AHH!! PC DEAD!! but which part? Help!

Soundster · Nov 5, 2003

PC Resurrected!! but permanent Damage? Help!

Hi guys,

I left my PC on last night, and when I turned on my monitor this morning.....I saw a bunch of colorful vertical lines on the screen; then i thought, "damn PC crashed" I pressed the reset button, "beep", the screen went black...and back to the same bunch of thin vertical lines. Then I thought, "a bad crash", turn off the PC and Power suplly, reset the COMS. I then attempt to start up again, same multi-colored vertical lines!!!

Please help me guy, one of your OCing commrads is down for the count. I don't have a second rig to test my components on, WHAT SHOULD I DO!!!

skab · Nov 5, 2003

Abit board, doesn't that have the led that lights up if you have the wrong agp vid card in there, if so check that out otherwise it's time to get everything to barebones, ie 1 mem, vid card, cpu, motherboard and disconnect everything else. start up and see if anything changes. If not blame it on the cat 3.8 drivers?

Soundster · Nov 5, 2003

skab said:
Abit board, doesn't that have the led that lights up if you have the wrong agp vid card in there, if so check that out otherwise it's time to get everything to barebones, ie 1 mem, vid card, cpu, motherboard and disconnect everything else. start up and see if anything changes. If not blame it on the cat 3.8 drivers?

The little green LED does turn on when the board powers up.....but even if the vid card crapped out, shouldn't the PC still start up? My XP wasn't loading at all....

batboy · Nov 5, 2003

My first guess would be the vid card. Something is goofy with the display. Try reseating the card. Maybe borrow a buddy's card, even if it's an old PCI card. A computer will rarely boot if there is a problem with the vid card. I won't rule out the monitor either, but you should hear a beep and see the drives being checked if the monitor died.

skab · Nov 5, 2003

Not if your cmos was set to stop on errors, you just would'nt be able to see what error it stopped on. How many and what type of beeps are you actualy getting, sometimes the beeps of the post can tell you what isn't loading or at least were it stopped in the post,

Soundster · Nov 5, 2003

skab said:
Not if your cmos was set to stop on errors, you just would'nt be able to see what error it stopped on. How many and what type of beeps are you actualy getting, sometimes the beeps of the post can tell you what isn't loading or at least were it stopped in the post,

There were no "beeps" other then the one beep from starting up the PC. the monitor is fine because it is my plasma tv/ pc monitor and it is displaying tv, and dvd. I don't use a DVI card.

why can the vid card just stop working? When my pc is left on at night, its not doing anything. I don't even have a screen saver running?!?!

skab · Nov 5, 2003

Don't really know the answer to that, your going to have to like I suggested earlier unless you can find a vid card to test that part with. I think you should take everything off and start putting it back together slowly booting it up after you put each piece back in until you get something different for a post code. Never astully had a vid card go bad myself but the symptoms kinda sound like that might be the problem, just one beep though huh? Stupid question but do you see the bios screen?

Soundster · Nov 5, 2003

skab said:
Don't really know the answer to that, your going to have to like I suggested earlier unless you can find a vid card to test that part with. I think you should take everything off and start putting it back together slowly booting it up after you put each piece back in until you get something different for a post code. Never astully had a vid card go bad myself but the symptoms kinda sound like that might be the problem, just one beep though huh? Stupid question but do you see the bios screen?

No, i don't see the BIOS screen, the only screen I see when powered up is the multi-colored vertical lines.......

Also, I don't have anything plugged into my PCI slots. All that's plugged into my MB is the AGP vid card, CD-Rom, Power supply, 2xmem......I guess I'll try the one mem......NO CD-ROM and HARDDRIVE? leave those unplugged? How will the PC start up if the HD is not plugged in?

JimmyG · Nov 5, 2003

The one beep means that the computer is posting. You should remove everything from the mobo except the cpu, 1 stick of ram, and video card. If it still gives you one beep and a bad picture, then it probably is either the video card or the monitor. You'll have to get a buddy to test the video card and/or monitor to determine which is the culprit.

skab · Nov 5, 2003

If you have the pheonix bios and it detects an error code it will try to show it in the upper left hand corner of the screen but this will sometimes cause a "hash" of the screen, paraphrrased from the Pheonix BIOS site, award bios site says check the ram, ami bios site says they don't do abit boards

Soundster · Nov 5, 2003

JimmyG said:
The one beep means that the computer is posting. You should remove everything from the mobo except the cpu, 1 stick of ram, and video card. If it still gives you one beep and a bad picture, then it probably is either the video card or the monitor. You'll have to get a buddy to test the video card and/or monitor to determine which is the culprit.

Yeah....sounds more and more like a crapped out video card.....has anybody else seen this multi-colored vertical screen besides me? I'm sure I'm not the only one with a bad video card.....

batboy · Nov 5, 2003

Yes, I've seen the multi-colored stripes when I tried using a second hand vid card that was bad. Some monitors show those stripes when it don't get a signal. Make sure the monitor cable that goes to the vid card is securely seated.

Jimmy is right, if you got one beep. then the mobo is trying to post. You can get the post screen without any drives connected, but it won't boot obviously, it'll give you a disk error message.

It's really sounding like the vid card if you can confirm that your monitor is working. I highly recommend borrowing a vid card to try. Did you have the vid card overclocked? Is the GPU fan on the vid card still working? Vid cards can and do fail from time to time.

Soundster · Nov 5, 2003

batboy said:
Yes, I've seen the multi-colored stripes when I tried using a second hand vid card that was bad.

Jimmy is right, if you got one beep. then the mobo is trying to post. You can get the post screen without any drives connected, but it won't boot obviously, it'll give you a disk error message.

It's really sounding like the vid card if you can confirm that your monitor is working. Make sure the monitor cable that goes to the vid card is securely seated.

I highly recommend borrowing a vid card to try. Did you have the vid card overclocked? Is the GPU fan on the vid card still working? Vid cards can and do fail from time to time.

Thanks Batboy....I'll try that!!

batboy · Nov 5, 2003

I edited my post after you posted. Check the cable that goes from the monitor to the vid card. Some monitors give you those colored strips if they don't get a signal.

OverclockNStein · Nov 7, 2003

Sounds like the 3.8 drivers have claimed another victom.

And yes, your motherboard will not boot without a video card posting.

Soundster · Nov 7, 2003

Alright guys, much thanks for the concerns and help. I've decided to give it one more shot at starting up, after leaving the PC unplugged for hours and CMOS clear tab in place.
Fortunately, The PC started up again! Strange thing I noticed now everytime I start up, the PC hesitates 5~7 seconds longer to start up right after the IDE detection log. I don't know if the last crash left any permanent damage to my hardware or my BIOS.

Do you guys think it would be a good idea to re flash my BIOS??

JimmyG · Nov 7, 2003

Never flash the bios unless the new bios is sure to fix a problem that you have. It is very risky to flash the bios. If anything goes wrong during the flash (ram error, power failure, etc.) you will have a dead computer. You will either have to purchase a bios chip from the mobo maker, or buy a new mobo.

AHH!! PC DEAD!! but which part? Help!

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