problem booting

they just replaced the power meter on the house.
the computer was still running when they did it.

turning on. the fan on cpu spins as well as the power supply fan.
but will not boot. screen blank. says on signal.

pulled memory and got an error peep.
the drive to the dvd open and closes.
the hard drive spins. (can feel it spinning.)

but i get nothing on the display. (used the monitor on another computer. ok)

any ideas?

ps. video is onboard. do not have a second video card.


"kevin" wrote in message
el...
they just replaced the power meter on the house.
the computer was still running when they did it.

turning on. the fan on cpu spins as well as the power supply fan.
but will not boot. screen blank. says on signal.

pulled memory and got an error peep.
the drive to the dvd open and closes.
the hard drive spins. (can feel it spinning.)

but i get nothing on the display. (used the monitor on another computer.
ok)

any ideas?

kevin wrote:
ps. video is onboard. do not have a second video card.


"kevin" wrote in message
el...
they just replaced the power meter on the house.
the computer was still running when they did it.

turning on. the fan on cpu spins as well as the power supply fan.
but will not boot. screen blank. says on signal.

pulled memory and got an error peep.
the drive to the dvd open and closes.
the hard drive spins. (can feel it spinning.)

but i get nothing on the display. (used the monitor on another computer.
ok)

any ideas?


If you get a repeating error beep, with the RAM removed,
as far as I know that means the CPU executed some BIOS code.

How much RAM do you have ? If more than one stick, test
with just one stick at a time. I had one computer, where
a stick of RAM failed, and I could get to the BIOS by
reversing the order of the sticks installed on the motherboard.
That moved the bad RAM to high memory, and somehow that
passed the BIOS check. By testing the sticks one at a time,
I could get a better picture of which one had the dead
chip on it.

So somewhere between testing the RAM and presenting the
BIOS screen, something is failing. It could be built-in
video, or it could be some other component. You could
simplify the hardware setup a bit, and test again. Like
unplug the hard drive data cables, unplug the floppy,
remove "excess" add-in cards, then see if the video
comes up.

Some computer BIOS have a setting, that controls the
"primary" display when more than one video card is
present. So if adding a video card doesn't cure it,
the reason could be that the computer thinks it is
still using the built-in video. You'd need to get
at that BIOS setting, to try to change it. And without
a working video screen to do that, that is kinda a
catch22. And clearing the CMOS, would return that
setting to its default, which is likely to be a
non-useful value. But check the manual for the
motherboard, to see what the default value is,
and whether in fact it is something like PCI. As then
a test PCI video card might work out for you.
(The default value in the BIOS, doesn't always make
sense. Some motherboard BIOS are more clever than
others.)

Paul

tried clearing the cmos. also pulled the battery.
no go. when i pulled the memory. i got 1 long beep, which repeats.
(mobo is biostar geforce6100-m9)

the video is onboard. no other video card i can put in.
(the slots are for pci-e and the power supply does not
support that board.)

something else that i noticed.
when you switch off the power supply switch and back on, on the power
supply.
the led for power goes no. when i push the power buttom on front, it does
off and the system powers on.
no hard drive light either. (no activety)

"kevin" wrote in message
el...
tried clearing the cmos. also pulled the battery.
no go. when i pulled the memory. i got 1 long beep, which repeats.
(mobo is biostar geforce6100-m9)

the video is onboard. no other video card i can put in.
(the slots are for pci-e and the power supply does not
support that board.)

kevin wrote:
tried clearing the cmos. also pulled the battery.
no go. when i pulled the memory. i got 1 long beep, which repeats.
(mobo is biostar geforce6100-m9)

the video is onboard. no other video card i can put in.
(the slots are for pci-e and the power supply does not
support that board.)


The motherboard has a PCI Express x16 slot and two ordinary
PCI slots.

http://www.biostar.com.tw/app/en-us/...ic.php?S_ID=26

For low end PCI Express cards, they get their power through the
slot. In practical terms, the slot is good for about
50W. When a card goes over 50W consumption, that is when
a PCI Express card uses an Auxiliary power connector on
the end of the card.

This video card is $25 after rebate, and has a VGA and
a DVI connector, suitable for motherboard testing. HD 4350.
Power dissipation under 25W, and probably half that when
only doing 2D (desktop) stuff. So that is PCI Express
(your big slot).

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Produc...82E16814127391

For one of the other two slots, you can try something like
this. This one is $35, has DVI on the faceplate, and comes
with a DVI to VGA passive adapter dongle, to handle a VGA
monitor. The FX5200 has drivers for Win98, as well as more
modern drivers. I use a model similar to this, for flashing
the video BIOS on other video cards. It is good to have
one of these in your tool box, for testing.

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Produc...82E16814130188

Another test device, is the "PCI POST card", a two digit
display device that flashes codes during the BIOS POST.
If the device stays at "FF", then the CPU isn't executing
code. For other code values, you have to look them up,
which is a major problem with the idea. Not all motherboard
manuals include a table of values, and even when a table
is provided, is may not be correct or up to date. Still,
this particular one is $15, and a lot less than some I've
seen for $100. The card is placed in the PCI slot nearest
the processor, and the BIOS code writes to I/O Port 80
every time a significant subroutine in the BIOS code
is entered. The displayed value is thus a "progress code"
and not an "error code". If the BIOS freezes, then in theory
you know what routine it got stuck in, based on the
currently displayed value.

http://www.amazon.com/Elston-Systems...875 88&sr=8-1

A small portion of a POST code table. Each code is two
digit hexidecimal. Frequently, a "reserved" value shows
on the display, and then you don't know what it's doing.

*******
CFh Test CMOS read/write functionality
C0h Early chipset initialization:
Disable shadow RAM, L2 cache (socket 7 and below), program basic chipset registers
C1h Detect memory:
Auto detection of DRAM size, type and ECC, auto detection of L2 cache (socket 7 and below)
C3h Expand compressed BIOS code to DRAM
C5h Call chipset hook to copy BIOS back to E000 & F000 shadow RAM
01h Expand the Xgroup codes located in physical memory address 1000:0
02h Reserved
03h Initial Superio_Early_Init switch
04h Reserved
05h Blank out screen; Clear CMOS error flag
06h Reserved
07h Clear 8042 interface; Initialize 8042 self test
08h Test special keyboard controller for Winbond 977 series Super I/O chips;
Enable keyboard interface
09h Reserved
0Ah Disable PS/2 mouse interface (optional);
Auto detect ports for keyboard & mouse followed by a port & interface swap (optional);
Reset keyboard for Winbond 977 series Super I/O chips
0Bh Reserved
0Ch Reserved
0Dh Reserved
0Eh Test F000h segment shadow to see whether it is read/write capable or not.
If test fails, keep beeping the speaker
0Fh Reserved
*******

Paul

kevin wrote:

they just replaced the power meter on the house.
the computer was still running when they did it.
turning on. the fan on cpu spins as well as the power
supply fan. but will not boot. screen blank. says on signal.

So they didn't advise you they were cutting and restoring the
service. Complain to the power company. Let them worry about it.

--
[mail]: Chuck F (cbfalconer at maineline dot net)
[page]: http://cbfalconer.home.att.net
Try the download section.