Looks like the PSU was mistakenly returned to sender in Calif, even though the HD arrived.
What happened before was when I had the owner run HP DIagnostics from boot, and when Geek Squad plugged in their power supply, is a normal HP BIOS splash screen with options to boot ESC (which worked for full diagnostics) and then nothing. The owners screen soon flashed "No signal detected."
It will at least help Greg identify the internal parts.
You're welcome Greg - HP doesn't make finding stuff easy. I was glad it had more detail than only Memory, Disc, and HD info.
My money is still on a faulty HD.
Could be the controller, but to keep it simple, eliminate the easy stuff 1st.
Greg, I forgot to mention a few things in my PM
- a lot of what I sent you was just reference material... I parsed out what I thought might be relevant. There really wasn't much.
- clear cmos
- reset BIOS to defaults
- update BIOS - there was a reference to a HD failure false postive
- reseat HD
- and a few other simple things
- I don't think I have anything more to send
No SMART 303 ec?
Just boot, enter BIOS, ESC - nothing
I'm not sure when "No signal detected" happened - when the owner ran diags or at Geek squad?
-> I don't think the boot sequence is getting past the HD test and after waiting for a signal, the monitor just flashes the information on the screen.
I could be wrong on this, but I think HPs won't do much after a HD fault on boot. You've described two scenarios - 1) ec 303, and 2) boot, bios, nothing.
I'm also fairly certain that the machine will not boot if there is no hard drive. Both statements need fact checking.
Do you have another desktop? Can you slip the suspect drive into an open drive bay on the 2nd box?
If you can, and the drive is recognized as a slave drive, you can run diags on it in the 2nd box.
That will get you around the boot issue anyway.
Another thing you mght consider is sticking that drive in an ext enclosure and connect it to any machine via USB.
You have plenty of heavy hitters here, HW isn't that hard - as Bob suggests take it one step at a time .
Off Topic: I have some personal matters that need attention, so I'm not ignoring anyone if I don't reply to your PM; I won't be on much for a week or so.
Bill
New info, "No signal detected" may point to a bad/intermittently working GPU chip on the board. I had a hp with a Pegatron board which did this. It would have a display after several shut downs/restarts, then it quit completely. Oddly it would show the POST but not Windows.
Hey Greg. I agree with Gary, the no signal detected means you are getting no output from the video card or on-board chip. This adds a new wrinkle to the problem.
The traditional BIOS boot process is 2-step: POST (test for proper power and CPU 'self-awareness'), and Enumeration (find, identify, test, and list all the components of the core system.)
If either process fails for any reason the entire process stops and the system will not boot.
So if the video card is failing that could stop the process.
Problem is that the video card/chip could be failing intermittently due to a poor power problem (the power supply again). So until you've got that (assumed known) problem fixed you are just chasing your tail.
There is a discrepancy in your description of the problem and events: it does not boot, it boots but it does not start windows, it boots and it can run the HP diagnostics, it has no video output. And yes, these could all be happening just at different times.
It would be good to describe what happens step-by-step, starting with pressing the power button and ending with whatever ultimately failure occurs. Run through it 3 or 4 times. If it is different each time then describe each process independently. You never know what clue will pop out when doing this that someone might recognize.
But again - if you know the power supply is no good then throw a sheet over the thing until you get the replacement!
I talked with the owner last night and he confirmed that when pressing the power button it proceeded to HP BIOS screen pausing the normal amount of time, then soon after flashed on a black screen "No Signal Detected." I've seen this before thought this was a monitor message saying that it couldn't detect any further signal from PC.
Now at one point when he was describing this on the phone, I had him tap the ESC key, choose HP Diagnostics (F2 I think) which then ran through each hardware component giving a PASS rating until it reached the HD which failed with SMART Error Code 303 (Imminent failure).
I understand the point that a failing PSU could create anomalies elsewhere but the Geek Squad plugged in their PSU and the same thing happened - except for the No Signal Detected. So I assumed it was the behavior of the owner's brand of monitor reacting to nothing happening after BIOS post?
I don't think it has anything to with the brand. If you unplug the cable from a video card, any monitor will respond with that "no signal detected" message.
Best to check the cable connections again, especially if this rig has been moved around a lot in the past couple of days. And look for any broken or missing pins.
If any poking around inside the case has been going on it is always a good idea to re-seat the video card, if applicable.
Can this PC get into the BIOS settings and stay there?
It has on onboard GPU chip.
May be thurs or Fri now since PO sent PSU back
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