need quick help please!

[dantheman12588]

alright my friend woke up the other day and when he turned on his computer it all seemed to start up but the monitor never turned on it just kept the power saving light thing on and the computer never made the beep sound when it started up but the mouse and the keyboard lit up but the HDD activity light didnt blink except when he first turned it on for like 1 sec and the power light doesnt come on yet the modem and the keyboard and the mouse and his cd rom all work and turn on and they are all plugged in to usb ports except his keyboard and motherboard, but yeah anyway so im thinking its the HDD cuz he has some old ass 10 gig peice of shit HDD but the stupid techs at frys said it was the motherboard but i seriously doubt its that cuz its pretty new and its all in really good condition also im starting to beleive maybe the video card burnt out or something but i doubt that too cuz its rather new its a geforce 4 mx420, but i just want to see what you guys think before he goes out and buys a new hdd today, thanks

 

[DoomUK]

oooff... Try to use punctuation mate, that hurt my eyes

Anyway, if there's no activity from the HD then for starters double-check all the physical connections; the power and IDE connections to the HD, also the motherboard ATX cable. Check the power light on the motherboard is on.

I can't think of anything else at the minute, someone else will no doubt post something more intricate. Good luck with that one, I know the situation you're in right now ...

EDIT: What motherboard are you using? If there's no 'beep' coming from the MoBo then try resetting the CMOS battery. Check your manual if you're unsure.

 

[Blackmoore]

Look at the capacitors on the board, and make sure none of them have blown. If they have, the board is toast. I had the same problem with a new build I did a few months ago, it turned on, but the hard drive wasn't spinning, and I got nothing on the display. Turns out it was the motherboard was dead. If you really think its the hard drive, see if you can get your hands on an old one, and replace it to see if it fixes it. But it sounds like the board. What are the specs on the system? Cause by the sounds of it, it looks old. So even if the board was dead you could pick up a new one for $40-$50. Out of all the parts in any of the systems I have ever built motherboards were always the first to go, sometimes at completely random times.

 

[killians45]

Doubt its the HDD. If the HDD was bad, you should still get a screen but with the error o/s not found or non bootable drive/diskette, or some other various error. More than likely, I would try to reseat the vid card, mem, CPU also check the amount of paste on the CPU (if he just put it on, that is), try reseating one at a time and see if that helps. I'm guessing he gets an orange light on the monitor or blinking light. If that doesn't help, next step is to remove EVERYTHING to a barebones system. Just have the vid, mem, HDD, and CPU only. No cdrom, floppy, keyboard, mouse, etc. Yes, you'll get a kbd error but right now were just trying to get a screen. Finally if that doesn't work, remove the MBD from the case and put it on something non conductive (like antistatic or rubber or whatnot, just not on the carpet). This is to make sure the MBD is not grounding out to the case. He DID use plastic supports for the screws?? Otherwise, he's probably gounding to the case. Main thing is, I would probably rule out the HDD. You could remove the HDD and see if you get a screen, though.