My PC won't start up either!

[Polorky]

I have a similar problem to the previous thread although my PC isn't even getting that far. When I turn it on it makes the initial sounds of booting up but nothing comes up on the monitor. The tower also goes quiet so I don't think its the monitor besides I have the speakers on and there's no windows start up music. The disk drives are active so the power must be working. Trouble is with no actual start up on the screen there's not much I can do. The only things I can think it might be is either the processor or something to do with the motherboard but I don't really understand that side of things so I really have no idea.

Can anybody help? :confused:

[BeeCeeBee]

Windows startup sounds do not come until much later so that is not much cause for concern. The fact that you are getting nothing, not even a manufacturers screen is a cause for concern.

 

The first thing to try is always safe mode. When your PC starts up slowly tap the F8 key and see if a black screen with choices comes up. At that point you should first try "Last known good configuration." If that doesn't work then try "safe mode." If neither works or you dont get the screen at all let us know.

[Polorky]

Unfortunately nothing happened which is I imagine is not good! It just doesn't seem to be doing anything once its turned on.

[BeeCeeBee]

Agreed! It isn't good.

 

Can we first establish how old this machine is and is it subject to any warranty? The last thing we would want is to give you advice that would lead to voiding any rights you may have.

[Polorky]

Got it the beginning of 2005 so I assume the warranty is long up.

[BeeCeeBee]

Ok we will need to know a bit about the machine. What make and model is it and what, if any, changes have you made to it?

 

The next step is for you to restart the pc and press the Del key on startup. This should take you to the bios. Please report back if that is successful or not. Do not attempt to make changes.

 

If you cannot see the bios, I suspect that you may have a defective motherboard or other hardware issue. I am not the one to tell you this but the information is needed by those who can.

[Polorky]

Pressing the delete key doesn't bring up anything either.

 

The computer is a HP Pavilion (a740.uk)

Pentium 4, 2.8GHz processor, 256MB RAM, 160GB hard drive, DVD player, DVD writer, Intel Extreme Graphics card.

 

I have since added Nvidia GeForce graphics card, 512MB Ram, changed the power supply to 550W, changed the DVD writer.

 

I maybe shouldn't have tried to add stuff when I don't completely understand the ins and outs but it has been a year since the last modification and its been working fine up until now.

[Dalo Harkin]

Ok what exactly did you do the before this was happening?

If you look inside the PC when you turn it on, do the fans spin?

if they do then it sounds like a graphics issue - pop the add in Nvidia card out and see if the onboard works.

[Tony D]

Just for fun, try pulling the memory circuits. See if it makes any difference when you try to boot the machine.

[Polorky]

You are a genius! Took out the Nvidia card and it all works hunky dory. Looking at the fan on the card it doesn't spin at all when connected and doesn't spin freely when disconnected and spin by hand seems to be getting caught on something although it seems to have a clear path. Does this mean I need a completely new card, not that I mind considering not long ago I thought I might need a whole new computer!

[Tony D]

Since you removed the video card AND you say that it's working, shall we assume that you're now using an integrated video connector whereas before you were using the nVidia card?

 

If the on-board graphics is working, it's up to you to determine if you want to install a new card.

[Polorky]

Thanks

 

There are some games I can't play with the onboard graphics card which is why I got the other one to start with but I'll look into that.

 

Thank you all so much for your help I really thought the whole computer had gone up in smoke (shows what I know) and there's a lot of info on here that I need, so thanks again.

[Dalo Harkin]

You are a genius! Took out the Nvidia card and it all works hunky dory. Looking at the fan on the card it doesn't spin at all when connected and doesn't spin freely when disconnected and spin by hand seems to be getting caught on something although it seems to have a clear path. Does this mean I need a completely new card, not that I mind considering not long ago I thought I might need a whole new computer!

 

When you removed the Nvidia GPU - it should not work right away, you should have to re enable the Onboard GPU from within the BIOS - this is on the assumption you ever disabled it in the first place and therein may lie your problem.

 

Or it could be:-

 

If the fan is not spinning on the card then it could be the wire that connects the fan to the card is not seated properly.

 

The bearings in the fan are shot (the fans are easy to replace on GPUs)

 

Or the GPU is dead

Edited March 10, 2009 by Dalo Harkin

[Polorky]

When you removed the Nvidia GPU - it should not work right away, you should have to re enable the Onboard GPU from within the BIOS - this is on the assumption you ever disabled it in the first place and therein may lie your problem.

 

Ah... all I did was plug the monitor in the original socket and removed the Nvidia card it worked I don't remember disabling the on-board card and wouldn't know how to, oops. The card must have been working at some point though because I could play a game that I couldn't before the Nvidia card was installed.