HEY guys new to the forums and i have a huge problem.I turn on my computer and iut seems fine but no picturel from the monitor...the monitor does work. after further inspection i noticed it doesnt make the usual beep and booting sound from the HD. i have anoyher HD that works for sure and i plugged that in and still nothing....ive tried many things....what can it be....i need to get this computer started soon. please type up some suggestions and i will try everything. thankyou in advance

i noticed it doesnt make the usual beep and booting sound from the HD.

HDs don't beep. Please be more specific. HDs are hard drives that sit inside the case. The motherboard's chipset sends the beeps to a speaker on the motherboard, or a small speaker mounted inside the case - depending on the results from the POST - power on self test.

If you get nothing on the monitor when you power on, and you don't hear the hard drives spinning up or LEDs light on case front, and assuming all connections are tight and secure, I would ensure the power supply is good - typically by swapping in a known good one.

If the PSU is good, and you get no beeps when you used to, then that typically points to a failed CPU or motherboard. Not good.

ive tried many things

What?

If you want some more ideas, you are going to have to clue us in a bit as to what you got there - PC? Laptop? We need some makes and model numbers of hardware, the OS, and history of this problem.

little more info...

ASUS mobo. pci-e nvidia 8800gt, 2gb DDR2 mem 600watt PSU

ive made sure the psu works, the ram works, so far only thing that doesnt seem to work is the HD
. This has actually happened to me i nthe past and i gave up on it and started it up about 3 months after and it booted properly.


anything else you neeed to know tell me and i would answer thanks

so far only thing that doesnt seem to work is the HD

Even with a failed hard drive, you should still see the boot process start on the monitor, then fail when a boot drive cannot be found as that is way past loading up he BIOS and reading what is stored in CMOS.

ive made sure the psu works,

How? Here's my canned text on testing for a bad PSU.

I use a FrozenCPU Ultimate PSU Tester for power supply (PSU) testing when I am away from home. It is not as good as a qualified technician testing the PSU under a "true" (realistic) load with an oscilloscope or power analyzer, but close. The advantage of this model is that it has an LCD readout of the voltage. With an actual voltage readout, you can better detect a "failing" PSU, or one barely within specified tolerances. Lesser models use LEDs to indicate the voltage is just within some "range". These are less informative, considerably cheaper, but still useful for detecting PSUs that have already "failed". Newegg has several testers to choose from. All these testers contain a "dummy load" to fool the PSU into thinking it is connected to a motherboard, and therefore allows the PSU to power on, if able, without being attached to a motherboard - great for testing fans, but again, not a true load. Alternatively, you can swap out the PSU with a known good one that meets the computer's power requirements.

I do not recommend using a multimeter to test power supplies. To do it properly, that is, under a realistic load, the voltages on all the pins must be measured while the PSU is attached to the motherboard and the computer powered on. This then requires poking (with some considerable force) two, hard and sharp, highly conductive, meter probes into the heart of the computer. One tiny slip can destroy the motherboard, and everything plugged into it.

OKAY GUYS!!!!! UPDATE!! This morning i decided to work more on the computer...so i decided to take eerything off one by one,. I did that and slowly started putting the computer bacj tigether making sure everything was properly placed and tight and secure. Moment of truth...i start up the computer and i instantly notice a difference, My HD is ON!! then i hear the beep from the mobo and i look at my screen and i notice a normal boot up...i was excitted to say the least that my problems were over but i was wrong. The computer turns off while booting up....the farthest it gets is to the part where i have to choose if i want to run windows XP or Vista from when i used to have both. But for some reason my keyboard wont work and i cant select...but either way the computer turns off on its own. I will brb with a wuick update to see if its stilll possible to go to BIOS.

P.S-the longer i leave the cimputer off the more time it takes till it shuts off....but it never gets past boot up

i can go to BIOS but only for a little amount of time till it shuts off on its own,

i can go to BIOS but only for a little amount of time till it shuts off on its own,

And this setup did work correctly for awhile, right?

Originally Posted by carbinered

lThis has actually happened to me i nthe past and i gave up on it and started it up about 3 months after and it booted properly.

Leaving a computer unused for extended periods of time can cause your computer to mess up even worse. It sounds to me like it is either your hard drive or motherboard/cpu. One reason it could shut down is if the cpu is overheating however if it is worse after leaving it off longer periods of time than sounds like maybe you have a MB or CPU issue. You could try getting a can of compressed air and blowing out all of the fans out. Also you should take the fan off of your heat sink and clean off the heat sink. Unfortunately it probably would take your computer longer to heat up too high and shut down then it seems to take according to your description but it's something to try.

Leaving a computer unused for extended periods of time can cause your computer to mess up even worse.

What? Sorry, but not true - unless you are talking years, and in a wet, dirty basement or garage somewhere. The only thing you can be sure of by leaving a computer unused for long periods is it's security will be outdated. I am not suggesting you can put a computer on a shelf for 10 years and expect it to work upon first power up (although if properly stored, it has a good chance) - the lubricants in the drive motors may have solidified a bit and take some time to spread around again. My point is the mechanicals would be the issue, not the electronics.

Also you should take the fan off of your heat sink and clean off the heat sink.

I disagree with this as well. Certainly, you should clean the CPU fan and heatsink, but there is no reason to remove the fan to do so. In fact, since many fans attach by the screws cutting their own threads into the heatsink metal, by removing and replacing the fan you risk metal filings falling on to the circuitry.

Well I know that my computer computer will start to overheat if I don't remove all of the dust every once in a while and I can't do that without taking off the fan. The screws don't touch any metal so for me it is safe to remove. I suppose that doesn't apply to everyone.

There are some fans in housings and ductwork that I can see might need removal for access - but many mount by screws to the fins and don't.

I know that my computer computer will start to overheat if I don't remove all of the dust every once in a while

I wish everyone understood this applies to EVERY computer that has at least one fan drawing cool air in, or at least one exhausting hot air out - there are very few computers (PC or notebook) that don't have at least one - many have 3 or more.