Mother Board, Video Card or Other?

[MyCat8Toto]

Can anyone give me advise... here are my symptoms:

The power will come on, the keyboard lights will flash once or twice then turn off and do not come back on. The monitor does nothing, it has a green signal light indicating that it is communicating with the PC, but nothing happens on the screen. The power stays on the tower until i hit the power button.

I'm guessing since the keyboard does what it does it is a motherboard issue, though i would be greatful for any other suggestions.

It is a Pentium III/500 with 128RAM Approx 3 yrs old. If it is the motherbaord that is toast, where is the best place to search for a replacement?

Thanks for your help anyone.

[Midknyte]

Are there any beeps? Did you add/change anything recently?

Normally, you would first reseat the cpu, ram and video card. If that doesn't work, disconnect/remove everything except cpu, ram, and video and see if the system boots up. If it works, then add one part at a time. If not, swap out the ram, cpu, and video one at a time. If those still don't work, try another power supply.

Whatever you do, only change one thing at a time. That way, you can pinpoint what the problem is. :D

[MyCat8Toto]

Thank you Midknyte.

No, there are no beeps.
As for adding/changing anything, not to my knowledge. I bought this from a family memeber who claimed to have done nothing, just one day when they went to boot it, it did not boot. They went out and bought a new system and i inhereited this as an educational project.

I did re-seat the CPU, memory, and video last night, to no avail. My next step was going to swap out the video card, but i was afraid that if it is the motherboard that is bad, that it could ruin a new video card...am i crazy for thinking that?

Thanks so much for your help.

[Midknyte]

It's possible, but not probable that you would ruin a new card. If you get it from Compusa or Bestbuy, you could probably return it anyways.

If there are no beeps, it could mean a bad mainboard or power supply. When you hear beeps the board is going through its POST. The beeps are error codes that tell you what is not working properly. Usually you'll hear 1 beep, saying "everything is dandy". :)

Just thought of something. If there is no system speaker, you wouldn't hear the beeps! Doh. :eek:

[MyCat8Toto]

Thanks again.
I swaped out video cards last night and that wasn't it.
've been leaning toward the mainboard being the culprit anyway, though i never even thought about the lack of beeps when i power it on...looks like i am in the market for a new motherboard.
Thanks again for all your help.

[iowaboy]

you might ask the people who gave it to you if it had stormed before they noticed the computer stopped working. chances are lightning got it or power surge. could either be motherboard or power supply. check the modem and soundcard real close. look for a very small black spot. if you find one then replace the motherboard with a new modem and sound card. by the way, what kind of computer is it?

[MyCat8Toto]

The folks i got it from don't know about any storm in the area, they were out of town. The modem, video and sound cards all work, i swapped each one into my working PC to test them out and all was well. One thing i noticed that i thought was strange though, the PC always comes on when i plug it in...like the power button were stuck in the On position, but it isn't. Can this be another side effect of a bad motherboard?

The PC is a DTK bought about 2.5 - 3 years ago.

My other concern is, how do i know what motherboard to buy for a replacement? I know i need a slot1, the old board used BX440 chipset, and has 4 DIMM slots.
I went to DTK and the boards there that looked similar to the bad one, are all discontinued. Any ideas?

Thanks for your help.