Finding wich hardware failed

[thecivicman]

Hey guys. Last night my computer went down. I was mid game and everything froze and all my speakers started putting out high piched sounds. I am assuming my processor fried. I have an Asus motherboard, so its pretty good at letting you know whats going on. When I start my computer up, nothing happens. My HDD light lights up, but it wont show my Vid Card stats that it normally shows before the system startup screen and it wont go to the startup screen. I am thinking its the proccessor, but could it be my video card?
Any help would be greatly appreciated because I really don't want to go out and drop over $200 on a proccessor and find out its something else.
Thanks

 

[brady]

Do you get any system beeps when powering on ?

 

[thecivicman]

nope. just a blank screen. all that happens is the HDD light stays on

 

[thecivicman]

the reason i think it's processor, is because of the weird screachy sounds that my computer made when it froze...

 

[HAVOC]

It's a memory related issue.

You need to open the PC and take out all memory modules.
Put in only one module in the first DIMM slot closest to the CPU.
Try to boot.
If this doesn't work try the next slot.
If that one module doesn't work in any slots, use another on if you have one...
Repeat process.

You either have a bad memory module or a bad dimm channel bus.

 

[thecivicman]

I thought that if it was a memory related issue, you would still see the diagnostic screen and be able to get into the BIOS. The problem I'm having is my computer wont start at all. It gets power, and the HDD light lights up, but thats it. No display whatsoever.
If I'm wrong, please let me know.

 

[RicoDirenzo]

Pull everything off that board but one stick of memory, the video card and the cpu and power on the system. Anything? Also do what was suggested above with the memory. Pleae tell us the specs on your system and if you have overclocked any of your components especially the CPU.

 

[thecivicman]

I have overclocked my CPU, thats why I think it's the problem... It's a 1.5g pentium. Its about 4 years old. lol. Need upgrade? I think so. But ya, Ill try the RAM suggestion and update you guys.

 

[thecivicman]

Oh yeah, my Vid card is overclocked. And my ram is barely overclocked. The CPU is the most overclocked of my system.

 

[HAVOC]

Do any of the system fans or CPU fan run?

My last PC, I was in the middle of playing BF2, I was flying a Helicopter,
all of a sudden my PC froze. The sound became a very HIGH pitch annoying sound. After trying a hard boot, my system wouldn't past post. I was also getting BIOS beeps.

I spent a few minutes doing what I suggested above and found out that the 1st dimm channel wasn't working. the second worked fine. And all the ram worked fine in the 2nd channel. But as soon as I put the ram in the first.... no POST.

I mean, this may not be the issue. But, i would start there. May-be your CPU is overheating and throttling. May-be your memory has errors. May-be your videocard is shot...