Old PC starts up, wont display anything.

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Christopher Aubert

Christopher Aubert

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Oct 7, 2013
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10,690
No idea what's the culprit here.
So I have this old PC and it won't display anything. Pressing the power button makes the fans spin (quite loudly I might add), but no display comes out. Here's a list of all the things I did.
1. Switched out discreet graphics card (motherboard had no display outputs) - Nothing
2. Swapped monitors - Nothing
3. Took out cell battery to reset CMOS, popped it back in after 5 min - Nothing
4. Took out all RAM but one - Long never-ending beep
^^^ This one was interesting. The BIOS is AMIBIOS 686, looking up the beep codes, there isn't a beep code for a never-ending beep. Soooo...
I tried plugging the RAM all back in, the beep was still there. (There was 4 RAM slots, each one filled with a 2gb stick.)

And that's where I'm at. No idea what to do at this point. It could be the PSU, as it makes the high-pitched noise when it's plugged in (not just when the PC starts up). I sadly don't have an extra PSU to try, could be the motherboard, I have no idea.
What could it be? What could I try?
 
Solution
IInuyasha74
The next logical step is to try the RAM one stick at a time in each slot. You may have a bad RAM slot or a single bad RAM module. Use one RAM stick in each slot, one by one. If that doesn't work, try a second stick. Probably isn't any need to do this with more than two RAM sticks. Both could be bad, but it becomes less likely.

If that doesn't work, I'd be left thinking the CPU or motherboard is bad.

I have a similar system at the moment, an old Socket 775 Pentium D PC that has the same issues. Loud fans, display usually doesn't work. If I get the iGPU to pick up and work, I can usually get to the BIOS, but the BIOS freezes. Otherwise it responds about the same as yours. I know for a fact that motherboard is dead, so it could be yours...
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IInuyasha74

IInuyasha74

Splendid
May 1, 2013
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The next logical step is to try the RAM one stick at a time in each slot. You may have a bad RAM slot or a single bad RAM module. Use one RAM stick in each slot, one by one. If that doesn't work, try a second stick. Probably isn't any need to do this with more than two RAM sticks. Both could be bad, but it becomes less likely.

If that doesn't work, I'd be left thinking the CPU or motherboard is bad.

I have a similar system at the moment, an old Socket 775 Pentium D PC that has the same issues. Loud fans, display usually doesn't work. If I get the iGPU to pick up and work, I can usually get to the BIOS, but the BIOS freezes. Otherwise it responds about the same as yours. I know for a fact that motherboard is dead, so it could be yours is too.
 
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