any advice? pc working fine night before put into hibernate as always turned it on next morning got power , fans all running but no monitor no mouse or k/b lights hdd not spinning changed to other hdd same deal,any help would be cool ..capmgoodvibes.

Try a different monitor.
If there's a display, then replace your monitor.

If another monitor does not work, then install/connect only the power supply, MB, CPU, memory, video card, monitor, case speaker, and power button, and make sure the power supply's voltage selector switch is set to the correct voltage and the PS connection to the MB is securely seated.

If there's no display with a different monitor, then check the CMOS battery for the correct voltage(3V).
If that's ok, then clear CMOS with a MB jumper.
If you do not know which jumper to reposition to clear CMOS, then clear it by removing the CMOS battery for at least 30 minutes.

If no luck, then place the MB on a piece of cardboard. If there's now a display, then the MB is shorting out when installed in the case. Check for a loose screw, standoff, etc., inside the case, and also remove any standoffs which do not line up with MB holes. If none is found, then remove all MB screws and metal standoffs, and install paper washers(manila folder paper works good for this) between the MB and the screws/standoffs.


If there's no display with the MB placed on a piece of cardboard, then proceed with the following:

(1)Test the following PS leads on the back of its MB connector making sure the connector is installed on the MB and system is powered up with the 'Power On' button:
yellow wire and a black wire- +12V
red " " " " - +5V
orange " " " " - +3.3V
If these voltages are not up to spec, then the PS is bad.
If you do not have a voltmeter, then try a different PS.

(2)If the PS voltages are ok, or there's no display with a different PS, then either the MB, CPU, memory, or video card may be bad. Make sure the correct memory type is being used, remove and reinsert the memory a few times making sure it's firmly seated, install the memory in different slots(some MB's require that their memory slots be populated starting with slot 4 and not slot 1), and make sure the video card is firmly seated(some video cards need an extra firm push to seat properly).
If still no display, then check the MB for leaking or ruptured capacitors, and the CPU for chips or cracks.
If both look ok, then swap out the MB, CPU, memory, and video card to find out which one is defective.

thanx Ski I'll go through those processes and see wot develops I'm lucky ive got a spare pc (Athlon!), also the green power light is on but the hard drive indicator light just comes on and stays on when normally it flickers with hdd activity...

Originally posted by capmgoodvibes
...also the green power light is on but the hard drive indicator light just comes on and stays on when normally it flickers with hdd activity...
Might want to run the HD manufacturer's diagnostics disk on the drive to check for problems. The indicator light burning steady red could be an indication of failure. If you don't already have the disk, check Jiggy's thread at the top of this category where he has very helpfully posted links to all the major drive manufacturers. :)

Thanx for the help i bought a new M/B eveything works now xcept Both sata HDDs wont run or show in bios, plugged a IDE HDD in & it worked fine but get nuthin withe sata no activity lights or anything. can both be sick at the same time??

What kind of motherboard do you have? The intel boards have the SATA recognition built right into the chipset, and that allows the bios to natively recognize the drives-it's really nice. Chipsets like the NForce 2 have third party SATA recognition, and that means taht you won't see it in the bios itself. I have an Asus A7N8X Deluxe, and the only place I see anything showing SATA before booting off the hard drive is a raid configuration panel.

On the other hand, the hard drives should still spin up when you turn on the computer, and if they're not, then they're getting no power. (I'm not sure what you mean by "No activity lights or anything") I've known several people who looked at the back of the drive, saw no power connector that they recognized, and then just assumed that it drew power off the mobo. Almost all Sata hard drives use an adapter that looks similar to the data cable. I assume, however, since you seem to have had at least one SATA drive in your old setup, that you are familiar with this.

If they spin up, but aren't recognized by the system, then it may be an issue with making sure you install a third party driver when you're installing your os (for the Third party SATA chips. Intel should have no problems with this) or make sure the jumper that enables the SATA connections is set to enabled (again depends on the motherboard you have. some have a jumper, some are switched in the bios). if none of this makes your sata connections work, then I suppose it is possible your sata is broken in the mobo itself; I dont' know how common this is, however.

Orion

Yeah thanx Orion I have a Gigabyte 8IK1100 M/B which has the Intel 875P chipset thats in being checked for faults I bought an aopen M/B which has the SIS 655 chipset wot I meant by "No activity lights" is the HDD lights don't showup with the sata disks, I plugged in an IDE drive and they worked so i even tried to reinstall xp on the sata dr got about 95 % there, on reboot just get the same screen " windows xperienced a prob start in last good config etc" I plugged the sata in to another pc,(had to use a raid card) & copied all the files from it to sata using Diskwizard plugged the drive back into mine boot screen says "error loading OS"..so I'm at my wits end...

did you totally reformat the hard drives before trying to install the os? sounbds like the errors I got when I only formatted one of my partitions and the mbr got screwed up. had to totally wipe the entire drive and then reinstall the os. Good selection on chipset, byu the way!

Orion

Hey thanx Orion & everyone else who replied, cool forum. I just went & bought a Maxtor 60GB ide drive plugged it in reinstalled xp everything all runnin normal now so don't know wots goin on with the 2 sata drives to both go down at the same time they were both connected so maybe a virus but they're still under waranty so they'll be goin back for testing ok stay cool evryone ..snort snort!!

Hey thanx again to all who helped me I got a replacement M/B (new ) under the warranty as the other was faulty everything back to normal now don't know wot the prob was they just gimme a new one so hey thats cool again thanx some good advice helped me a lot............the capm'