Computer is on, but nothing on the screen?

[Guest]

Hey all. I have a custom built PC that I've had for about 7 or 8 months now, and It's worked fine up to this point. I got home from my classes today and went to start it up and noticed it got stuck on the motherboard BIOS screen. I turned it off and opened it up and noticed one of my hard drives was unplugged, so I plugged it back in.

I rebooted my PC and nothing showed up. I reset my motherboard and still nothing happened. I already tried re-seating all of my plugs, switching the RAM sticks around, and even dusting everything off. I checked to make sure everything was running, which it all was.

I also checked my processor, hard drives, and cd drive to make sure they were working properly. My computer hasn't been beeping, but I don't know if it would beep through the case speaker (which mine doesn't have one) or on the actual part.

Here are my computer specs:
-Intel Q8300 Quad Core
-ATI Radeon 4850 Graphics Card
-2x 2GB Corsair Ballistix RAM
-750 watt PSU
-Elitegroup P45T-A Mobo

I also run two screens.. a 22 inch and a 15 inch on the side. I've already tried using both separately.

So now, what can I do to make this work?

Thanks

 

[Proximon]

Let me start by listing some likely culprits

1. The CPU heatsink mounting has failed, because they often don't get fully engaged during installation and pop loose.

2. The Elitegroup motherboard has failed, because they are cheap for a reason.

3. Hard drives don't come unplugged by themselves. Did you plug in both the data and power cables?

4. Have you ever reset the BIOS before? Crucial Ballistix OFTEN fail to be properly recognized by a BIOS on stock settings. The BIOS has to be pre-configured to accept the RAM, usually by booting with a stick of more compatible RAM first.


What PSU?
Hard drives? IDE or SATA?

 

[Guest]

Hard drives are SATA. 250 gb and a 500gb

And my PSU is a Coolermaster 750 Watt. It was a permanent replacement from a friend because my old one died. (wouldn't start at all)

And for my motherboard.. I know its crap, I read bad reviews on it but never bothered to get a new one.

 

[jsc]

At this point, you need the internal case speaker to listen for beeps. Otherwise, you are gonig to be blindly replacing parts.

And to extend Proximon's list:
5. PSU. CoolerMaster makes some really nice cases, but they are just not that good at PSU's.

6. Is the system POSTing?

Our standard checklist and troubleshooting thread:
http://www.tomshardware.com/forum/261145-31-read-posting-boot-problems

This is the same thread that the 3rd link in Proximon's sig points to.

 

[marcellis22]

A drive was unplugged that was earlier connected... do you have roommates?

 

[Guest]

alright, I got my hands on an old motherboard from an hp computer and now everything is working, but the system will say the System fan has failed.. I press F2 and continue, then I select Windows 7 and it begins to startup. When the windows logo starts to appear it freezes and returns to the beginning and says there was a system failure. Now what's wrong?

Windows Repair is currently running

 

[Proximon]

You can't just install a different MB without installing a fresh copy of the OS. Operating systems configure themselves to the motherboard when installed. At best you get a somewhat flawed system that never works quite right. Not until you do a fresh install.