repair/troubleshooting advice needed please

[pepperg]

not sure what forum this would best be posted in, but here goes--

i had a 2003 alienware area-51 system go dead on me some months ago. specifically, i did a hard reboot b/c it froze up, and when i rebooted, i got a 'no signal' message from my monitor. tried another monitor, made sure the cables were secure, and plugged in a diff't videocard, but same problem. i thought perhaps the mobo was fried or something, so i got another one on ebay (an asus p4t533-c mobo). just put it in tonight, made sure everything was plugged in properly, and rebooted. same error, and again, tried 2 diff't videocards and monitors.

anyone got any ideas what the problem might be, and if it could be caused by a bad cpu? i am considering getting another intel cpu, but don't want to waste $ if that might not be the problem. i'm stumped, and it's still a good enough system to warrant keeping it around, mainly for my girlfriend's use, so i do feel it's worth it to try a few more things to bring it back.

thanks!

 

[alcattle]

If it says "no signal" on the monitor, the monitor is fine. Since you cannot see the computer boot, what can you tell, lights come on in some kind of order? hard drive spin up, fans turning? I would check the PSU, and you either buy a tester or take it to someone you trust. Do not plug in a PSU with out a load, MB or the tester. You can make sure it is broken that way because you just fried it. Take the steps and try to see where is stops. Beeps? Lights? Fans? There is some logic involved so take your time and we can help.

 

[pepperg]

sorry to leave some details out--

yes, fans all spinnng, power light on, drives spinning up-- all that is good
no mobo beeps at all, and no evidence of any booting up at all in terms of a bios or windows screen. just the 'no signal' message.

 

[alcattle]

Cuts it down to PSU or GPU with small chance of CPU. Test the PSU, might have only fried the +12v Rail.

 

[pepperg]

i doubt it is the gpu, since i tried two diff't videocards.

how can i test the psu?

 

[warezme]

reading that this is an older system, it wouldn't happen to have a built in video controller would it? I have had some folks with older boards that had built in video but with an add on card in PCI or AGP, and their bios was somehow reset and it defaulted back to the built in and they did not know it.

In which case its an easy fix, cause you just switch VGA ports, boot into bios, disable onboard, switch cables to add on card and your done.

 

[pepperg]

no, it has a 256mgb agp card

 

[AdamBomb42]

Buy this, it's always good to have one around.

 

[misry]

I would first make sure the PSU is good. Assuming that is good, no beeps at all means look at M/B, CPU or RAM. You've aready done M/B. If you have 2 sticks of RAM, Alienware is good about that sort of thing, try them one at a time.

 

[Mondoman]

If you're in a hurry, you can get a PS tester at Radio Shack.

Also, no beeps can also mean "no speaker connected".