Computer Problem

Tiax

I decided to reformat my harddrive to do a fresh install. Booted the computer using a win98 bootdisk (its nicer then the 2000 crap). I delete the drive partitians (one 40gig drive was split into two 20 gig). I then tell it to format C:, flip my monitor off, and go to bed.

Wake up the next morning and it tells me something like:
Format Complete
Error reading A drive
retry, abort, fail.

Nothing works. So I restart my computer and then I got no video, no keyboard lights. The motherboard appears to have power since the light is on and the LED's are on. The CD rom works. If I plug in the blank harddrive I can hear it working. All fans are on. I see no floppy light though nor do I hear the computer boot.

Now, I unplugged my monitor from the computer nad plugged it back in, restarted. The computer and monitor started up but then locked up before getting anywhere. After that i havn't seen the monitor go on or keyboard light up. Ive tried two video cards (gonna put in an old PCI one when I get home in case its a bad AGP slot or something).

Thoughts, ideas, suggestions? Im clueless on what else to try. The harddrive is currently not plugged in but that shouldn' tmatter. The win98 bootdisk "is" the harddrive and its set to boot to floppy first. Also the screen never comes on and I never hear the beep of a booting system (except the one time it booted and froze that i explained above). Im also thinking about trying to manually reset the bios, I believe there is a jumper that'll do it, if not ill pop the battery out and back in.

MonsieurEvil

Are you you 100% sure that there is nothing wrong with *just* that floppy disk (i.e. have you formatted another one with command.com and tried it?). There's always the remote possibility that you formatted A: by accident, for example.

If you reconnect your hard drive and run the setup via the win2000 CD, does the setup routine start properly?

Tiax

No im sure...by the way, it never gets to the A drive.

The monitor shows a yellow light rather then green (no feed), the keyboard doesn't come on. The system doesn't boot. No beep, no display, no bios, no nothing.

Very very strange. I pulled out all harddrives (well, disconnected, didn't actually pull them outta the case), disconnected the CD, disconnected the floppy (power and cables on all of the above). Pulled out the video card, pulled out the ram. So basicly I had a motherboard with power and the LED's were plugged in.

Ran it...nothing. No beep to tell me it booted, no beep to tell me no vid card....nothing. On off, on off, trying reset, nothing. Pulled out the battery for an hour and a half to reset the CMOS, put it back in. Nothing...same thing.

Few hours later I walked by and flipped it on for the heck of it...boom, BEEP. Beep telling me no video. Put the video in and I get the bios, its working fine again. Plug everything in and wah-la. Then I go to set up my harddrive and I found out it was bad (using another computer). Bought a new harddrive, put it in and it seemed to run fine. Was running the harddrives CD setup getting ready to partician the drive and it locks up. Restarted it and now im back to square one. No video, no bios, no boot, no nothing.

Sigh. Im really clueless as to what the heck is going on. Im thinking the motherboard and/or CPU is going bad but it seems odd that it'd suddely work for a few hours then break again.

MonsieurEvil

More likely power supply than motherboard. You can pick up an el cheapo replacement powersupply for $30 usually (and they are usually returnable if that turns out not to be the issue).

Tiax

tried a different powersupply from one of my older computers. Plugged it into the motherboard, harddrive, and CDRom. Flipped it on. The computer beeped a bunch, maybe 5 times in a row, then nothing. Figured it was working and stuck the video card back in....nothing. No startup, no nothing, just like before.

This is really frustrating because I can see no cause. The only thing I can think is the motherboard/cpu are bad, or there is something shorting it. However ive looked the motherboard over 5 times and saw no screws touching anything, i blew the dust off with a can of air (lol, funny that people sell cans of air <!--emo&;)--><img src='http://www.unknownworlds.com/forums/html/emoticons/wink.gif' border='0' style='vertical-align:middle' alt='wink.gif'><!--endemo-->, and pulled every cable out but the power switch and the power to the motherboard.

Still nothing.

Thansal

.....

beeps....

beep code? You wouldn't hapen to remember exactly what the beeps were, would you?

<a href='http://www.computerhope.com/beep.htm' target='_blank'>http://www.computerhope.com/beep.htm</a>

beep code interps for most bioses <!--emo&:)--><img src='http://www.unknownworlds.com/forums/html/emoticons/smile.gif' border='0' style='vertical-align:middle' alt='smile.gif'><!--endemo--> (if you member or can reproduce)

I would sugest doing the only mobo pluged in thing again

Tiax

lol, nice webpage but no I do not remember exactly, it only happened the one time. I want to say 5 short but im not sure, what is process failure? That mean processor? Not a keyboard error so it wasn't 6 beeps.

For the record, it doesn't do anything when I turn it on, no beeps at all. Once again I got it stripped down to nothing though I left the vid card in and one stick of memory. I took the battery out again, ill put it back in when i get home.

Im ready to just bash the thing to pieces with a hammer and go buy a new one.

Its a dual bios board, I wonder if there is a way to manually switch to the second bios.

Tiax

For anyone wondering, it was a bad CPU. Seems odd it'd work and not work at various times if it was bad, but thats what it was.

I now got an AMD 2700 instead of 2400, lol.

Thansal

<!--emo&:)--><img src='http://www.unknownworlds.com/forums/html/emoticons/smile.gif' border='0' style='vertical-align:middle' alt='smile.gif'><!--endemo-->

well, if you have a bad transmition it will sometimes work, same idea. (cept when the transmition randomly dies it is alot worse <!--emo&:p--><img src='http://www.unknownworlds.com/forums/html/emoticons/tounge.gif' border='0' style='vertical-align:middle' alt='tounge.gif'><!--endemo-->)

so, congratz

glad to see you back in the game <!--emo&:)--><img src='http://www.unknownworlds.com/forums/html/emoticons/smile.gif' border='0' style='vertical-align:middle' alt='smile.gif'><!--endemo-->

btw how did you figgure it out?

Tiax

Well considering the computer didn't work when everythign was unplugged I knew it was ether the motherboard, CPU, or power supply.

Tried another power supply and it did the same so I ruled that out. Meant motherboard or Cpu. So I swipped my dads AMD cpu and stuck it in my computer and then it booted up fine.

I had suspected the cpu/motherboard originally until the stupid thing started working again. When it started working the second time and then stopped again it had me looking for a loose cord or a screw or something that could be shorting out.