Where to start

[gwlogue]

An old no-name system running Win98se. Wouldn't start the other day but after a few tries with the restart button it came up and was OK. Since then it will not start. It seems to be powering up but no messages on the screen and no beep's. The CD drive light flashes and that is where it sits, with the light on the CD flashing.

I was thinking if the H/D drive was gone I should get a No System Disk message but the screen remains blank.

This monitor has a green blinking light when the system is powered down and it stays that way during this process.

The lack of any beeps makes me think there might be something wrong with the BIOS but what?

Any ideas how to proceed?

Thanks

[Sterling_Aug]

Either bad power supply or bad system board.

[gwlogue]

Any ideas on how to test? I can drag a P/S from one of the system carcasses I have kicking around and hope that it is good. Is there a way to test the system board?

[code_azn]

Is the bio posting?
If not, then reset the bios, try another ps, and if you still can't get anything on the screen then try taking out all the components except the cpu.
If it doesn't post, then the mobo could be bad.
If it does post then add in the rest of the hardware. If could one of them causing your pc to fail to boot correctly.

[gwlogue]

The only thing I'm not sure how to do is reset the BIOS. Never done it before.

[missiveusa]

Either move the CMOS jumper over one pin to "clear", then back to normal setting, or remove the battery for 10-15 minutes. The way I usually nail down the culprit hardware is by elimination: plug in known good parts like the PSU. If everything checks out good, the mainboard is kaput. Good luck.

[gwlogue]

I pulled the power plugs of all internal devices, disconnected all external devices and even removed the vide, modem and sound cards. Still no beeps when starting. I'll try another PSU but I'm thinking it's a waste of time.

[rmanet]

this has got to be an old PIII sysytem maybe, probably bad psu, and any upgrading unless you stay with win9x guaranteed you'll have problems finding new drivers because I'm sure other components may not have them available. I'd back up the driver info for all components - google AIDA 32 to find out what's installed - then make sure you have that.

If you check the HDD with diagnostics and the new psu works reinstall w98, but you're right - that machine isn't worth paying $$ to replace components with the price of budget desktops.

[gwlogue]

Tried another PSU...still no beeps at power on.

[gwlogue]

I'm curious....when a motherboard/BIOS goes south does it happen like this...no warning symptoms?

[MJCfromCT]

When I had the motherboard on my main desktop fail, it did so with very little warning. You could check for bulging/leaking capacitors on the motherboard, that would be the tell-tale sign that something is wrong.