Another Pc question.

[jpeirpont]

It seems I'm surrounded by people with faulty PCs.
The problem is that nothing loads/comes up when the PC is turned on. The screen stays blank. Anyone had this problem before or have an idea about how to fix it?
Any help would be greatly appreciated.

 

[skalogre]

That could be sooo many things. First of all, do you see any reaction at all on the monitor when you turn the PC on?
Going from there, if not, make sure the cables to the gfx card to teh mnonitor are in securely and that the power is on the monitor. Try connecting a different monitor, see if it makes a difference. Going from there, make sure nothing screwy happenned to the brightnmess. I remember someone had done that as a prank to someone else in highschool, lol.

If it does not seem to be teh monitor, uit could be BIOS, power supply, motherboard, KFCed CPU, all sorts of things.

 

[Brian SD]

When you boot it up, does it POST? (Usually a single beep a couple seconds after you turn it on)

 

[jpeirpont]

Originally Posted by skalogre

That could be sooo many things. First of all, do you see any reaction at all on the monitor when you turn the PC on?
Going from there, if not, make sure the cables to the gfx card to teh mnonitor are in securely and that the power is on the monitor. Try connecting a different monitor, see if it makes a difference. Going from there, make sure nothing screwy happenned to the brightnmess. I remember someone had done that as a prank to someone else in highschool, lol.

If it does not seem to be teh monitor, uit could be BIOS, power supply, motherboard, KFCed CPU, all sorts of things.

I'm faily sure its not the monitor, but she has kids and I will check, when the PCU isn't on the monitors displsys a message about shutting down.

 

[jpeirpont]

Originally Posted by Brian SD

When you boot it up, does it POST? (Usually a single beep a couple seconds after you turn it on)
I dont think it does.

 

[skalogre]

If the monitor display the message, then it is less likely it is teh root of the problem. I'll echo what Brian says - whiel not all PC/motherboards makie teh audible POST sounds these days, do you hear anything at all? Fans, hard drives clicking? Is there a CD in teh drive? If so take it out incase it is trying to read from it at boot up. Remove any USB drives connected to it.

 

[Garfieldthecat]

I agree with everyone has said.

First, see if it beeps (completes the POST). If it doesn't it usually means your motherboard or CPU is dead. Open the case up, and check the fan on the CPU heatsink and make sure it is working. If the fan died, the CPU may be overheating. Check the power supply fan to see if it is working.

Do you hear the fans come on when you turn on the power, and then quiet down after a couple of seconds? That usually means it get get to the BIOS.

If it completes the POST, you would see a text BIOS screen, briefly (or not so briefly, depending on the PC), and then try to load windows.

What PC model/make is it?

 

[Tokyo Slim]

Originally Posted by jpeirpont

I'm faily sure its not the monitor, but she has kids and I will check, when the PCU isn't on the monitors displsys a message about shutting down.
Interesting post, when the computer is off the monitor displays a shutdown message, but when you push the power button, there is nothing on the monitor? Methinks we aren't getting the whole story, or something is getting garbled in translation, since that isn't really possible...

 

[j]

Originally Posted by Tokyo Slim

Interesting post, when the computer is off the monitor displays a shutdown message, but when you push the power button, there is nothing on the monitor? Methinks we aren't getting the whole story, or something is getting garbled in translation, since that isn't really possible...
Yeah, it's possible if the monitor is getting a signal that is all black. This means the monitor is probably working, and the video card is at least half-working.

This sort of thing will happen if a device is drastically misconnected inside the computer, or has died. I've seen a similar boot sequence when a CPU fan died, except on that one the speaker kept beeping.

Hate to be the bearer of bad news about this situation, but unless it's under warranty, or it turns out to be something obvious once you open it up, it may be time to just get another PC and transfer all the stuff over - if the hard drive works, they might be able to install it in a new computer and run a repair installation on the Windows install and get it running again so they don't have to reinstall everything. I say this because the time to diagnose and fix what's wrong, including whatever parts are needed, is most likely going to cost more than a comparable computer.

 

[Tokyo Slim]

Originally Posted by j

Yeah, it's possible if the monitor is getting a signal that is all black. This means the monitor is probably working, and the video card is at least half-working.

I've never heard of a video card that works only when the computer is off J. Thats what I was getting at.

 

[j]

Originally Posted by Tokyo Slim

I've never heard of a video card that works only when the computer is off J. Thats what I was getting at.
He said it is black when the PC is on, and displays a message when off.

 

[Tokyo Slim]

Originally Posted by j

He said it is black when the PC is on, and displays a message when off.
exactly. A "shutdown" message. Like that his computer is ready to shut down, or that its currently shutting down, or whatever. Regardless, not something that a computer that is "off" would be capable of displaying. But perhaps I misunderstood.

 

[jpeirpont]

Originally Posted by Tokyo Slim

Interesting post, when the computer is off the monitor displays a shutdown message, but when you push the power button, there is nothing on the monitor? Methinks we aren't getting the whole story, or something is getting garbled in translation, since that isn't really possible...
I phrased that wrong,sorry. The monitor is shutting down for "energy saving", not in reference to the PC shutting down.

 

[Tokyo Slim]

Originally Posted by jpeirpont

I phrased that wrong,sorry. The monitor is shutting down for "energy saving", not in reference to the PC shutting down.

Ok, that makes more sense.

 

[Brian SD]

Generally that means its either not getting a signal from the video card, or the hard drives have shut down (a setting in Win XP thats on by default), but it cant be the latter if its happening from start up. IMO sounds like the video card is the problem. Could be as simple as a cable unplugged.