PC that won't start?

[Gothch1ck]

My co-worker has a PC from Wal-Mart "E-machine" the only thing hes done is add a GPU to it, and it worked for months, but recently.. it's decided to stop.

When attempting to troubleshoot it, it won't boot. The fans kick on, full speed, but nothing changes. Messing with it some I managed to luck it out and get a boot, but it freezes up during any activity.

Turning the power off via-button is troublesome , most the time it just restarts itself to black screen repeatedly.

Any suggestions? (besides scrapping it)

Costs of repairs would need to be minimal. He's got a baby on the way and no money for "electronic fun".

I could only think of possible:
Mobo
Harddrive
Power Supply

But Have never had this issue so I really don't know how to fix it for em.

 

[eyeCpc]

As I gather I think you already know just how much of a crap box eMachines are to start with. A few minor items like the need for a new battery for the board if it's not maintaining the cmos information will gum the works up a bit.

The drivers for the video card added in may need to be removed and see an update instead if those were corrupted. Those will cause Windows to lock. Were you able to boot into safe mode?

 

[Domestic]

Did you try taking out the motherboard battery and placing it back in?

 

[Gothch1ck]

yea E-machines are good for "BASE" comptuers, aka if you have NOTHING at all or never owned one...


tried takin the battery out, now it won't boot at all.

when trying , instead of the E logo- it simply says your monitor is connected, check the cable...

it's not even registering that it has a computer. lol.

 

[Peter.Cort]

pull out all the components, and put a speaker in there if you've got one into the mobo (there's a 3-pin connector for one) and have a print out of the POST beeps for the bios on hand and from there you can diagnose what parts are bad.

 

[Gothch1ck]

only problem is its not beeping.

I pulled out the HDD and RAM and still no beeps at all, or flashing light patterns. (yes it has a lil speaker)

 

[eyeCpc]

When yanking the dimms out that would stall everything while sounding off a series of beeps. One other thing to try would setting the board out on any non conductive surface with only the supply, video card, memory, and monitor plugged in case you are grounding out to the case by a standoff touching the board.

 

[Gothch1ck]

well the power is flowing, i mean the fans revv up full blast, its just not "reading" anything it doesn't seem.... Moni shows it has power and the 'not connected' screen, using default onboard video doesn't change that, so I think his GPU is ok.

ugg Ill mess with it tomarrow, Ill ask him tonight to take it over here so I can give quick diagnosis, try things, and keep working on it.

 

[philbar71]

sounds like it's not POSTing. try resetting the cmos.

 

[Peter.Cort]

^ already been done...

it's most likely the mother board then if the monitor isn't showing up even with a dedicated card. I'd try all the components in a different computer if possible, if not, the board is probably shot.