Computer Suddenly Died. On-board Video Display Problem? CMOS Battery?

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One of my older computers suddenly died of no reason. Well I meant it did not show any warning signs before it suddenly stopped working.

It is a Dell PowerEdge SC 440 equipped with Intel Xeon dual core processor, 4 gb RAM, dual hard drives with one running Windows 7 and the other running Windows XP Professional. It was running Windows 7 before it died. Everything was working fine. I just stepped away for a little while. When I came back to the computer, it was already dead. On the same table there were other computers running as well when I stepped away and they were all working well when I came back. Only this Dell PowerEdge SC 440 died.

I opened the cover of the system and had the system connected to another monitor and another keyboard/mouse set. It seemed that the power supply worked fine. The fan was blowing. All the light indicators were on. I touched both hard drives with my finger and felt that both hard drives were spinning. However, the monitor shows nothing.

What could possibly go wrong? Does it have something to do with the built-in video display of the mother board. (There is no separate video card installed with this computer.) Does it have anything to do with the CMOS battery? (Would that help if I installed a new CMOS battery to the mother board?)

Any help or advice will be greatly appreciated!
 
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The short answer to your question is: No, I don't have a video card for this particular computer.

One of the main problems with this computer is that it does not have a 16X PCIe slot and the system resources is not enough to take care of the independent video card.

I have two extra video cards but they both use PCIe 16x interface so none of them will work on this computer.

Once upon a time, I bought a 512 mb video card with PCI (Not PCIe) interface specifically for this computer. It worked initially. However, after a power outage, the video card does not work anymore. For this incident, I tried to refresh the CMOS by taking out the battery and putting it back. I think I messed up the CMOS a little bit by doing this because afterwards I had to press F1 every time I started the system.

Luckily, I don't use this computer much in the past couple of years but I still would like to save it if I can because it is nice to leave this computer running day and night due to the fact that it was designed as a server and equipped with an Intel Xeon processor.
 
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After I took out the battery and put it back the first time, the time was still okay. (I forgot whether I had to reset the time back then, most likely not.)

I just took out the battery a little while ago. Should I put the battery back right now?

The computer died for a couple of weeks already. I just had a chance to take a look at it today.
 
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I put the battery back in already.

I tried to turn on the computer again and found the following:

1. Though I turned off the computer before I unplugged it earlier, the computer was automatically turned on the moment I plugged the power cord to the power strip.

2. I heard some beep sound from the front panel the moment the computer was turned on automatically.

3. Though all the parts inside the system case (kind of) indicates everything is running, there is no signal to the mouse and the keyboard at all. In other words, both the mouse and the keyboard have no light on.

Based on all the things mentioned above, I definitely think this is a hardware problem.

Any further advice or help will be appreciated.
 
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There is one more thing: After the computer is turned off but the power cord is still plugged, I can see a yellow light still being lit on the mother board.
 
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Please see my post right above yours.

I looked at the side of the light. It says "AUX_PWR_LED". The light is on after the computer is turned off but the power cord is left plugged.

Based on my "common sense" (which could be very limited), the biggest suspect is the power supply unit. However, it is kind of misleading because it seems all mechanical parts are running and all lights inside the system case are on, EXCEPT FOR THE MOUSE AND THE KEYBOARD.



 
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Again, I would like to emphasize the fact that there is some beep sound when the computer is first turned on "automatically by plugging the power cord" but not pressing the power switch. The latter part is not even necessary.
 
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The computer is Dell PowerEdge SC 440. I know Dell's mother board is unique as compared with the "standard" mother boards. While I am looking at my documents including those saved on my computer, you may search it as well. You may come up with the model faster than I do. :)
 
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I am looking at the mother board right now. It doesn't say anything. All I can see is,

DELL
www.dell.com

Then there is a white color label with black prints, listing a number starting with CN-0NY........
Underneath this is "REV A01" "Made in China"

Let me look at my documents as well.
 
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Again, as far as I know, Dell has their "proprietary" mother boards which are different from all other standard mother boards. For example, all "standard" computer cases open on the left hand side if you are looking at the front side. However, all Dell computer cases open on the right hand side. This means the mother boards are also "inside out" for all Dell computers as compared with all "standard" computers.

Again, allow me a little time to look at the documents.
 
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I couldn't find much from the document as far as the make and model of the mother board is concerned.

However, I found these on the web:

https://www.serversupply.com/products/part_search/pid_find.asp?pid=128393&

http://www.impactcomputers.com/km864.html?gclid=CKCMge_n_LoCFStBQgodGzUAVg

http://www.upgradebay.com/Products/ProductInfo.aspx?rid=26&ProductID=168829062&utm_source=googlepepla&utm_medium=adwords&utm_content=pla&gclid=COXNvv7n_LoCFcxufgodDT0AKw

http://www.impactcomputers.com/ny776.html?gclid=CL-x-ozo_LoCFcxufgodDT0AKw

http://www.ebay.com/itm/like/141101785571?lpid=82

I will continue to find more information regarding this if it is available.
 
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I said it did not have a PCIe 16X. I knew it had a PCIe 1x, 4x and 8x. Those video cards are too expensive. It is not worth the money to "upgrade" this kind of computer now.

Also, I tried a PCI video card (512 mb memory) before and the card stopped working after a power outage. I was afraid this would happen to the PCIe 1x video card as well, in addition to being too expensive for the video card to start with.

By the way, you may see a PCIe slot on the mother board with the length of 16x. But the length of those slots are actually cut in half by a divider in the middle. Some other people mentioned that they "cut" out the divider with a heated knife and installed a PCIe 16x video card there. I just did not want to go through such a hassle. I am not sure if I am able to do it anyway.



 
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Two short beeps.

But do your know what? I just plugged the power cord to the computer again with the system case cover closed. Surprisingly, the computer came back to work now. Last night, I tried to start it with the system case cover open, it did not work.

At the end, maybe there is no issue at all.

I don't know why it died in the first time. Maybe there was a power surge or something?


 
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