Startup Problem

powerfulsquid · Post by **powerfulsquid** » Sat Dec 01, 2001 7:34 pm

OK, here's the deal. My friend's computer has been crap lately. The newest problem is, well..the computer won't startup. All the cables are in right, the power is on and the cd-rom loads up but the monitor stays black. He has a geforce 2 and we tried putting the monitor on that and the built in VGA port. His harddrvie also does not start up and all the right IDE cables and power cables are connected. We are totally clueless, we've been trying to get it working for about 3 hours now. Any help would be great.

Joe · Post by **Joe** » Sat Dec 01, 2001 7:37 pm

What was the last major thing you did to the pc software or hardware before it stopped booting?

Does the bios load>? Does it post/??

I would take everything out you dont need such as a floppy, cd drives, sound, nic, etc and try to boot.. put them back in one by one if it works..

powerfulsquid · Post by **powerfulsquid** » Sat Dec 01, 2001 7:41 pm

I should have also mentioned that he formatted before it stopped working because Win98 was giving him an error and we reinstalled it and still gave him the same error so we tried different utilities from DOS but then all of a sudden, it just stopped working when we restarted it. He also has a 500mhz AMD K6-2 processor.

Also, the BIOS does not load. Nothing loads at all. The computer light to tell you it's on turns on but then the monitor just stays black.

Joe · Post by **Joe** » Sat Dec 01, 2001 7:47 pm

clear the cmos and try it...

Also see if you can try another psu? What utility were you using before it stopped working?

powerfulsquid · Post by **powerfulsquid** » Sat Dec 01, 2001 7:49 pm

PSU?

I was using FDISK to try and fix the Win98 error that he kept getting when it loaded up. That was mainly the only utility I used.

m4a2t0t · Post by **m4a2t0t** » Sat Dec 01, 2001 8:04 pm

PSU-power supply

what kinda error u getting-blue screen o death
do u remember what it said

powerfulsquid · Post by **powerfulsquid** » Sat Dec 01, 2001 8:56 pm

The error wasn't a BSOD, it was before Win98 even loaded. I forgot exactly what the error was but I don't believe it has anything to do with the hardware because I searched for a solution and what I had found was that there was something within the Windows directory that was missing so it was actually a software problem, I think. I don't believe he will be able to try another power supply.

My friend also lost hte motherboard's manual so we do not know where the jumper is to reset the CMOS. We also do not know the brand of the motherboard to find the manual online.

64bit · Post by **64bit** » Sat Dec 01, 2001 9:17 pm

did you reset the jumper on the mobo when You were trying the onboard video. Also the CMOS clear jumper is usually right next to the battery and failing that you could just pop out the battery.

syncmaster · Post by **syncmaster** » Sat Dec 01, 2001 9:20 pm

500mhz AMD K6-2 processor .... ok the most possible is that your proccesor is burned out .

The errors in windows was from extreme CPUs temps , bad cooling is the most possible reason ..

powerfulsquid · Post by **powerfulsquid** » Sat Dec 01, 2001 9:23 pm

I remember one of the errors mentioning VxD, and when I looked it up it returned something to do with the C:/Windows directory and the system.ini file. It didn't mention about the CPU temp.

smaier69 · Post by **smaier69** » Sat Dec 01, 2001 9:26 pm

as for the clearing of the CMOS, 90% of the time the jumper is easy to find. just look for the CMOS battery and EEPROM. then look for the only isolated 3 jumper pins in that area. most jumper blocks consist of pairs of pins. CCMOS jumpers usually use 3 individual pins..... " .xx and xx." being the jumper/switch position.

what kind of BIOS is it? AMI? Award? Phoenix? or is it an OEM box?

With AMI and Award BIOSs, you can look up the BIOS string to find the original mfgr/distributor of the motherboard. this is assuming there are no identifying markings on the board itself (which would be an infinitely easier way). i have never tried this with a Phoenix BIOS, so i dont know how available they are database-wise.

try doing a search on Yahoo or whatever search engine for "motherboard ID" or "mainboard identifier" and you will find databases of the BIOS string numbers.

syncmaster · Post by **syncmaster** » Sat Dec 01, 2001 9:28 pm

Originally posted by powerfulsquid
I remember one of the errors mentioning VxD, It didn't mention about the CPU temp.

Heh it never does ...

powerfulsquid · Post by **powerfulsquid** » Sat Dec 01, 2001 9:29 pm

Well, he just went home so I will have to relay all the messages to him. I'll ask him next time I talk to him what he did. I told him about the other posts so hopefully he will try them when he gets home, if not then I'll tell him to try 'em. Hopefully some of these will work.

syncmaster · Post by **syncmaster** » Sat Dec 01, 2001 9:33 pm

Hey friend , the story is simple the system does not post , is dead ......

What can some one do, with a dead CPU ???