Built Father's puter been working fine for over a year. Sunday he was on puter when phone rang - while on phone 5-10 minutes he noticed the screen go dark (similar to Power Management's suspend mode). Problem is computer won't boot now. When you power up computer: get a flash from the keyboard lights though only a flash - have it set to Num Lock at boot but this indicator isn't coming on after any period of time. Monitor power light blinks for a few then comes on solid - though no picture; don't see the POST test or Windows startup screen (or anything.) Checked brightness and connection and an alternate Monitor and alternate vid card - same result. On the puter - get power light and hd working light though the hd working light stays on - appears Windows doesn't load. No sound from Speakers (used to get Desktop Theme Startup sound). Instinct tells me MB problem or possibly HD (but thought I should get POST test if it was HD).

Puter Info: FIC VA-503+ MB VIA Apollo MVP3 chipset
AMD K6-2 450 mhz proc
64 Meg Ram PC-100 Dimm
Western Digital EIDE 25100 5gb HD
SVGA vid card (16 bit I believe though not positive)
16 bit sound card
40x CDrom

Thank you in advance for any assistance you may offer, you'll make my Christmas mailing list if the assistance helps me get it running again http://www.PCGuide.com/ubb/smile.gif

Route66_2K

We also tried booting to floppy boot disk though that didn't provide any success.

Welcome to The PC Guide! http://www.PCGuide.com/ubb/biggrin.gif While you're waiting for some replies, click here (http://www.pcguide.com/ts/index.htm) for some good ideas. http://www.PCGuide.com/ubb/smile.gif

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"I am not able to rightly apprehend the kind of confusion of ideas that could provoke such a question."
-- Charles Babbage, mathematician, computer pioneer, analytical engine designer (1791-1871)

I have troubleshooted to the best of my ability - no success. Can't get to Bios settings or to any prompt where I can look around inside. Hoping to get any opinion prior to stripping it down to swap motherboard and/or hd (if it is the hd he's lost alot of very important data - which happens we know). Father is pouting - nightly moderator of caregiver chat rooms (very dependent upon his computer)- now he can't chat. I've sent him to his room but his tantrums will only get worse http://www.PCGuide.com/ubb/mad.gif

[This message has been edited by Route66_2K (edited 05-08-2001).]

If the monitor is fairly new, try this.

Power everything down, disconnect monitor cable from video card.

Power up just the monitor.

Newer monitors may display some message indicating an error or "No data",
or an on-screen menu for adjusting settings.

If so, the monitor is probably OK.

If no message, or monitor is older, can you hook it to a different PC?

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"I am not able to rightly apprehend the kind of confusion of ideas that could provoke such a question."
-- Charles Babbage, mathematician, computer pioneer, analytical engine designer (1791-1871)

hi

before you replace anything, try taking the hard drive out, and put in a known working machine- to see if it's ok.

then you will have narrowed it down.

could be a power supply problem, or the board may have fried or the cooling fan could have stopped working and fried your chip. http://www.PCGuide.com/ubb/eek.gif

oh, and tj's advice on the monitor is good too.

http://www.PCGuide.com/ubb/wink.gif

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sea1_69@hotmail.com

homepage (http://www.seanweb1.homestead.com/3.html)



[This message has been edited by sea69 (edited 05-08-2001).]

Thanks for the help. Tried Monitor on another puter worked fine. Found the problem - bad dimm - swapped dimms and now it works fine. This site Rocks!! Haven't discovered a problem yet I couldn't find a solution for here (but I'm still young lol). Thanks again all for your replies http://www.PCGuide.com/ubb/smile.gif