PC troubles,

[H2O R3LYK_]

Alright, so my Dad and I fix computers as a little side-job and just recently an old friend from school brought his computer over (as well as his old motherboard.) His complaint was that it turned on okay, but his monitor said 'NO SIGNAL' so I automatically assumed it was a video card problem.

Upon closer inspection, I noticed that the 6-pin 12V connector to power the video card wasn't plugged in. So I plugged it in and powered the computer up; Nothing. Still no signal coming from the system. My dad suggested that I remove the motherboard from the tower and just try to run it off the bench, so I did just that: removed the power supply, disconnected the hard drives, etc. With the unit sitting on the bench, I then re-wired the power supply and installed the video card. Again when I powered it up, I didn't get a signal. However we noticed that not only weren't we getting a video signal, but the hard-drive wasn't spinning as it normally should when a computer boots up.

We tried swapping out the RAM, and we've tried another video card on that motherboard only to get the same results.

So with no idea as to what's happening, we swapped out the motherboards and retried it from the beginning. Different motherboard / processor, different RAM, two different video cards, as well as two different power supplies... we can't get either boards to POST or even show anything on the screen.

I'm here to ask if anyone has had similar experiences with their (or someone elses') computer. Hopefully someone can shed some light on this puzzle for us.

Systems:
Asus A8N-SLI Skt. 939 Motherboard w/ AMD Athlon 3800
512Mb DDR RAM

Foxconn M-ATX motherboard /w unknown CPU
512Mb DDR RAM

Hardware that we've swapped between the two to try to get them working:
eVGA 7800GTX
eVGA 8800GT
misc. DDR RAM modules
550W generic brand PSU
680W Apevia PSU

[Woden]

Re: PC troubles,

Almost 2am so sorry if you have mentioned this but ... Have you tried. A different monitor and/or cable

[H2O R3LYK_]

Re: PC troubles,

Almost 2am so sorry if you have mentioned this but ... Have you tried. A different monitor and/or cable

We haven't tried a different monitor/cable, however we don't suspect that it's the problem because we use the same monitor/cable for every computer our 'customers' bring over and it's never failed on us before. Thanks for the suggestion though, I appreciate the reply.

[H2O Raiden]

Re: PC troubles,

I'm confused. You have one system that wont POST, so you swapped everything out in order (good, as you should), and then tried a completely different setup.. ENTIRELY. Like, new everything, minus the hdd?

Was the one you swapped in a known to be working setup, or just one you had laying around? Take a known good setup and hook it up to your monitor, to make sure it isn't the test bed monitor.

Try clearing the CMOS on both motherboards (especially the A8N SLI, considering it is really the only one that matters in this endeavour), and redo every test one by one.

Also, remove the RAM entirely, as well as the GPU, and start the system up. You should get a beep tone. Now put the RAM back in, but not the video card. Start it, see if you get a beep tone of any sort. If you do, put the GPU in, and try starting it. If you still get a beep tone, listen to it, and record it like this: "1 long, 2 short beeps", etc. A8N-SLi's have a beep trouble shooter.


I'm still confused as to why you did a whole new setup with none of the old parts.

[H2O R3LYK_]

Re: PC troubles,

I'm still confused as to why you did a whole new setup with none of the old parts.

I tested the 7800GTX on both systems, because that's what I thought the problem was at first. The whole time I was going on the assumption that it was the video card that was the issue, that is until I tried it on the second motherboard and got the same results. So from that point on, I just swapped parts around to see if I could get it to do anything...

However thanks to the helpful folks on www.overclock.net's forums, the issue has been resolved.

As you (Raiden) and they suggested, I reset the CMOS on the A8N-SLI then tried to boot up with the 7800GTX again. This time the board gave us a "NO CPU DETECTED" warning, so I got to work dismantling the heatsink and CPU. As the processor didn't look damaged, I reapplied some thermal paste to it and the heatsink then reinstalled them onto the board. Another boot, and this time everything seems to be working. I'm currently running some stress tests, to make sure that the processor is still in relatively good condition but aside for the BIOS stating that it's a 5.2Ghz CPU nothing is out of the ordinary.


p.s. the Foxconn motherboard was provided by the customer, he said it was working before, so that's why it was used.

I'm confused.

Happens to me all the time. :P
Also, I apologize for having confused you... I know I didn't write the first post very clearly.

[H2O Raiden]

Re: PC troubles,

Lol. I understand now. And I'm glad to hear you got it sorted (with/without my help :P). And that I was right xD.

If you have future troubles, don't hesitate to come and bug me about it. I know a fair bit about all of this.

[H2O R3LYK_]

Re: PC troubles,

If you have future troubles, don't hesitate to come and bug me about it. I know a fair bit about all of this.

Thanks for the offer. I hope I won't have to cash in on it however... I know quite a bit about computer myself, however this one instance had both my dad and myself stumped. :P

[JoBan]

Re: PC troubles,

My ONLY guess would be that the hard-drive AND the motherboard are both somehow messed up. I mean, you switched everything out and you're still getting a problem. And if the hard-drive isn't spinning up, there has to be problem there, right?

[BWO ChuckNorris]

Re: PC troubles,

Upon closer inspection, I noticed that the 6-pin 12V connector to power the video card wasn't plugged in. So I plugged it in and powered the computer up; Nothing. Still no signal coming from the system. My dad suggested that I remove the motherboard from the tower and just try to run it off the bench, so I did just that: removed the power supply, disconnected the hard drives, etc. With the unit sitting on the bench, I then re-wired the power supply and installed the video card. Again when I powered it up, I didn't get a signal. However we noticed that not only weren't we getting a video signal, but the hard-drive wasn't spinning as it normally should when a computer boots up.

So with no idea as to what's happening, we swapped out the motherboards and retried it from the beginning. Different motherboard / processor, different RAM, two different video cards, as well as two different power supplies... we can't get either boards to POST or even show anything on the screen.

I'm here to ask if anyone has had similar experiences with their (or someone elses') computer. Hopefully someone can shed some light on this puzzle for us.

Hardware that we've swapped between the two to try to get them working:
eVGA 7800GTX
eVGA 8800GT
misc. DDR RAM modules
550W generic brand PSU
680W Apevia PSU

Have you try view it from the BIO?

There could be other factor that could affect this.
Your power supply might be dead, your graphic card might be shot and won't deliver the picture it should be, or your hard drive might be shot.

Like I said there could be other factor that affects your computer. Do a basic diagnosis.

I also notice that you have two different Graphic card that isn't the same brand as it should be. (SLI will not work if you have different brand)