Computer doesn't seem to "fully" boot up

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Cup of Squirrel

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Computer doesn't seem to "fully" boot up - *new mobo problem - p4vm800*

Argh

A few days ago, whilst playing World of Warcraft, my computer locked up: My music died, the screen flashed from black to the last scene, but the game ambience was still playing. I turned the computer off "unsafely" i.e. held the power button for a few seconds. when I tried to start the computer up again, only two of my 3 power LEDs lit up, and my monitor detected nothing. However, my cpu fan, case fan and PSU fan were all running perfectly.

I opened my pc up, checked connections etc, all seemed fine, booted up again and it worked.

A few days later I woke up to turn my pc on in the morning, to find the same problem of "half turned" on, no power to keyboard, mouse, cd rom, floppy etc but the fans all ran fine. Again I checked connections, which all seemed fine, and the computer again showed nothing on the screen etc. I left it and came back later in the day to find it working perfectly.

Today it happens again, but no matter what I try, it doesn't work. I built my pc almost a year ago, in about July 2005, and has been running fairly stable ever since: I have had a couple of problems with power which were caused simply by ATX plugs into the motherboard finding their way half out. However, this doesnt seem to be the case.

The PSU in questions is a fairly "cheapo" one: 500w "IT Colors" £25ish from an internet retailer: it has handled my system ever since I made my pc.

I have no idea what is going on, as the standby LED on the motherboard is on, fans work.....not good.

Any advice is welcomed, as I would like to get to the bottom of this ASAP.

System specs:
2.4ghz P4 Prescott
1gig RAM
Geforce 6600 (Gigbyte brand - no fan, heatsink only)


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EDIT:

After checking a new CPU in the system, and the voltages checked by an expert, it became apparent that it was the motherboard causing the problem. I oredered an Asrock P4VM800. I plugged everything in, everything starts up - I go into the Win XP loading screen for a few seconds, before the flash of a blue screeen [of death!] pops up, at which point the system reboots. I will post more info on the Blue Screen ASAP, but for now are there any BIOS settings I could change to try and fix this problem?

-Thanks
 
Well, the multimeter says everything is giving out a healthy voltage. So, if my devices are still going and my fans are spinning, but nothing shows on the screen, including the BIOS.

I'm guessing either my CPU or mobo is fried, but is there any way to check? I don't have any extra P4s or socket 478 motherboards lying around (Naturally).

Any help is appreciated
 
what voltages exactly the multimeter shows? just to be sure

anyway resetting the bios might help read here http://www.techist.com/showthread.php?s=&threadid=88668 i suggest youll try method #2 first and if that wont go well then use method #1

cpus rarely get fried its more likely the mobo , have a good look (preferably with a flashlight) and look for bad capacitors, see examples
http://www.pcstats.com/articleview.cfm?articleID=195
http://home.earthlink.net/~doniteli/index27.htm
if you wont find any it doesnt rule it out , but if you will you can have em replaced at any electronic repair shop it shouldnt cost much as capacitors are cheap
 
The capacitors all seem fine, no leakages or signs of horrifying explosions!

As for resetting the BIOS/CMOS: I changed the position of my CMOS jumper next to the battery, and turned the power back on: The system didn't seem to start up i.e. the PSU, fans etc, I'm not sure if this significant or not

Also, method #1 states that you remove the "power cable from the power supply" - this seems a little misleading: Is the power cable in question the cable from the back of the PSU to the mains?

Annoyin questions I'm sure: Sorry!
 
reread that #2 and youll figure it out i think you havnt read it all , as for #1 the power cable between the wall socket to the psu
 
Well, I read the #2 method again. And again. Still the same result, but I did attempt the #1 method: None of them have seemed to make a difference :mad:
 
lets try method #2 in another way , while the pc is powered off put the jumper to pins 2-3 for about 10 seconds and then put it back to pins 1-2 and power up if it worked then get into bios and load optimized/performance/setup defaults and exit , as for method #1 try that in another way too first of as usual disconnect the power cable from the psu (the one thats between the wall socket to the psu) get the battery out and keep it that way for 30 minutes then put the battery back and connect the cable and power up and see how it goes
 
Yep, I have now tried both of your 'revised' methods, and still nothing: No BIOS text, no friendly grinding sound startup sound. :/
 
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