Two days ago, my computer’s monitor was acting strange – flickering occasionally, and a bit of static. Then, later in the day, it crashed completely, showing a shimmering pattern of, yes, static. I shut my computer off, thinking it was just a normal crash, then tried to restart it.
No. Nothing. The light turns on, but Windows doesn’t boot – I can tell that it’s not (just) the monitor failing me, as I can’t turn off my computer manually (as is the case during startup) or an hour later, when Windows would have started (and I could usually just press the button).
Tell me my hard drive isn’t erased. I have things on there precious to me. Tell me it’s still there.
posted
I'm not clear. When you turn your computer on, you don't see the bios loading? No post test on the keyboard and floppy? The screen is completely black?
Posts: 13123 | Registered: Feb 2002
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posted
Do you hear the fans revving up? or nothing? if nothing other than the light it could be the power supply but there are other people here who are far more expert than me and might have other ideas.
You know it might help if you put "computer problems" somewhere in your thread title to attract the geekier sorts like moths to light.
posted
If he has a light coming on, his power supply is probably o.k.. My experience with power supplies is that they either work or they don't. It's not always true, though. If the power supply goes bad, you can get power surges which fry parts of the mother board such that the puter won't start. What's worse is when it fries just enough that you have intermitent problems.
From the screen flickering before these problems, I am leaning towards a video card or monitor issue.
Posts: 13123 | Registered: Feb 2002
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posted
What you're describing could easily be a video card issue, provided that you ARE getting fans and POST. What does your monitor do when you disconnect the video cable from the computer and turn the monitor on?
Posts: 37449 | Registered: May 1999
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I remember when my monitor was busted and I was living in Greece and I had bought the computer by mail from America. Grr. I did manage to type and print a document once. Back in the days before GUI.
Posts: 11017 | Registered: Apr 2003
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Last week my computer had a fit in which it displayed the "The program has performed an illegal operation..." dialogue box every time I tried to save something to my "favorites" folder. I just deleted a bunch of files that I didn't use (preferably image (.gif) files and then word (.doc) files). I had used up too much of my computer's memory However, this process won't be of much use to you until you find out how to get your computer to turn on ...hmmm...
Posts: 667 | Registered: Aug 2003
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posted
The monitor does the same click and whirr it always has -- only nothing happens. Completely black.
The fan revs, I believe, but Windows never loads – I know, since I can never turn off my computer without yanking the plug. Would a faulty video card be able to halt Windows from loading? Tom, what’s POST?
Will edit title to attract geeks.
Posts: 3293 | Registered: Jul 2002
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Is anyone else having trouble with pop-ups lately? Sometimes I get about one per second(dead serious). And they keep coming even when I close the internet. But that may have something to do with cable hookup. *sticks tounge out at people with phone modems*
Posts: 4174 | Registered: Sep 2003
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Hmm, do you hear hard drive sounds? Does the hard drive light flicker on and off (should be there on the front of the comp)? Do the fans continue to blow?
Of course, the first suggestion would be to try to hook up another monitor, or just hook your current monitor up to a different computer. It could be the vid card is having problems sending output to the monitor, but I would think even if the vid card wasn't working you should still see the BIOS boot screen as the vid card shouldn't be kicking in until after Windows boots up and selects a display adapter.
Like I said, if possible, I would try with a different monitor, or your monitor on a different computer. Sadly, it could be a motherboard problem as well.
Posts: 240 | Registered: Jun 2003
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quote: an hour later, when Windows would have started (and I could usually just press the button).
It takes an hour for Windows to start normally? If this is correct, I'm not surprised that old machine suddenly threw up it's virtual hands and quit!
Posts: 1843 | Registered: Aug 2003
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You have adware/spyware installed. By the time I have finished typing this some windwows person who knows the latest and greatest adware/spyware removal program(s) will have replied. Install and run that/those.
Posts: 15770 | Registered: Dec 2001
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posted
Is your video card part of the motherboard, or was it a separate purchase?
If the former, I'd bet your motherboard got toasted, and quite possible the power supply and CPU too (and maybe more).
On the bright side, it sounds like your monitor is a-okay.
-Bok
EDIT: As others noted, you power supply looks okay... And probably parts of you motherboard are okay, but the computer part (as opposed to the power part) is likely gone. The HDD should be okay.
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Lalo, sounds a lot like my problems a few weeks ago. The upshot was that my mother board was fried, but my hard drive was fine. Although, diagnosing my problem was pretty easy what with the smell of smoke when I opened my case (no wait, )
Posts: 3243 | Registered: Apr 2002
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posted
It still could be the power supply. If it's not putting out the correct voltages and currents, then you get all kinds of flakey symptons.
Posts: 168 | Registered: Aug 2003
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posted
Yeah, we haven't actually eliminated the power supply -- but I think it's more likely, given what Eddie's describing, that he's got a problem with either his monitor or his video card (the connector, and not necessarily the GPU itself).
Please try to see what happens if you disconnect your monitor from the computer and leave the monitor on, Eddie. Most modern monitors will display something like "No Signal" or "Signal Lost" in that event, which would indicate that your monitor is NOT the problem.
Posts: 37449 | Registered: May 1999
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posted
I just remembered when I first put this 'puter together it would not boot at all and it wasn't the power supply. It turned out to be a bad USB connection on the mother board. I contacted Tyan and they had me go through a procedure to isolate the problem which I think will work for a computer that inexplicably goes down. Essentially, I had to take the computer completely appart, not even have the RAM memory installed. The only thing that I had installed was the CPU and the video board. I kept the text of their original e-mail to me and through the magic of copy and paste I'll repeat it below.
> > Our suggestion is first to break the system down to its bare bones of > > nothing more than > > the single cpu and the video card. Don't have anything else even > attached > > to the > > motherboard at this time. (i.e. no memory, no mouse, no keyboard, no > PCI > > devices, etc.) > > > > Make sure you have a case speaker plugged into the motherboard. Some > > motherboards > > come with an onboard speaker so double check your documentation. Now > turn > > the system > > on and listen for an audible beep code. If you get no beep atthis time > it > > means the > > motherboard is simply not communicating to the cpus. Take the board out > of > > the case > > and run the motherboard on a phone book or something non-conductive. > The > > motherboard > > itself might be shorting out to the inside of your case which is causing > the > > system not > > to post. Now if you get no beep codes outside of the case then the > > motherboard is bad > > and you need to contact your vendor to swap the motherboard out. > > > > Now if you do get beep codes then that means the motherboard has > > communicated with the > > cpu's and is looking for the memory and doesn't see it that is why you > get > > the audible beep > > codes. This beep code will be one repeating beep over and over again. > Now > > pull the video > > card out of the motherboard and stick one stick of memory into the > system. > > Now turn the > > system on again and test for beep codes. If you get no audible beep > code > > then the system > > is hanging on your memory and you need to only use compatible memory > from > > our compatibility > > page on our website. If you get a beep code that means the motherboard > is > > hanging on your > > video card for some reason. The video beep code is one long beep > followed > > by 2 short beeps. > > Double check the video recommendation listings to make sure that the > card > > you are using is > > indeed listed for that motherboard. If you are sure that it is check > > another video card just to > > make sure that there is nothing wrong with the AGP slot itself. > > > > With these basic steps you should be able to ascertain if the > motherboard is > > at fault or the > > components you are using are causing the issue.
So what you have to do is add component by component back and see where it fails. If you're lucky and it's not the power supply, what ever part is failing will still be under warantee and you will be able to swap it out. I had just bought the components, so Tyan replaced the board for me once I returned the damaged board. Tyan is a popular board manufacturer, but you won't know who made the motherboard until you've done the surgery on the 'puter.
Posts: 168 | Registered: Aug 2003
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However, this process won't be of much use to you until you find out how to get your computer to turn on ![[Big Grin]](biggrin.gif)
...hmmm...
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(no wait, 
