No display on boot

[philVank]

Hi!

I have a somewhat serious problem with my PC. I bought (and assembled) it about a year and a half ago and everything was working fine until last week. Now, when I start my computer I have no display at all. Not even the bios screen. Nada.

I tried changing both the monitor and the video card with replacements that works on my other computer, but still nothing. The motherboard doesn't have an integrated video card and only has one PCI-express x16 slot.

When I start the computer, the fans start (CPU fan, case fan, video card fan too) but that's about it. The weird thing is that a week before I used it and everything worked just fine.

Here are the specs of my computer :

Motherboard : Gigabyte GA-MA770-UD3
CPU : AMD Athlon 64 X2 4850E
PSU : Antec Earthwatts 430W


Any idea?


Philippe

 

[T_T]

Welcome Newcomer. Your PSU could be the problem; its output is low, but that's hard to say because you didn't list your video card(s).

 

[philVank]

My complete hardware is :

Case : Antec Solo Quiet
PSU : Antec Earthwatts 430W
Motherboard : Gigabyte GA-MA770-UD3
CPU : AMD Athlon 64 X2 4850E
Memory : Corsair Value Select PC2-5300 1GB DDR2-667 (x4)
Optical drive : Samsung SH-S203B (x2)
Hard drive : Samsung Spinpoint F1 Series HD322HJ
Video card : BFG Tech GeForce GTS 250 OC 1GB

According to this (which I used when I built my system) : http://extreme.outervision.com/PSUEngine

I would need a 332 W PSU. So my 430 W should be enough. (but I'm really no expert on this).

...also, it worked fine during all summer, so it seems strange to me that it would stop working after all that time.

...also, the fans are working, so there is some power output... Is it possible that the power supply is not working at 100%?

Do you still think the power supply might be the problem? And if so, how can I test this?

 

[pjmelect]

The power supply could well be the cause of your problem; if it is anything else it could be expensive. Substitution of the power supply is the only test that is reliable.

 

[T_T]

PSU calculators are a good place to start looking, but unfortunately, they aren't always accurate. 430W Output is a decent amount, but the load/rail is more important to understand.

Your PSU is a good one, but it may not have been enough for your system to begin with or it could've failed prematurely.

No boot/display problems (after periods of successful usage) are usually caused by a failing PSU, bad RAM, or something got into your case and shorted something. Check out the troubleshooting guide (the link in my signature) for PSU testing info.

 

[philVank]

Thanks a lot! I'll look into this and try to borrow a multimeter from a friend of mine.

You said something about bad RAM, but is it really possible the four of my RAM chips failed all at once? It seems very unlikely...

Philippe

 

[T_T]

Well the possibility is very small, but if you consider an under acheiving PSU, that could lead to hardware failure. Also, with bad RAM, if one stick is bad, that could prevent proper booting.

 

[philVank]

Best answer selected by philVank.