Solved can a burnt vid card stop a startup boot?

[Solarstarshines]

Ok here is the question my cousin brought his old p4 to me for a upgrade he is only able to run ddr2100 266mhz max ram i dont know his cpu exactly but pretty much first start and mind you this is the set up he had already with a 256 mb mem chip installed

nothing happened not even a beep so i went around checking all the connections so forth but then i noticed the video cards fan wasn't spinning could this cause a pc malfuntion that would keep it from booting?

 

[whs]

At boot, the BIOS checks all the components in the system. I am not certain how it would react to a defunct Graphics, but I am certain it would not boot because it could not even display anything on the monitor.
Whether a fan can do that though, I am not sure. Maybe the fan sets only in when a certain temperature is reached.

 

[thefabe]

if the card is fried you should get 1 long and 2 short beeps upon startup providing you have the speaker hooked up on your motherboard.
Award bios beep codes BiosCentral - Award BIOS Beep Codes assuming it's an award bios.
Generally the video card fan spins upon startup, unlesss the cards bios tells it to wait till a certian temp.
Are you able to see the startup screen or is their no no display at all? this would be an indication your card is fried. Fabe

 

[Solarstarshines]

well reason im asking is my cousin said before he brought the compuiter to me it was working i didnt touch anything and then i tryed to fire it up and nothing i checked everything swaped drives ect

no beeps heard i really didnt even hear the harddrive spin

after that i looked at the little card for the monitor the fan was inmobile so i figured maybe the card burnt out cause i basicly told him his system died untill i seen the card fan not spinning so i figure i might be able to save it

if not i guess hell have to invest in a better system basicly he just wanted to upgrade the ram cause he is running programs that makes his system way to slow

but why would i put new ram in a machine that doesnt even boot ?

so i am really open to suggestions cause it doesnt make sense if it was running and when i get it it is not unless he is lying about it working before it got to me but i doubt he'll do that lol

 

[Mellon Head]

I'm gonna ask a question, and just so you don't think I'm trying to be insulting, I'll tell a little story first.

I was doing some work in my new build a couple of weeks ago. I was putting in a bigger CPU fan. When I set it all back up, there was no boot. No power, no lights... I thought I had screwed something up for sure. I checked and checked everything inside the case, scratched my head, and was a bout to have a full on breakdown because I'd broken my brand new machine. Then I remembered that I had shut off the main power switch on the back of the power supply.

Your cousin didn't turn off that little switch by any chance?

And a broken anything can keep the PC from booting up. I just fried a RAM stick last weekend, and the machine just froze. When I tried to reboot, it was a no go. No status beeps or HDD activity. It just sat there dead until I shut it off and pulled out the bad stick, so you can't always count on the diagnostic beeps. But if the GPU fan isn't turning, I'd suspect a power issue first. Pull the card and see if the PC will boot without it, then put it back in.

 

[smarteyeball]

And a broken anything can keep the PC from booting up.

Pull the card and see if the PC will boot without it, then put it back in.

Yep.

If it's still dead in the water (nothing happening at all - not even error beeps) after removing the card - then the issue lies elsewhere.

Considering the age of the machine, I'm guessing it's probably an AGP card and not a PCI-E (for testing purposes)

Alternatively, does that motherboard have integrated video by any chance?

Also, did you remove the existing RAM prior to firing it up?

 

[Solarstarshines]

well the switch i turn it off and on to work on it so that is not a issue and the card is agp and the only device in there to use for monitor he told me he got it from best buy like 5 years ago

I told him for what they sold him they didn't give him anything everything was bottom of the barrell and never to buy from there again

the card itself i have no way of testing im not even using agp anymore and my last agp card 7300gt was sold to a friend a while back

I guess i can turn it on with out the card and see if it beeps cause i cant see any reason it wasnt working the only thing we did to the rig was pull a ram stick out to figure which ram is suited then i went further wrote down the mb specs and looked it up so ..............

I will try to fire it up with no card maybe it will beep ? will reply back

 

[smarteyeball]

i cant see any reason it wasnt working the only thing we did to the rig was pull a ram stick out to figure which ram is suited

Re-seat the RAM. It may not be be properly seated.

 

[Solarstarshines]

well i honestly think his rig is gone the removal of the card and turning it on didnt do anything i chalk it up to his mainboard

the sad thing is he is really persistant on taking to a shop that will tell him the same thing i offered to build a new rig but i don't know if he wants to spend cash which is sad

can't expect much if your not willing to pay for it

 

[Solarstarshines]

there was only one stick i took it and put it to the other slot locked the clips into place the clips snapped meaning successfull install i also have the ram he bought for this rig still installing that didnt help and i didnt want to fry it in case we took it back

now i feel it just took a dump i also told him when he brought it to me from his home a distance from me it could have gotten jarred on the trip

just looking into all aspects

 

[archie123]

if there is nothing and i mean nothing at all its a power supply issue , have you checked the fuse in the plug top? do you have fuses in plug tops in the USA??

It should do something , the cpu fan should at least spin. Does it "click" at all when you push the power button? does the cpu fan try to spin then stop?

 

[Solarstarshines]

@ archie it all turns on just no boot or beep the cpu fan runs the hard drive trys to come on the green light then switch to orange no red and it just disappears the system would be on just no booting and hard drive spin

my cousin told me the night before it was working great and then now it didnt do anything he told me it boots slow but i waited 10 min nada so it is something else

I have a motherboard im going to test before i offer it to him see if it is still usable and if so i will give him that p4 3.2 ghz 2 gig ddr400 and it has a onboard vga

i still want to trouble shoot his current issue though cause this tottally makes no sense for it not to try a boot or not say anything when this happens i automaticly scratch the mainboard off cause usally if that goes everything else goes with it

 

[archie123]

k , did you try booting without the gpu installed as requested? if the gpu is at fault the system will boot normally (you will be able to hear the hard drive activity) you just wont be able to see it

 

[Solarstarshines]

nope nothing with or without gpu nothingg powered no bootscreen bios ect

 

[smarteyeball]

Honestly, considering his specs - it would be better to just let it go.

It would probably cost more to get it fixed (if taken to a shop+parts) than the thing is worth.

For the cost of repairs etc, your cousin could upgrade to something a little more current.

 

[Solarstarshines]

yes i know this but yet he has a big familly to look after seriously he is trying hard not to let it go but yea your right

 

[smarteyeball]

I can understand budget would be a big concern, but I'd hate for him to waste money replacing parts that may not be the cause. ie grabbing a replacement AGP GPU only to find it's something else.

The only real advantage to taking it to a repair shop would be that they would have the tools / spares to help eliminate potential components ie a multimeter to test the PSU, a spare AGP card etc

If you don't have a multimeter, or a spare PSU lying around - one time consuming (and an undesirable PITA method for you), yet cost free diagnostic - would be to use your current PSU in his machine.

If it comes to life (video card included) then you'll know his PSU has taken a dump. If it remains dead, you can at least rule out one component.

 

[Solarstarshines]

well pretty much smartey im going to test my old mb p4 3.2 ghz onboard vga adpater and ddr 400 if that works that is what im going to do for him if not then he'll be forced to buy the parts im pretty sure he doesnt need anything fancy and i can still salvage the hdd and disc drives so

If worse comes to worse well make a frys run and find him something special to put together which should be with in budget im prety much looking at a minimum 200 dollar spend mother board good stick of ram and a cpu im pretty sure i can score this for under 300-250.00 if less even better but he is looking for it to be done by this weekend so i'll have my work cut out for me

also i am going to use a spare psu and set it up on a wood board first im not going to take anything apart till i boot up on a table for testing purposes if i get the beep bios detection then i will put everything together but im sure his system is done these things are fragile and any little thing can make it a big thing

 

[Solarstarshines]

Ok I basicly used my old p4 motherboard asrock cpu 3.2 ghz 2 gigs of ddr 400 dual channel and a 80 gig hdd and a 100 gig hdd no video card onboard vga and sound added extra 80 mm fan to his case and gave him a running unit his motherboard was trash

so it is safe to say that i just rebuilt his system using my old mainboard and ram cpu ect and his old part to build him atleast a better running machine also running vista but unfortunatly since i took my vid card from that board and sold it and he doesnt have one his wei went down to 1.0 from 4.0 but none the less he is back on board

thanks alot everyone for the ideas and soulutions ps i also told him in the future to save atleast 500 to build a decent system cause i doubt a p4 3.2 will work that good for too long