What's wrong and how to check?? (1 Viewer)

[Joseph S]

My HTPC refuses to even show a BIOS screen. This has happened every once in a while, but now it just won't boot.
What happens at startup:
1)Flip switch
2)Push on button
3)Power goes to drives and fan on the CPU
That's it. No more appears to happen. It doesn't check the floppy drive at all.
I've pretty much narrowed it down to three items and have removed all PCI cards and the IDE Cabling in hopes of atleast getting the BIOS screen to appear.
1)Motherboard or CPU Dead- However the fan for the CPU works and removing the battery did change the bios setting from auto starting from power failure to requiring power button being pushed.
2)Power Supply-Once again, it does seem to power the stuff.
3)RAM-Fried?
Any suggestions? On my Macs, I can push the motherboard reset switch, zap the PRAM, and if the MB is dead I will hear an audible signal at boot to tell me the problem. I get no audio signal from my PC. This leaves me at a loss as to where is the likely culprit of the problem. Any secret key combos to check the MB in lieu of a reset button?
MSI 6340 Socket A Motherboard
AMD Duron 750

 

[Rob Gillespie]

1)Motherboard or CPU Dead- However the fan for the CPU works and removing the battery did change the bios setting from auto starting from power failure to requiring power button being pushed.

By doing that you cleared CMOS. Since the behaviour changed at that point it would seem to indicate that the BIOS is still working, however it's worth checking that the BIOS chip is seated properly in it's socket (they're usually removable). Also - check video card and mouse/keyboard connections. Many PCs will not boot unless they have a mouse and keyboard attatched. If the video part of the system is duff then the same might happen.
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"One does not simply walk into Mordor."
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[Iain Lambert]

OK, before you go any further just do a quick check that your rummaging as you check things hasn't knocked out the connection from the motherboard to the PC Speaker. Stranger things have happened.
Afterwards, if you're not getting any beeping at all then I think its safe to say its probably either your motherboard or your power. Disconnect absolutely anything thats not necessary to run the PC. Even the harddrive. So thats just keyboard, graphics card, a single stick of memory, the CPU and the power supply. If when you turn it on you see the fans start spinning but still get no beeps, then my guess is its probably the power supply; what one do you have? Durons need a fairly good one, as they are pretty picky.
I had the same problem with the same symptoms when my ATX power died on me; you can pick up a decent AMD approved 300 Watt job quite reasonably, and this is the minimum I'd recommend for running one of these on - my previous power supply was a no-brand 250 watt that came in the case, and died soon after.
edit- sorry, I see that you've already disconnected pretty much everything you can. This definitely sounds like power, my machine even slowly reached this point in the same way yours did.
[Edited last by Iain Lambert on August 29, 2001 at 04:47 AM]

 

[Joseph S]

Thanks. I suppose the Power supply is the likely culprit since this has happened in the past randomly.
I've ordered a new case w/300 W PS and Full Size ATX Motherboard. Hopefully I can use the case to also test the current MB and if it's dead send it off for replacement. The old one and case will otherwise be sold off separately if it turns out that the MB is fine.
This should allow me to narrow down every possible cause including CPU and RAM. Too bad the Mac and PC Motherboard power connectors are different as I could just check with that one. On the bright side I will soon have a few extra PCI slots for a cheap firewire card to share my CD Burner.

 

[Joseph S]

Update:
The new case and MB arrived yesterday. I tested the old MB as is and all worked just fine, so I assume it was the Power Supply that was the problem. The floppy drive doesn't seem to work right, but I haven't needed to use it yet.
New problems:
I have successfully been able to connect my 17" Apple Studio Display(LCD) and my HDTV.
However, I can only get output on the HDTV if I use 640x480 at 60Hz. I purchased Powerstrip 3, but have not received an email since the authorization notice. Are there options that are unlocked when I finally get the registration code? (I'd rather not waste time doing something that isn't possible now.)
According to AVS the process involves key combos to switch from custom resolutions for TV and Monitor. My problem is I don't see how to assign key combos to the display prefs. What am I missing?
Thanks.
Current Setup:
ASUS A7V133
750MHz Duron
17"Apple LCD Display w/Dr. Bott ADC->DVI adapter
Toshiba 50H81 HDTV
Radeon VE (using DVI and VGA ports)