Computer randomly went belly up. :(

[Bljones]

Hello! Recently my husband hooked up 2 monitors to his computer. After a lot of colorful words, he finally got it working and everything was fine for about a month. In this past week my daughter started up his computer and only one screen was showing, but it had no icons or start bar on the screen, so my husband rebooted it and since then we have not been able to get any video whatsoever. so far the things we have tried with no success are:

1) try a different video card & the onboard graphics card.
2) clear CMOS by clearing jumpers and replacing them & via taking out the motherboard battery.
3) take apart and re-assemble every component.
4) try RAM 1 stick at a time, and different slots/ with RAM not from the computer.
5) try running the computer with only Hard Drive and motherboard connected to the power supply.
6) try cursing and threatening it to work or face a hammer.
7) try different monitors and cables.

At the moment, we finally got it to start up, but its not a normal start up.. Still no picture, No beeps, no "windows pretty startup chime", and what i find odd is that normally to shutdown the computer from the buttons in the front, you would have to press and hold them to get the computer to shut down, now you just graze it and it turns the computer completely off.

My husbands theory is that his processor is fried.
My theory is that is mobo is fried.
My step son is convinced its the power supply.
And my 4yr old is convinced we're all nuts for spending so much time to fix a little black box that lets her play GW2. :S

If anyone can help me, i would greatly appreciate it! Thank you in advance!

 

[sixxnine7]

Hello! Recently my husband hooked up 2 monitors to his computer. After a lot of colorful words, he finally got it working and everything was fine for about a month. In this past week my daughter started up his computer and only one screen was showing, but it had no icons or start bar on the screen, so my husband rebooted it and since then we have not been able to get any video whatsoever. so far the things we have tried with no success are:

1) try a different video card & the onboard graphics card.
2) clear CMOS by clearing jumpers and replacing them & via taking out the motherboard battery.
3) take apart and re-assemble every component.
4) try RAM 1 stick at a time, and different slots/ with RAM not from the computer.
5) try running the computer with only Hard Drive and motherboard connected to the power supply.
6) try cursing and threatening it to work or face a hammer.
7) try different monitors and cables.

At the moment, we finally got it to start up, but its not a normal start up.. Still no picture, No beeps, no "windows pretty startup chime", and what i find odd is that normally to shutdown the computer from the buttons in the front, you would have to press and hold them to get the computer to shut down, now you just graze it and it turns the computer completely off.

My husbands theory is that his processor is fried.
My theory is that is mobo is fried.
My step son is convinced its the power supply.
And my 4yr old is convinced we're all nuts for spending so much time to fix a little black box that lets her play GW2. :S

If anyone can help me, i would greatly appreciate it! Thank you in advance!

Try Replacig your PSU Maybe around 850W or more.
If Your PSU is only 500W It cant supply your system with enough power...Hence all the screwy/Bizarre/unpredictableness of it all..

Hope tht Helps..


Cheers.....

 

[wanderer11]

System specs may be helpful. If you happen to have any spare parts (psu, monitor, ram, etc.) you could test with them. Also, have you tested the monitors to make sure they are both working? From what you said I am leaning towards the mobo being bad.

 

[13thmonkey]

Try Replacig your PSU Maybe around 850W or more.
If Your PSU is only 500W It cant supply your system with enough power...Hence all the screwy/Bizarre/unpredictableness of it all..

Hope tht Helps..


Cheers.....

I agree first thoughts are PSU, but we have no spec to base 850W on, a 500W can easily supply most 'normal' systems, 850 should be reserved for high end dual gpu systems.

OP can you list you system specs, and psu make and model.

With the case open, precisely what happens when you hit the power button, do fans twitch etc.?

 

[Bljones]

When we first started messing with it, the PSU konked from being on and off so much, but now it seems to be fine. All fans are running, HD is making the normal "im working" sounds this PSU has been in the computer since we put it together, and has been going well since. Only problem is nothing else seems to be working together. I have had issues with PSU's in the past, and they have never given these symptoms before.

Im not sure of all of the specs, other than it has nearly 4g of RAM, AMD2 Processor and an Nvidia Gforce GT 520. I have taken a few pictures of the inside, if it helps any.

 

[wanderer11]

That is one weak psu. Replace it. Onnly 192W on 12V rail. If you give a budget we will suggest one.

 

[Bljones]

about £30 is as high as i can go, £40 if i scrape the barrel and keep my step son from the food for a week.

 

[Bljones]

Could it be the power supply? even if it has been working perfectly fine for the past 2 years and only started going wonky when hubby hooked up 2 monitors to his PC?

 

[ronintexas]

If you have a local store that has a liberal return policy, or an online store that will take the return, try the PSU. They tend to be the weak link in most systems.

Here is a good PSU from Amazon UK:

http://www.amazon.co.uk/Corsair-CMPSU-430CXV2UK-Builder-Series-CX430V2/dp/B0057GTW56/ref=sr_1_7?s=computers&ie=UTF8&qid=1360334923&sr=1-7

They will take returns....

 

[13thmonkey]

That is one weak psu. Replace it. Onnly 192W on 12V rail. If you give a budget we will suggest one.

its also not a very power hungry system.

What precisely happens when you turn it on, what do you see and what do you hear?

 

[Bljones]

its also not a very power hungry system.

What precisely happens when you turn it on, what do you see and what do you hear?

Nothing other than it sounding like its booting up normally.

No beeps, no blip on the monitor, you can hear the hard drive going (we know the hard drive is OK, we hooked it up to another system and it worked fine), and the fan on the video card is going happily. no buzzes, humms or anything of the sort out of the ordinary.

Only thing out of the ordinary, as i stated before, is the power button on the front, instead of having to press and hold it to turn it off you just barely click it and it goes off. (even after leaving it running for about 5 mins)

I have checked the CPU, and it still has thermal paste on it (not dried out at all).

 

[13thmonkey]

Nothing other than it sounding like its booting up normally.

No beeps, no blip on the monitor, you can hear the hard drive going (we know the hard drive is OK, we hooked it up to another system and it worked fine), and the fan on the video card is going happily. no buzzes, humms or anything of the sort out of the ordinary.

Only thing out of the ordinary, as i stated before, is the power button on the front, instead of having to press and hold it to turn it off you just barely click it and it goes off. (even after leaving it running for about 5 mins)

I have checked the CPU, and it still has thermal paste on it (not dried out at all).

Thanks, 90% certain it is not PSU. could be GPU. do you have an video output on the mobo? do you have a geeky friend that has a spare gpu you can test with, put a shout out on facebook, make sure it is not a very good one (your psu might then become the problem)? The mobo could be refusing to boot properly because of the broken card.

Does it normally beep when booting? not everyone has a speaker built in.

 

[Bljones]

Thanks, 90% certain it is not PSU. could be GPU. do you have an video output on the mobo? do you have a geeky friend that has a spare gpu you can test with, put a shout out on facebook, make sure it is not a very good one (your psu might then become the problem)? The mobo could be refusing to boot properly because of the broken card.

Does it normally beep when booting? not everyone has a speaker built in.

We have tried 2 other graphics cards and the onboard graphics from the Mobo. and no luck Ill be in work until 9:30pm GMT, so i wont be able to reply, but will check this page first thing when i get home. If i have to share a computer much longer with my husband i may have to beat him with a spoon. :S

Thank you for your help so far!

 

[ronintexas]

It looks like from the troubleshooting you have done it is one of two things
1) Motherboard/CPU
2) Power Supply

The easier replacement is to try it with another PSU. If that doesn't fix it, replacing the motherboard first, then CPU would be next.

 

[13thmonkey]

We have tried 2 other graphics cards and the onboard graphics from the Mobo. and no luck Ill be in work until 9:30pm GMT, so i wont be able to reply, but will check this page first thing when i get home. If i have to share a computer much longer with my husband i may have to beat him with a spoon. :S

Thank you for your help so far!

try asking a local geek friend if they have a spare PSU. or buy one from PCworld to test, and take it back the same day as you aren't happy with how noisy it is, and want to do more research. if it works then buy a decent one for less on line.

 

[sixxnine7]

Hello! Recently my husband hooked up 2 monitors to his computer. After a lot of colorful words, he finally got it working and everything was fine for about a month. In this past week my daughter started up his computer and only one screen was showing, but it had no icons or start bar on the screen, so my husband rebooted it and since then we have not been able to get any video whatsoever. so far the things we have tried with no success are:

1) try a different video card & the onboard graphics card.
2) clear CMOS by clearing jumpers and replacing them & via taking out the motherboard battery.
3) take apart and re-assemble every component.
4) try RAM 1 stick at a time, and different slots/ with RAM not from the computer.
5) try running the computer with only Hard Drive and motherboard connected to the power supply.
6) try cursing and threatening it to work or face a hammer.
7) try different monitors and cables.

At the moment, we finally got it to start up, but its not a normal start up.. Still no picture, No beeps, no "windows pretty startup chime", and what i find odd is that normally to shutdown the computer from the buttons in the front, you would have to press and hold them to get the computer to shut down, now you just graze it and it turns the computer completely off.

My husbands theory is that his processor is fried.
My theory is that is mobo is fried.
My step son is convinced its the power supply.
And my 4yr old is convinced we're all nuts for spending so much time to fix a little black box that lets her play GW2. :S

If anyone can help me, i would greatly appreciate it! Thank you in advance!

It will be your PSU 350W is Too low. Not A power hungry system but I suggest You buy a coolermaster cpu 500W minimum.
dont buy a cheap and nasty they break down really quickly...

 

[13thmonkey]

350 is not too low, an aged or poor quality 350 might be too low. but it is the most likely cause of failure. a 500 is however a perfect size if it is a good one, it'd be nicely loaded, and gves a bit of room for expansion.

pcworld has a great returns policy, go and buy a 500 from them, see if it works, and then decide to return and re-buy or keep it.

this will be fine: http://www.pcworld.co.uk/gbuk/corsair-builder-series-cx500-atx-psu-500-w-19736920-pdt.html and i can only find it about £10 cheaper online, it'd cost you most of that for the shipping, so if it works then you are fine, if it doesn't solve the problem you can return it

 

[Bljones]

Thank you for your suggestions, I will try to get a new power supply today, But I am still not quite understanding as to why it could be the issue. I has had NO issues whatsoever until my husband went from 1 monitor to 2.

 

[13thmonkey]

that's why you need to buy from somewhere that is happy with returns. i'm not 100% convinced.

gaming should pull more power than just having dual screens...