[l0st]

I'm helping my friend build a new box and we hit a problem. no matter what I try, the pc won't boot. everything's getting power, the power led on the motherboard is on, but when I push the power button, the power supply turns on, but no picture. I've tried three different video cards, and two different monitors, but I get no results. I also don't get any error beeps, so I'm thinking the board's dead.

maybe anyone here could help?
thanks

[jmmijo]

It could be an issue with the motherboard but just to narrow things down, this is what I do to troubleshoot this kind of problem.

1) Disconnect all the power to any drives, optical, HD and floppy. Leave only the main ATX power connected and any 4/8 pin auxillary power connected to the motherboard.

2) Disconnect all data ribbon cables to all drives, either from the drives or from the motherboard connectors, I like to use the motherboard connectors just in case of a bad cable.

3) Remove all expansion cards, this includes the graphics card, modem, sound, nic etc... Anything that's onboard is not a problem at this point.

4) Remove all memory modules, yes all of them.

Basically you want to strip down the machine so all that is left connected is the power to the motherboard, the CPU/Heatsink/Fan and the front panel connectors.

Now try the powering the machine up and see if you hear any POST beep errors. If you still only get the CPU/Heatsink fan to power on and no post beep error codes then this sounds like one of three parts has failed, or some combination. The Power Supply, the CPU, the Motherboard.

[theefool]

This is all excellent. But, one thing I want to add. Newer mainbaord/motherboards do not have integrated speakers. I'd install that speaker to hear this post code. Yes, the speaker is the thingamajig that looks kinda round, with a hole on one end, and two wires on the other end


Sorry, not trying to be an ass, just trying to help out. I've ran into this b4.