Pc Boots, Turns off then on w/ no signal.

[ryanvodka]

My homebuilt pc has worked for a few years but as of this morning it turns on for 5 seconds then powers off then back on. Power continues but i am not getting any signal to my monitor. Any suggestions?

I should also add that prior to this happening I would get driver power state bsods and the computer would occasionally refuse to enter sleep mode

 

[COLGeek]

My initial guess is that the video card is flaking out. What video card (GPU) are you using? What operating system (XP I assume)?

 

[ryanvodka]

Ati 4850 running Vista OS

it could be gpu but because of the pretty frequent BSODs I had been getting recently Including Driver Power State and Kernal Stack errors in starting to think something is wrong with the motherboard or the boot record.

the motherboards power light is on indication that it is receiving power but there is no motherboard beep upon power up.

 

[COLGeek]

What power supply are you using? The 4850 is fairly demanding when it comes to power supply requirements and could be causing your problems.

 

[ryanvodka]

corsair 620 watt. The system is running 2 hard drives, a disk drive, The single Gpu and a few fans.

 

[COLGeek]

How old is the PSU? They do fail. Do you have access to another one that you could swap for troubleshooting purposes? If so, if you have integrated graphics, you could pull the 4850 to see if that stabilizes your system.

The system failures are playing havok with your HDD/OS install.

 

[ryanvodka]

The PSU is 2 years old, and I do not currently have access to another one. I am able however to purchase one to test if that sounds like it would be the first appropriate step. My Mobo is Asus p5q pro and does not have integrated graphics.

 

[dokk2]

Hmmmm, checked your monitor cable lately ??,, no beep = bios problem of some kind, as in somebody is not reporting all's well....

 

[ryanvodka]

tried reconnecting the cable, and also removed and reinserted the bios battery and there were no changes. I'm almost positive that it either has something to do with the motherboard or the boot record because prior to this I had to repair windows multiple times because somtimes after a BSOD it would Post but would not boot to OS until I had done a system restore or boot repair.

The power supply isnt completely dead but is it possible that its either sending too much or not enough power to specific components causing the previous BSODs and now the inability to Post?

 

[COLGeek]

Sending flaky power to the GPU will create all sorts of crashing issues. Looking at your initial symptoms makes me suspect the PSU is your problem (or at least part of it).

 

[ryanvodka]

alright going to go purchase a new psu and see if anything changes.

 

[ryanvodka]

tried a new psu and there was no change. Pc powers on does not beep, restarts 10 seconds later and stays on but with no POST.

 

[COLGeek]

Does the system ever successfully boot all the way to the OS?

 

[ryanvodka]

I was using the computer yesterday. It was working But I had 2 blue screens. Turned the computer off and came back in the morning and this time when i powered it on it powered up the components but there is no error or post beeps. 10 seconds later the computer powers down and automatically powers up again by itself a few moments later but with the same results, no beeps no post except the power and the components continue running. Cannot Access the Bios or the Os

 

[ryanvodka]

alright well this makes me feel dumb... there is no 4 pin warning speaker hooked up to my mobo. I was sure that something like that was included and hooked up when I first built it. So im assuming that my next step is to go by a speaker so I can actually hear the warnings its issuing. where can I get the pins and a speaker to hook up so that i actually know whats going on??

 

[COLGeek]

Maybe. Many motherboards have a small piezo (spelling?) speaker on them. Looks like a small black cylinder about the size of the end of your pinky finger with a small hole in the end. Really depends on your motherboard.

Regardless, it would be good to hear the beep codes. What mobo (make/model) are you using?

 

[ryanvodka]

asus p5q pro, there is an outline of a circle that says buzzer on it but i just read on another forum that the p5q does need a speaker plugged in and if it doesnt beep when the ram is removed that means the Mobo is dead.

 

[COLGeek]

I just looked at a picture of one and sure enough, no built-in speaker (but a place for one where it could have been mounted). Missing memory is definitely something that will cause the beep codes to be heard.

 

[ryanvodka]

so ive read that my particular motherboard may have problems with entering and exiting sleep mode and before it died i was getting those bsods that I was talking about earlier. About 50 percent of the time when I was done with the computer for the night I would try to put it in hibernation but it would just hang and never enter it and I had to power it off manually. Is there any way that my computer is still stuck in some type of sleep mode and not about to wake up because of other errors?

 

[COLGeek]

How much memory and what operating system are you using?

 

[ryanvodka]

4gigs of ram using vista. I took apart the whole rig, except for the cpu and heat sink and nothing. pretty sure the mobo crapped out overnight somehow. I guess im going to try contact Asus it says their is a limited 3 year warrenty and its been 2 years so who knows if ill be able to get them to send me a new one or not. If I get the mobo and that doesnt work... well then ill be stumped.

 

[COLGeek]

Good luck! Sure hope you get your system up and running again soon.

The reason I asked about your memory and OS was in reference to your sleep/hibernation mode issues. XP had a terrible time with hibernation on systems with more than 2GB of memory, particularly on a slower system. I tend to not use sleep or hibernation modes and rely on Cool and Quiet or Speedstep to idle down the system and power management to turn off displays and spinning HDDs. I have found sleep and hibernation, in general, to not be worth the hassles and issues presented from time to time.

 

[ryanvodka]

bought a cheap mobo from frys electronics and its working fine at the moment. Booted up fine. I plan on returning this one and buying a new mobo I actually want to overclock my e8400. Any suggestions?

 

[COLGeek]

You should start a new thread in one of the OC forum areas. You will get much more input from the masses there. Glad you got something going. Good luck!