PC doesn't boot up

[NickPr]

Hi,
I have a problem with a PC I'm working on. I am an amateur PC technician, and I havent worked on PCs in about a year. The PC I'm working on for a relative is a Compaq Presario, and the specs are
PIII 933Mhz 128 MB RAM, 60GB HD running WinME. Now, initially when I started it, it booted up with a distorted winme startup screen, and then would go no further. The second time I powered on, it didnt even boot. All fans, lights, etc are on, but there is no display at all. All cables are firmly in place, and there is power going to the monitor. I've tried reseting the CMOS, replacing the battery, tried a different HD, only thing I have not tried is replacing the CPU, as I have no PIII's to use. Any ideas as to what the problem might be? Only thing I can think of is that the mobo is fried, and I hoping thats not the case.

Thanks!

[ski]

The problem can be caused by a bad MB, CPU, memory, or video card.
Also, a grounded MB can cause it. To troubleshoot this, remove the MB from the case and place it on a piece of cardboard.

[sleddog]

The most important word here may be Compaq. If I recall correctly, they store the BIOS settings on the harddrive (?) And if I recall correctly again, the only way of re-installing the OS on them is by using the Compaq restore CD (?) But I may be dreaming :) Hopefully someone with some Compaq experience will wade in here.

[mjc]

sleddog...the last Compaq that I know of that stored the settings on the dard drive was made in 1999. The newer ones are more or less "normal" in that area. It could be the video card (if it has onboard then, hopefully there will be a way to disable it), I am leaning toward it or the motherboard.

[NickPr]

Thanks for the input guys. I just found out through compaq's support forums that MANY people are having the same problem with this particular model. It seems that the motherboard is faulty and causes a short somewhere which then causes the CPU fan to stop working. And we know what happens then. So if you ever come across a Presario 5000 series, be weary of this problem as it is apparently very common.

thanks again

[Jacobs4]

I too have a similar problem. I have read all your comments and will check out.

I am in the process of assembling a PC on Gigabyte GA 81E 533 (using Intel 845E chipset) their latest board with a 2.4 GHz P4 and 300W AOpen case & PS; 512MB RAM, and a Radeon VE based graphic card. Storage is a Liteon CDRW, Toshiba DVD, and 2 nos Seagatte Barracuda 80GB, 7200rpm HDDs. The lights blink and fans run for a fraction of second, all activity stops and then nothing happens.

I have read thru several discussions on the subject on this and other forums. I realize the possible problems could be a faulty "softpower" switch (will check out), incompatible Video card (CAN THIS STOP THE POST?), problem with the the RAM (unlikely) or faulty Motherboard (unlikely). I will be checking through all the troubleshooting procedures.

DOES ANYBODY IN THIS FORUM HAVE EXPERIENCE WITH THIS MOTHERBOARD and Aopen power supply? The comaptibility problem probably needs to be addressed as all other checks I can do.

Any help appreciated

jacobs4