friend's place, trying it with a differnet system, if it doesn't work there, you are absolutely sure it is your mother board which has failed.

Stubbe · Post by **Stubbe** » Sun Jan 04, 2004 4:09 pm

Hi Ken, since you have everything out which is not vital to boot anyway, try resetting your BIOS, usually something about moving a jumper from one position to another, wait 1 minute and then move it back.

Also, I hope you were careful not to touch the gold contacts on the graphics card, this is known to cause some strange behaviour as the fingergrease generates a bad connection over some time.

Also, I don't know if this goes for your mobo, but my manual states, that if there is no beep at all under a non-successfull boot, it's the CPU (or RAM?) that's not available at the moment.

Hope you get it sorted

Cheer up !

Thomas

King of Snake · Post by **King of Snake** » Wed Jan 14, 2004 11:02 am

Don't you just hate this stuff?

I've had a similar sort of thing happening a while ago and it turned out my videocard had died (I'm never buying from those budget manufacturers again!).
I think in this case the only way to check is to switch the mobo with another, and look in your mobo manual what "no beeps" means. It could be faulty CPU or RAM as well.