Yes, the diagnostic POST cards work well. The main thing is that they have a
two-digit LED that displays the motherboard's POST code. No POST code at all or
zeros continually usually means a dead motherboard or CPU. They usually show
whether or not the 3.3v, 5v and 12v lines are supplying the right voltage.

HP contracted with a manufacturer for the motherboard in your system, as it does
all of its motherboards. The best and only information you can obtain about it
is from the support section of the HP web site. Simply enter the model of the
system, and look for specifications. HP does not stock many, if any,
replacement motherboards for its consumer models, Presario and Pavilion, and
your system is now too old for HP to stock them anyway. Best bet for a
replacement is eBay.

I will also bet that the Presario power supply is problematic. If the brand is
"Bestec", it is the same brand used in the eMachines computers known to fail
regularly.

At this point, I'll vote for a failed motherboard, not just the video, with a
highly probably flaky power supply. You may be at the point where it is simply
time to replace the computer... Ben Myers

On Thu, 13 Dec 2007 03:47:20 GMT, "debm via HWKB.com" u39818@uwe wrote:

Ben Myers wrote:
Chances are that the motherboard would have to be replaced, given the symptoms
you described. If you added another video card with the same result, either the
motherboard has failed or there is small chance that the motherboard BIOS is not
switching to the card you added. To check out the latter possibility, unplug
the computer, carefully remove the C2032 battery for about 5 minutes and put it
back in again, then with the other video card installed plug the computer cord
into the wall current and try again. If you still get the same result, the
motherboard has likely failed.

If you are somewhere in the vicinity of ZIP 01451, west-northwest of Boston by
I-495, bring it over and I can diagnose and repair... Ben Myers

thanks for the advice,but my question is,if the the onboard video is bad,how
do i go about adding additional video in the pci slot,i tried another video
card from my other computer,but nothing,i thought that if the onboard video
was already registered in the bios,you could not add another video adapter,is
my board going to have to be replaced or is there somthing else i can do?
thanks
i tried taking the battery out to clear the cmos and tried another video card,
one i know works.but still a black screen ,i saw some pc diagnostics cards on
ebay,wonder if they work?and no i live in nicholas county.i've rebuilt
computers before,just never had this kinda problem before,any ideas you can
give would be very helpful,thanks.i've tried getting in touch with hp just to
find out the type of motherboard that is installed but my warranty already
ran out so they wouldn't even tell me that,i think it has a socket a
processor and the chipset is km266 mghz and the video is via-s3,other than
that i'm stuck...