black screen, not even a beep....help!

[doowle]

I swear, I made no software or hardware changes last night. Just worked with scanner, quicken, word proc software. But this morning I hit the power button, all I get is fans. No beeps at all, nothing on the screen at all. Won't even restart by the restart or power buttons, have to turn off the power supply. How do I troubleshoot this to find the problem? I have an abit ka7-100, amd athlon 800mhz, 128mb ram.
I did doublecheck cable to monitor, and reseated the video card. I then pulled all cards but the video card, no change. Then switched out video card for working video card from another computer, still nothing. Beyond that, I don't know what to try...Please help! Thanks.

[This message has been edited by doowle (edited 09-03-2001).]

[This message has been edited by doowle (edited 09-03-2001).]

[doowle]

How depressing...I reseated it a half dozen times (I'm desperate). Nothing. Just fans.
My other 'puter is a socket 370, so unfortunately I don't have a processer to try swapping out.
I guess I am #$%&*, unless anyone has any other suggestions. Good excuse to upgrade I guess, but I was really quite happy with that setup. Bummer.
Am I correct in assuming it's more likely the mobo than the processor?

[jeffpapier]

powersurge powersurge why did you gut my cpu? The mystery of it all!

check all the connections three or four times. then the power plug on the M/B. I reset a video card four times by feel, before I noticed it was hanging up.

But my best guess is a hot ground during the night, running enough current through the power supply (ATX on standby current)to fry the cpu..one more mouse frying itself in the wires.

[doowle]

I reseated the power plug, video card, and processor over and over until my hands hurt. Nothing. I had multiple surge suppressors...but I guess that was not enough.

[SPEEDO]

Did you try swapping the CPU, Or first try reseating yours.

Be very careful upon removal of fan & heatsink!!

SPEEDO

[gtr]

I had this problem with slot A cpu's. When i'm moving or something the cpu goes loose and i have to plug and replug up to 6 times or until i get a bios or startup screen. Good luck.

[SPEEDO]

Do you have another power supply that you can try?

SPEEDO

[newbie~wan]

I am not sure what repercusions this will have on existing data, if any, on your system. But no post, just fans, sounds like maybe cmos needs cleared.

I've had same situation before and this helped me out when I overclocked cpu to point it wouldn't POST (hence no bios).

Maybe some other members can answer whether clearing cmos will do anything to existing data on HDD but I don't imagine it would.

[doowle]

Speedo: I tried switching out the power supply. No luck.
neo_otyugh: I was looking at the kta7-raid abit board as a possible replacement board, but now you have me rethinking the whole abit thing...
newbie~wan: Tried clearing cmos. Nothing.

A friend who had a slot a cpu lying around came over with that, tried it, nothing. But he didn't have a slot a board anymore, so I can't be really sure his cpu was working.

I am not holding out too much hope at this point (sob), although if anyone has any other suggestions I would love to try them.

Thanks to everyone who has been kind enough to give me suggestions.



[This message has been edited by doowle (edited 09-04-2001).]

[Til]

Is the cmos battery good?

[Wizzard~Of~Ozz]

If you have to replace the board, I'ld replace it with a 133Mhz Socket A, even if it means replacing the CPU, for the cost of a new CPU the upgradability is worth it (1.4 without having to replace the board again)
My suggestion would have been power supply but that was mentioned.

[SPEEDO]

This is going to sound pretty far out, But if you run your machine with the cover off there is a remote possibility that something could have fallen into the case between the motherboard and the case!!

SPEEDO

[Wizzard~Of~Ozz]

Not that remote, a Friend of mine (Works at computer store) upgraded his Mobo and didn't check where those little god pegs go, and accidentally put one right under the ram, solder connections right one it, no boot, no post no sounds. so your idea is quite accurate. Look under your mobo for anything that you can't see coming through on the other side =]

[doowle]

Switched out the cmos batt. No luck. Yanked the mobo out, hoping for something underneath...nothing.

If nothing else, this experience has taught me I need a case upgrade too...this case is a pain in the ___ .

Yes, I agree, no replacement board for this cpu. Looks like socket is the only way to go nowadays (again). My nifty little slot A has become pretty much extinct apparently.

[doowle]

Well, after gazing sadly at my dead mobo for a few minutes, I took a close look at the capacitors next to the cpu that neo_otyugh mentioned were leaking on his abit...and 3 of them did have bulges on the top. Not enough that I would have ever noticed if neo_otyugh hadn't mentioned it, but enough to tell they aren't perfectly flat like the others. No leaking, but...probably the source of my problem. An abit issue I wonder? Pretty amazing coincidence...