Ok I'll tell you my situtation...:

Oct/12/05, woke up started playing AAO (America's Army, I'm 1337 ) and all of the sudden everything froze... I try the hard reset button, nothing. So i waited 5 mins, nada. Decided to turn off the main power switch(in the back of the comp), after that... not so good. I'd try to turn it back on, no good. Monitor did nothing (well the monitor's power button would go green, then go back to orange, which was usally stand-by/off mode). So i thought it was my monitor's problem, so i pluged it in to my old comp (which i am on right now) and it worked... So i thought i was my grphic card, so i removed it and tried plugging it into the integrated video card, nothing... So right now I'm think it's my motherboard problem. The fans (both of them works, 1 on the board itself, 1 on graphic card), the light, and everything else seems to run fine, the HD SOUNDS like it's running.

So to sum up what I did:

1) plug monitor into old computer = work
2) plug my sister's computer's monitor into my grphic card = no good
3) plug my sister's computer's monitor into my integrated video card = no good
4) plug my monitor into integrated video card = no good
5) clean all the dust and stuff out of my computer = no good

Any ideas anyone, i need my new computer up because my homework (yes I'm still in school, laugh at me
) is still on my new computer, and the teachers is on strike ( Guess where I live ) where I am and I have no clue when they're going off the strike so i need my computer up ASAP, sry for the long read, thx for helping.

Hello,
I had the same problem and yes it was my mother board.

Removed double quote posting.

Did you have to get a new one?

From what you have posted, I cannot say I believe, or do not believe the problem is with your motherboard. The information needed to make even a tentative diagnosis from a distance is not yet available.

I'd want to know what the machine is doing when you turn it on - how much boot activity is it actually accomplishing? Halting at the start, or completely loading the OSW? I use sound and panel lights for this, when video is unavailable.

For me to hazard a guess about your situation I would need information like the following - not all of it, but at least a few items that would let me better direct my questions:

What is the make and model of the machine, and the motherboard? I would want to be able to research the behavior of your BIOS, and need MOBO information to do that.

Do you have sound enabled on your machine? Does it boot silently, under normal circumstances, or do you get sounds? Machines used to produce beep codes on boot, now I hear some systems have those turned off in bios - not a good thing. Machines should complain with nasty noise if no graphics support is detected - wonder why yours is not doing that?

I have sounds for OS start actions enabled, so I can track what is happening on OS boot, for just such situations as you have outlined. But you may not be getting to OS boot at all - I cannot tell from your post.

You say your HD "sounds like" it is running. You refer to a "light" being on. Have you made a habit of observing your drive activity on boot, as represented by the drive light and drive access sounds? How does that compare with what you hear now? What you see in the drive activity light when you boot now, compared to before?

Can you cause the drive to perform disk accesses, as indicated by sounds and the drive light, by "instrument flying" keyboard actions? For instance can you cause the machine to Shut Down by hitting control-alt-delete twice?

Have you carefully reseated your grapics card?

Did you remove your graphics card when you attempted to use the MOBO integrated graphics by plugging in your sisters and your own monitors? That may be necessary, if the MOBO disables the integrated graphics support when it detects the presence of a graphics card. (Again, details for the MOBO and associated BIOS are needed to think this through or even begin to research it.)

In short, we are as blind as you are, right now. More info is needed. We'll be waiting.

Bare with me, I'm no pro at hardwares.


- I checked the box(the one with all the info) that the comp came with, and I thnik the MOBO is
ASRock K7S41GX. I don't know if this is what your looking for, and if it's not, I'll continue looking.


- I never payed attention to the sounds the computer makes while it was starting up, and no i didn't have the speakers plugged in while I was trying all the stuff listed above.



- If memory serves correctly, I belive the computer used to make a sound while it started up, sound as if it's scratching... kinda hard to explain. Anyway, it's not doing it now. The light i refer to was the one infront of the computer, below (or on the side and above for some other comps) the On button.


- I didn't have the keyboard plugged in. I know, I should of had stuff like this plugged in...


- Yes


- Yep, learned that the first time I installed the graphics card.

I'd tried to answer the questions to the best of my ability, hoped it helped. And on the side note, my mom took the comp for fixing, but i still want to push this problem, cause this is the weirdest thing happen to me in 14 years of owning a computer...

It may be just as well the machine went to the shop.

For those wishing to follow up on this, the ASRock K7S41GX is listed as
Socket 462
chipset SIS 741GX

ASRock was founded as a MOBO maker in 2002, they have 3 years experience in the business.

Pikester, if I am mistaken in the following, let me know. With 14 years behind you, you were running with no speakers, and no keyboard plugged in at the time the trouble occurred.

You have no record of, and currently no way to identify and report on the status of any beep codes issued by the machine at boot, either before the problem occurred, or when it occurred.

Do you have the manual for the motherboard, or any documentation that describes the POST beep codes?

Has the original (I believe it should be AMI) bios been tampered with at all? Is it current?

This MOBO should have an AMI bios which should be running POST (power on self test) and issuing beep codes on boot. These codes do not rely on speakers, but on the beeper on the MOBO.

I suspect it is not. Just a hunch.

I suspect something blew the BIOS away, and the POST is not being run. Sudden power loss can do this, especially during boot.

If the BIOS is good, and the MOBO is functioning, there should be beep codes. If we could find out those codes we could diagnose other Power On problems that may be occuring.

If we knew enough to know we were directing our efforts at the right target, we could explore how to restore the BIOS on this MOBO, if that is possible. (Explore such things as removing the BIOS power supply battery , checking the MOBO documentation to see if there is a jumper for the reset, etc.)

In the absence of any of that data, I cannot see a way to penetrate this problem any further - though there may be others here who can.

There is a thread touching on some of these issues at
http://www.geekstogo.com/forum/Computer-Wi...ost-t60866.html

Comments and suggestions, anyone?

And Pikester, you are lucky to have such a mom. Hang in there, it looks like things will settle down in time to get back to school.