Now then, is it my motherboard, cpu, or video card?

Question

Ok, with the help of you guys I have determined that my PSU is fine. I tested it in another computer a little bit weaker than mine. It got everything up and running fine. Next, I tried putting the PSU back in the computer with the possibly fried mobo. This time I took the vid card out and plugged the monitor cable into the onboard video. (I just wanna see the BIOS baby!) Still nothing, the feared "Black screen" of my monitor showing no response to the computer disheartens me. Next I tried putting in a weaker video card into the mobo. Still nothing. Now, if my mobo is fried, it won't utilize the video card and gimme a BIOS output right? Now, the cpu isn't in charge of putting out a video output, so if I take that out and still nothing gives me a BIOS screen then it is my mobo and I should look into purchasing a new one? I have a 2.66ghz cpu, 1gb ram, 2HDDs 100gigs total, DVD+-RW, 256mbRadeon9550 Video Card, 500watt PSU, ATX case, can anyone recommend a cheap (under $100) motherboard?

Answer 1

to be honest with you since i dont have the pc in my shop its gonna be hard to diagnose but im gonna go out on a limb here and say this.

if you have no screen at all and the computer beeps. then you COULD HAVE a bad monitor or cable or even a bad vid card. however it sould also just be a bad setup in the bios itself. id try to do like the other guy stated. if the computer will show you a bios then try to reset it all back to default.

if all you get is a black screen and no beeps and no lights on the drives at all then dude i hate to tell you this but its time to get a new mobo. that puppy is cooked.
if you get a short beep then long beeps then short again then its the memory most of the time.
a long beeeeeeeeep menas you have a cpu problem(either its cooked or not getting power)
however as i stated if you have no screen at all then more than likely you will need a new mobo.
also please note you may need to dump it all. the mobo the cpu and the memory.
sometimes a bad power supply(or one to small) can cause a computer to work but will slowly kill the thing. for instance if you have a 250 watt psu and runing 2 hdd 1 gig and 2.66 gig chip then its too little
however you stated you have a 500 this should be sufficient for oyur neeeds. id still have it checked out by a pro to see if it has any problems though. it could be a 500 and still be pushing only a limited amount or be getting to hot.

now about a new mobo. id check out tiger direct or global for a cheap one. plenty of stuff for the budget minded that still kick ***.
good luck dude.

Answer 2

If the video card is not on board, it actually could be the video card. If your motherboard also has an on board video chip/vga port, try connecting to that. Also, check your ram cards. They can cause this problem if the primary RAM card goes bad. If your primary RAM card did go bad, you would not hear any error beaps. It is most likely not your motherboard or cpu, otherwise you would probably not hear your hard drive running, as it is the motherboard and cpu that tell the hard drive to run. After several years in the industry, I have found that when it is a bad CPU or Motherboard, your hard drive does NOT start spinning. I have also found that with some, but not all, non-on board video cards they can go bad with out giving an error beep at boot up. Some motherboards also will not beap when your primary RAM card has gone bad, however, some do. If you do not have an on-board video card to try, you might try putting in a small 32-MB video card if you have one on hand and see if that works. If you don't have one, try checking the RAM cards by switching the spots they are in and see if that works.

Answer 3

If you start your pc and see it posting enough to where it'll take you to your bios, sounds more like a setting to me. Id check the connections, start it up, and run it with just the basic hardware. Leave the vga connected to the onboard. You've also mentioned no response from the monitor, and i sounded more like RAM to me, although i don't have the pc in front of me, so i'm doing the best i can to help you resolve this problem. Reset everything, don't hook up anything unneccessary, If you hear it posting, Try a different monitor.
Hope you fix it.

Answer 4

Here's one thought, there are some programs that you can download on line that can run a diagnostic on your hardware and find out what is wrong. Look through the various programs. Some of them even let you use them on a trial basis.