Tip: Run a free scan for common Windows errors ad

re: No Video on Bootup Friday, April 20, 2007 at 6:43 am Posted by Ed (603 messages posted) You did some damage when you had the computer's case open, probably by touching the electronics without taking proper precautions. You must not touch *anything* inside a computer's case without first taking anti-static precautions, to avoid static electrical damage to the delicate electronics inside. You need to follow these simple guidelines, always: 1. Shut down the computer, and SWITCH OFF the mains power at the wall socket. This is an ESSENTIAL safety precaution! 2. If the computer has a 3-pin mains plug, DON'T unplug the computer from the wall socket. The 3rd pin is an Earth connector, which grounds the chassis (the metal case) of the computer; you need to leave that connected. Any dangerous voltages are INSIDE the (sealed) power supply unit, where you can't get at them. 3. Immediately before touching anything inside the computer, touch an unpainted bare metal part of the chassis (the casing) with your bare hand. The metal casing is connected to earth (through the wall socket), so your body is thereby earthed, draining any static electricity from your body: half a second and it's gone. Do this every time, because as you move about the contact with carpets and clothing will generate further static electricity on the surface of your body. 4. If you use a tool (e.g. a screwdriver, or vacuum cleaner), touch a bare metal part of the tool to the bare metal of the computer's casing before you touch it to anything inside the computer. 5. If your computer does not have a 3-pin mains plug (i.e. if it has a 2-pin plug), earth yourself by touching unpainted bare metal on a central heating radiator pipe or cold water pipe instead, as those are normally connected to ground. Do this for yourself and for your tools. 6. Don't let any part of your clothing touch anything inside the computer, as clothes can carry a large static electrical charge. It is therefore best to roll your sleeves up. 7. While working inside the computer don't scuff around on the carpet, or slide in and out of a chair - as this will cause a build up of static electricity. 8. You must also apply these precautions when handling any component that you unplug from the computer: such as a hard disk, or a PCI card, or a RAM memory module. NB: The safest procedure is to rest your bare forearm on an unpainted bare metal part of the casing continuously whilst working inside the computer, thereby leaving both your hands free. From your description of the damage, it sounds like you may have fried the motherboard. You seem to have a monitor and a hard drive that are receiving power, but nothing is happening. Monitor, hard drive, and power supply unit would therefore appear to be in working order. If you have a dead motherboard, no information or instructions can travel between keyboard and hard drive, or between hard drive and monitor screen. If that is your situation, you will have to buy a replacement motherboard. As that is an expensive option, and one that is fraught with problems, consider having this hardware fault fixed by your local computer store. If you insist on tackling it yourself, on a DIY basis, my tip is to try to buy the same model of motherboard that you started with, as this reduces the problems you will face. Motherboards are *not* interchangeable. A different type will be bound to be incompatible with at least some of the other hardware inside your computer. Older motherboards are sold on E B A Y. Or try a Google search. In both cases, search on the model number of the m/board. The model number of your m/board will be printed on the board, usually in large white lettering near the PCI expansion slots. Ed On Thursday, April 19, 2007 at 6:24 am, Charles wrote: >I have a Dell Dimension 4100 with Windows Me as the OS. Upon bootup the monitor does >not display anything, it seems to be ok though, since when I disconnect it I get >the RGB onscreen error. When I click the power up button on the pc the green light >on the swithch is not on (it always lit previously). The pc is not showing signs >of Hard drive malfunction, no beeps, whirrs, clicking etc., the little hard drive >still lights up during bootup and goes out, indicating HD access. I had opened the >unit to clean and vacum the dust out. I thought I was fairly careful. I suspected >the video card and re-seated it with no succes, I've yet to replace it though . Could >it be the power source or the power switch (unusual that it no longer lights up)? >Can someone please provide some insight, thanks. [Reply or follow-up to this message] re: No Video on Bootup Friday, April 20, 2007 at 7:38 am Posted by Charles (3 messages posted) Hi Ed, thanks for the reply, but I did ground myself (at least I thought I did). If I did in fact do some damage as you said, what would it be that I damaged? The power switch light is not going on upon bootup, so do you suspect the power supply. If it was a static issue then wouldn't it make sense the memory would have been what I damaged? Do you think it is the video card, since I don't seem to have an input signal? What would be my next step, checking the video card and then the power supply? How would I determine if they are faulty? Thanks for your reply, and your help is most appreciated. Charles On Friday, April 20, 2007 at 6:43 am, Ed wrote: >You did some damage when you had the computer's case open, probably by touching the >electronics without taking proper precautions. > >You must not touch *anything* inside a computer's case without first taking anti-static >precautions, to avoid static electrical damage to the delicate electronics inside. > > >You need to follow these simple guidelines, always: > >1. Shut down the computer, and SWITCH OFF the mains power at the wall socket. This >is an ESSENTIAL safety precaution! > >2. If the computer has a 3-pin mains plug, DON'T unplug the computer from the wall >socket. The 3rd pin is an Earth connector, which grounds the chassis (the metal case) >of the computer; you need to leave that connected. Any dangerous voltages are INSIDE >the (sealed) power supply unit, where you can't get at them. > >3. Immediately before touching anything inside the computer, touch an unpainted bare >metal part of the chassis (the casing) with your bare hand. The metal casing is connected >to earth (through the wall socket), so your body is thereby earthed, draining any >static electricity from your body: half a second and it's gone. Do this every time, >because as you move about the contact with carpets and clothing will generate further >static electricity on the surface of your body. > >4. If you use a tool (e.g. a screwdriver, or vacuum cleaner), touch a bare metal >part of the tool to the bare metal of the computer's casing before you touch it to >anything inside the computer. > >5. If your computer does not have a 3-pin mains plug (i.e. if it has a 2-pin plug), >earth yourself by touching unpainted bare metal on a central heating radiator pipe >or cold water pipe instead, as those are normally connected to ground. Do this for >yourself and for your tools. > >6. Don't let any part of your clothing touch anything inside the computer, as clothes >can carry a large static electrical charge. It is therefore best to roll your sleeves >up. > >7. While working inside the computer don't scuff around on the carpet, or slide in >and out of a chair - as this will cause a build up of static electricity. > >8. You must also apply these precautions when handling any component that you unplug >from the computer: such as a hard disk, or a PCI card, or a RAM memory module. > >NB: The safest procedure is to rest your bare forearm on an unpainted bare metal >part of the casing continuously whilst working inside the computer, thereby leaving >both your hands free. > > >From your description of the damage, it sounds like you may have fried the motherboard. >You seem to have a monitor and a hard drive that are receiving power, but nothing >is happening. Monitor, hard drive, and power supply unit would therefore appear to >be in working order. > >If you have a dead motherboard, no information or instructions can travel between >keyboard and hard drive, or between hard drive and monitor screen. If that is your >situation, you will have to buy a replacement motherboard. > >As that is an expensive option, and one that is fraught with problems, consider having >this hardware fault fixed by your local computer store. If you insist on tackling >it yourself, on a DIY basis, my tip is to try to buy the same model of motherboard >that you started with, as this reduces the problems you will face. > >Motherboards are *not* interchangeable. A different type will be bound to be incompatible >with at least some of the other hardware inside your computer. Older motherboards >are sold on E B A Y. Or try a Google search. In both cases, search on the model number >of the m/board. > >The model number of your m/board will be printed on the board, usually in large white >lettering near the PCI expansion slots. > > >Ed > > > [Reply or follow-up to this message] re: No Video on Bootup Friday, April 20, 2007 at 8:16 am Posted by Ed (603 messages posted) You have previously indicated that the hard drive is receiving power. Therefore it is clear, at least, that the power supply unit has not been damaged. The LED on the computer's front panel is an independent device, that has nothing to do with the power supply unit. It's in fact controlled by the motherboard electronics; so if it's not working this pretty clearly indicates a faulty motherboard. A static discharge into the motherboard might have also damaged the RAM memory chips. So yes, they could be irreperably damaged also, but not inevitably. To determine if the video card is damaged, install it in another Windows computer, and see whether it works. You will probably need the installation disks for the card in order to do this test. Likewise, the power supply unit (PSU) can be tested by fitting it in another computer. But this does sound like a waste of time. If it's supplying power to the hard drive, the PSU *must* be working. Bear in mind that this is a Windows forum, not a hardware forum. You're pretty close now to exhausting my knowledge of hardware! The indications are that you have a faulty motherboard. The LED diode is not receiving a signal from the m/board, and the monitor is also not receiving a signal from the m/board. Are you getting any indication that either the keyboard or the mouse are functioning? Any bleeping or feedback when you use them? Any monitor response? If both are also "dead" then I must point out that, since they both depend on m/board electronics, things look black for your m/board! Ed On Friday, April 20, 2007 at 7:38 am, Charles wrote: >Hi Ed, thanks for the reply, but I did ground myself (at least I thought I did). >If I did in fact do some damage as you said, what would it be that I damaged? The >power switch light is not going on upon bootup, so do you suspect the power supply. >If it was a static issue then wouldn't it make sense the memory would have been what >I damaged? Do you think it is the video card, since I don't seem to have an input >signal? What would be my next step, checking the video card and then the power supply? >How would I determine if they are faulty? Thanks for your reply, and your help is >most appreciated. > >Charles [Reply or follow-up to this message] re: No Video on Bootup Sunday, April 22, 2007 at 10:25 am Posted by Julie (2 messages posted) Did your pc get dropped or shaken lately? Take the cover off and make sure the video card is securely in place on the motherboard. [Reply or follow-up to this message] re: No Video on Bootup Sunday, April 22, 2007 at 9:09 pm Posted by Ed (603 messages posted) A simple video card fault would not also cause the reported failure in the power indicator's LED diode. Only a major motherboard failure would account for all the symptoms that Charles has experienced. Ed On Sunday, April 22, 2007 at 10:25 am, Julie wrote: >Did your pc get dropped or shaken lately? Take the cover off and make sure the video card is securely in place on the motherboard. [Reply or follow-up to this message] re: No Video on Bootup+hard drive+monitor Thursday, April 17, 2008 at 5:36 am Posted by oldyankeebarn1390 (1 messages posted) To all, a week ago I lost the hard drive (crash) and untill yesterday thought I had virus and malware problems. At the same time I also lost the monitor. Took the computer in for repair and it was indeed a blown hard drive. Repair place installed a new hard drive, ran "ghost" and checked for MS updates lacking (only have dial up at 26k) and checked for any and all infections of any kind. Get computer back home, hook everything up. No monitor, take computer back to repair place, they recheck everything and show me visually that computer works and will show a normal monitor screen. back at home hook everything up, no monitor. That is, it will blink, go black, hit mouse button, blink, repeat, call repair place, they are very sure that it is a bad monitor. I have an old monitor, hook it up and am good to go. Buy new monitor. Why, or what are the chances that the hard drive and monitor both go bad at same time, all other electronics in the house are fine. All are protected by high end surge protectors. In fact the printer is connected to the same surge protecter as the computer. No other computer problems, ie ram, video, modem etc. Any thoughts? On Friday, April 20, 2007 at 7:38 am, Charles wrote: >Hi Ed, thanks for the reply, but I did ground myself (at least I thought I did). >If I did in fact do some damage as you said, what would it be that I damaged? The >power switch light is not going on upon bootup, so do you suspect the power supply. >If it was a static issue then wouldn't it make sense the memory would have been what >I damaged? Do you think it is the video card, since I don't seem to have an input >signal? What would be my next step, checking the video card and then the power supply? >How would I determine if they are faulty? Thanks for your reply, and your help is >most appreciated. > >Charles > > > [Reply or follow-up to this message] Tip: Use one of the [Reply or follow-up to this message] links above to add a message to this thread Search this forum Start a new thread on a different subject Report abuse of the forum Return to the Windows Me Discussion Forum