General Computer Question

[ExSuSEusr]

Ok guys and gals.... hardware experts I need your help!

Note - this is a non-Linux question...

System: AMD Dual Core 6400, 4 Gigs of Cosair RAM, Gygabyte MB, Seagate HD, XFX 8800GT. Windows XP.

Symptoms. Computer is running. I shut if off and come back a few hours later to fire it up. The lights "come on", the fans fire up... it lives... BUT there is nothing on the monitor. No BIOS, nothing.... I press reset it worked... computer booted up. A couple of days later it happened again. I turned the machine off for the day, came home from work and turned it on.... again the lights came on, the fans fired up... but again the monitor did nothing... no BIOS... no welcome screen nothing but a "signal not detected" message when I turned the monitor off and back on again. So I press the resest button because it worked last time... nothing. Ok, so I unplug it, open the side pannel, pull the vid card out of its express PCI slot and move it to the other slot... nothing. I put it back in its oringal slot and it boots right up... I intended to leave it on this time... because I have classes starting and a lot of what I do is very dependant on Windows aps (yeah yeah I could use Wine... or Cedega I know). We had a power outage in the area and well.... yeah it was off when I got home. Anyway.... for the third time I wouldn't boot.... I mean to say yes as before with the first two times the lights would come on, the fans fired up, but nothing on the monitor... nothing.

Out of pure chance and for no reason whatsoever I decide to unplug the DVD ROM... after I did that it booted right up! I installed a program and went to reboot... and guess what? It did it again. Lights up, fans work, but the monitor stays black.

I've tried everything I can think of. Reseated ALL cables and cards.. tried different ports for the HD... nothing works this time.

I haven't installed anything... I ran full virus scan with AVG... full spyware scan with Spybot.

I have NO idea what the problem is and I really need to get this machine up and running. I can't wait for Best Buy to take 5 days to run a check for 60 bucks when i KNOW it has to be something simple.

The video card drivers ARE up to date....

Does anyone have an idea???

Thank you in advance.

p.s. I do have two monitors and I did hook the second monitor up to it. It didn't work... it too stays black... with no BIOS or anything.

[LookTJ]

Bad video card, or not seated properly

OR

Dying PSU

My opinion.

[cariboo]

I would also suggest the power supply or a bad video card, though it does sound more like a ps problem.

[ExSuSEusr]

I guess it could be the PSU is going bad.

It's only a 750 watt PSU - which I thought would be enough to support everything... maybe not?

And it's Corsair... I've had great luck with their products.

[spiceminesofkessel]

I would lean towards the power supply going bad. If you can, replace the power supply temporarily and see if that fixes the issue. How old is the power supply? How many watts does your power supply provide? Have you upgraded your video card since having this power supply? Your power supply might not be supplying enough juice. I once had a system that did the same thing. Replacing the power supply with one with higher wattage fixed the issue.

One other thing I would suggest is to plug your monitor (either one) into your motherboard's on-board VGA port (assuming it has one) and see if you get the same problem.

[LookTJ]

I guess it could be the PSU is going bad.

It's only a 750 watt PSU - which I thought would be enough to support everything... maybe not?

And it's Corsair... I've had great luck with their products.
How old is it? usually PSUs go bad within 3-5(maybe longer if you're lucky) years depending on the environment.

[spiceminesofkessel]

I just saw your latest post. A 750W power supply should hold up to most systems. However, 750W doesn't prevent failures. :???: Unfortunately.

[ExSuSEusr]

I would lean towards the power supply going bad. If you can, replace the power supply temporarily and see if that fixes the issue. How old is the power supply? How many watts does your power supply provide? Have you upgraded your video card since having this power supply? Your power supply might not be supplying enough juice. I once had a system that did the same thing. Replacing the power supply with one with higher wattage fixed the issue.

One other thing I would suggest is to plug your monitor (either one) into your motherboard's on-board VGA port (assuming it has one) and see if you get the same problem.

It's 750 watts - which the tech rep at XFX told me was more than sufficient to support both the 8800GT and the AMD Ath 6400. I've had this system for about hmmm 8 or 9 months now.... this all just started happening about a week ago..

I do run the card pretty hard though - with Everquest II and EVE Online... but I've been running those games on the same system the entire time.

9 month old system - no changes to it - new problem.

[ExSuSEusr]

So general consensus is the PS... I agree it makes the most sense.

Tomorrow I'll have one over nighted and hook it up.... we'll see how it goes :o

[LookTJ]

It's 750 watts - which the tech rep at XFX told me was more than sufficient to support both the 8800GT and the AMD Ath 6400. I've had this system for about hmmm 8 or 9 months now.... this all just started happening about a week ago..

I do run the card pretty hard though - with Everquest II and EVE Online... but I've been running those games on the same system the entire time.

9 month old system - no changes to it - new problem.
Sometimes things go bad, replace it with a temporary power supply to see if the problem persists.

If it does, might be the video card.

EDIT: XFX is one of the best manufactures..

[ExSuSEusr]

Sometimes things go bad, replace it with a temporary power supply to see if the problem persists.

If it does, might be the video card.

EDIT: XFX is one of the best manufactures..


Thanks for the idea.... sadly... there is no way I can get my hands on a temp PS to test with. Where I live you are lucky if you can find a 500 watt supply on the selves. I'll just buy a new one and keep my fingers crossed - worst case I end up with two and have one as a back up in the event it does fail in the future.

Do recommend any particular brands? I know Corsair is great for RAM, but seemingly, probably not so much for PS units.

[LookTJ]

Thanks for the idea.... sadly... there is no way I can get my hands on a temp PS to test with. Where I live you are lucky if you can find a 500 watt supply on the selves. I'll just buy a new one and keep my fingers crossed - worst case I end up with two and have one as a back up in the event it does fail in the future.

Do recommend any particular brands? I know Corsair is great for RAM, but seemingly, probably not so much for PS units.
Hmm, friends suggest 1. OCZ or 2. Antec or 3. Corsair.

[Dark Aspect]

Do recommend any particular brands? I know Corsair is great for RAM, but seemingly, probably not so much for PS units.

Corsair, Antec, Enermax and Xion are all pretty good, avoid Wintech (Ultra) and coolmax. Corsair is top of the line I think with power supplies.

[LookTJ]

Here's a good one when you get one in the future. http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16817379006

[Dark Aspect]

Here's a good one when you get one in the future. http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16817379006

Nice, I like the modular cables; has good AMPs on the 12v line too which is usually the video card.

[MikeTheC]

Ok, I can sit here and give more and better-detailed step-by-step hardware troubleshooting advice, but before I do, I have some questions for the OP.

1. Do you get any kind of a-typical beeps when you power your system on? Like, say, a short beep and a long beep, or a couple long beeps, or several short beeps, or any kind of combination thereof?

2. Have you disconnected ALL peripherals (except for monitor, keyboard, mouse, ethernet [if applicable] and speakers) and tried power up the system? Peripherals can hang a system during boot, and that includes USB and FireWire hubs, too.

3. You said you've pulled your nVidia video card. Have you tried powering up with it completely disconnected from the system using your on-board video only?

[Riffer]

ok, i can sit here and give more and better-detailed step-by-step hardware troubleshooting advice, but before i do, i have some questions for the op.

1. Do you get any kind of a-typical beeps when you power your system on? Like, say, a short beep and a long beep, or a couple long beeps, or several short beeps, or any kind of combination thereof?

2. Have you disconnected all peripherals (except for monitor, keyboard, mouse, ethernet [if applicable] and speakers) and tried power up the system? Peripherals can hang a system during boot, and that includes usb and firewire hubs, too.

3. You said you've pulled your nvidia video card. Have you tried powering up with it completely disconnected from the system using your on-board video only?

+1

[gn2]

I know Corsair is great for RAM, but seemingly, probably not so much for PS units.

Corsair PSUs are excellent, most of them are made by Seasonic.

Seasonic are simply the best.

As for PSU capacity, the figures are normally the claimed maximum peak and usually bear no relation whatsoever to what output can be sustained over a period of time.

Before you shell out for a new PSU, have you tried changing the cmos battery?