major booting problem

  • Thread starter Thread starter William Rose
  • Start date Start date
W

William Rose

Ok, here's my dilemma. While I was away for the last month my computer just
completely seemed to stop working. When I turn it on nothing appears
onscreen.

I originally thought my video card crapped out on me since the monitor
doesn't even wake when I turn on the computer (the monitor does work
though). So, I was hoping to connect the monitor to my spare PCI video
card, but I'm not sure how to get the computer to recognize the card. Right
now my BIOS and XP are set to check my onboard video instead of the PCI
slot, so how would I even go about changing those settings if I can't even
see the BIOS and XP menus to change it?

I'd like an answer to that question if possible just for future reference,
but I'm starting to think it's not the problem.

I've noticed that when my computer turns on, the light on the front of the
tower that indicates that the processor is busy only comes on for a second
then stays off. I'm almost sure that XP isn't booting, and I'm now starting
to think that my BIOS might not even be loading up. That would be a
motherboard problem right? I'm not very experienced with hardware so I'll
probably just take the computer in to get checked, but is there anything I
could do to test my suspicions? Can anybody think of any other sources of
the problem? Thanks very much in advance.
 
ok well you said your computer dosnt display a picture well dos your
computer turn on even, do you see a green light at the front of it?
if your computer dosnt work then its ether your power suply or computer
case.
if its your video card then jest be plug and play
 
I originally thought my video card crapped out on me since the monitor
doesn't even wake when I turn on the computer (the monitor does work
though). So, I was hoping to connect the monitor to my spare PCI video
card, but I'm not sure how to get the computer to recognize the card. Right
now my BIOS and XP are set to check my onboard video instead of the PCI
slot, so how would I even go about changing those settings if I can't even
see the BIOS and XP menus to change it?
Click to expand...

You can't.... what you CAN do though is find the jumper to clear the BIOS
and use it. This will reset the BIOS to it's defaults and should allow the
video card to beautomatically detected. I would pull your old video card
first tho.

I'd like an answer to that question if possible just for future reference,
but I'm starting to think it's not the problem.

I've noticed that when my computer turns on, the light on the front of the
tower that indicates that the processor is busy only comes on for a second
then stays off. I'm almost sure that XP isn't booting, and I'm now starting
to think that my BIOS might not even be loading up. That would be a
motherboard problem right?
Click to expand...

Well if you have onboard video and disabled that and your video card is
indeed fried, the system *should* halt itself until a good working video
card is detected. Again first try resetting the BIOS to see if that cures
your problem. If that doesn't work here are a few questions. Is the
computer actually running? Fans should still spin, drives will spin up
etc... If so you could try reseating all cards, Ram, and heatsink, etc...

HTH
-Chris
 
Resetting the BIOS worked like a charm. My onboard video card seems to be
fine I guess, so what would have caused something like this to happen?

Thanks a lot for the help :).
 
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