Brownout 2013 - computer problem

[calumniate]

Hi all, so on friday although i didn't lose power my computer stopped working. Now i'm on a hard to type ipad. Basically now when i boot up i get the nice single beep from the bios and my hard drive light gets going. My mouse lights up and my keyboard which is a g15 lights but does not move onto its normal led display (just says g15). My screen never succeeds in showing anything ever. Any thoughts? Video card or hd perhaps? Thanks

[Hemi-Cuda]

If you've got no display it's either 1) Video Card 2) Power Supply 3) Motherboard, in the order of likelyhood (at least in my experience). Any one of those will prevent your computer from POST-ing, which is why your peripherals power up but don't function

I'd start with the video card since it's the easiest to swap out (if you have an old one kicking around somewhere), then the power supply. If neither of those fix it, then you probably have a fun rebuild ahead of you

[calumniate]

Thanks. I'm going to vacuum this pos and reseat some things, and see if i have an old video card. I have a feeling it's not moving into windows fully however

[keratosis]

If your mother board has built in display you could try that as well.

[calumniate]

Seems no dice from built in display. Thanks

[keratosis]

Not good. Power supply went on me a few years back and took the mother board with it.

[Hemi-Cuda]

Originally Posted by calumniate

Seems no dice from built in display. Thanks

Try swapping out the power supply first before tearing out the motherboard. You'd think that if the PS went that nothing would turn on at all, but that's not always the case. The days of a power supply frying an entire system are very rare now, I've had two literally blow up on me thanks to a faulty surge bar but after swapping them out the rest of the system functioned fine. It's also why I always advise to never skimp when buying a new PS, there's no point in saving a few bucks there if it takes everything else with it when it goes

[Sinny Darino]

On a whim, you could try removing your Motherboard Battery (Watch battery Size) while the computer is off and unplugged. Leave the battery out for about 5-10 minutes and make sure to hit the power button with the computer unplugged to dump the power.


Your motherboard battery could also be dead and not able to see the system time. You will need a plain old microsoft $10 keyboard to get it to boot.

Try the battery trick first as this may or may not work.

[PsYcNeT]

PSU testers can run as little as 6$ online. Always a good thing to have in your test stable (along with a cheap working RAM stick, a backup CMOS battery, and a standalone power switch).

Hemi is right on the money. PSU or Mobo are the likely culprits. I'm more inclined to say Mobo if it's spinning up at all however.

[calumniate]

Great thanks. I was given an old computer yesterday which i'm going to try for parts (power supply, vid card and maybe mb battery). Thanks all!

[Hemi-Cuda]

Originally Posted by PsYcNeT

PSU testers can run as little as 6$ online. Always a good thing to have in your test stable (along with a cheap working RAM stick, a backup CMOS battery, and a standalone power switch).

Hemi is right on the money. PSU or Mobo are the likely culprits. I'm more inclined to say Mobo if it's spinning up at all however.

Motherboard failures are extremely rare though, I've never had one happen to any of my computers, and as long as you get a decent brand it's not something you should ever have the worry about. My hunch is that with the unstable power levels in the city and possibly a generic power supply in caluminate's tower, something inside blew up enough to not get enough juice to the mobo for a proper POST

[PsYcNeT]

Originally Posted by Hemi-Cuda

Motherboard failures are extremely rare though, I've never had one happen to any of my computers, and as long as you get a decent brand it's not something you should ever have the worry about. My hunch is that with the unstable power levels in the city and possibly a generic power supply in caluminate's tower, something inside blew up enough to not get enough juice to the mobo for a proper POST

That's also very likely.

I've had 3 (three!!) motherboard failures, though I can attribute one to an improperly seated motherboard (mixed standoffs when I was 16 or 17), one northbridge fan stopped and the NB burned out, and one was a cheap refurb board for a HTPC that had a capacitor blow out.

I also had a buddy not screw in all his standoffs from his mobo to his case, and install a Scythe Ninja cooler (weighs around 1.7 lbs). It cracked the PCB after about 3 days.

[calumniate]

Bump, thanks for all the responses and help on this one. Guess what? It was my monitor the computer is fine. I feel pretty silly now after ripping it apart numerous times, lol

[sclitheroe]

Originally Posted by calumniate

I feel pretty silly now after ripping it apart numerous times, lol

Lesson to all troubleshooters - start at the source of the problem, and work backwards - the monitor didn't display anything, yet everything else had power, the BIOS was generating a single beep, the hard drive light was showing activity, USB devices initialized, etc - odds of it being the motherboard, battery, power supply, etc, were close to nil based on symptoms presented.

And a tip on troubleshooting no display issues - if the screen is dark, but its got power and the power light on the display comes up, it can be the backlight having burnt out, which is fiendishly difficult to troubleshoot the first time it happens to you. Shine a flashlight onto the screen at an angle, or angle the panel up to a bright ambient light source, and you can see the actual LCD portion of the panel working correctly.

[terminator]

Also the issue can usually be solved by lpoking up the beep sequence

[Vulcan]

I had something the same problem and ended up frustrated and leaving that computer sitting in a corner for three years. It turned out it was the DVI cable. I think I had about 150 windows 7 updates when I put it back in service.

[sclitheroe]

Originally Posted by Vulcan

I had something the same problem and ended up frustrated and leaving that computer sitting in a corner for three years. It turned out it was the DVI cable. I think I had about 150 windows 7 updates when I put it back in service.

Haha that's awesome. I have no idea why MS never released a second service pack for Windows 7 to roll up the huge number of individual updates.

[Vulcan]

Originally Posted by sclitheroe

Haha that's awesome. I have no idea why MS never released a second service pack for Windows 7 to roll up the huge number of individual updates.

That was just the first day. The second day there were more updates and than Service Pack 1 and another 75 or so updates. I was getting worried that my 40Gb SSD couldn't handle it.