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General discussion

Is my mobo fried?

Aug 31, 2004 11:37PM PDT

I had several discussions with you all a few days ago (page 2, "hooking up a new power supply") I worked on a few of your ideas and have a couple of things to add. My monitor is powered but no picture. I'm assuming this is a video card. I have reseated it. My CDROM blinks but won't open. The machine turns on and all of the led lights work. It makes a long beep and a few short ones and then I hear the familiar noise of the hard drive starting up. I think this computer has had it but I hate to give up and waste any good parts. Is there a 'tester' of any kind that I can use to test all of the devices. I did try starting up with floopy start up disk but since I can't see anything on the monitor, this doesn't help me. I hope you guys will be patient enough to give another shot at this problem I have.

Thanks, Val

Discussion is locked

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Why the new post?
Aug 31, 2004 11:39PM PDT

If you had added to your old post with new information then the discussion pops to the top and gets highlighted. As it stands and with what's in this posting, not much can be divined.

Bob

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Re: Is my mobo fried?
Sep 2, 2004 3:58AM PDT

Maybe, but from your description, I would say you are getting a "beep code" from the BIOS self test. The manufacturer's web site, or your mother board documentation should detail just what these beeps mean. This may narrow the problem down a bit for you.

Try stripping the machine down to bare-bones, Mother Board, CPU, Heat Sink, Heat Sink Fan, power supply, 1 stick of memory (unless 2 sticks are required to make a 'bank'.) This too could help you narrow down the problem.

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maybe not
Sep 2, 2004 2:25PM PDT

if you're getting beeps there's hope. one long and two short sometimes means a video problem. to see, you'll need to swap out the video card with another. if the AGP slot is bad on the board you can use a PCI card. I had a problem like this once-- was caused by a bad monitor.

spare basic video cards are readily available on the net, ebay, etc, for cheap. - fj

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Re: Is my mobo fried?
Sep 2, 2004 9:09PM PDT

I would start by unplugging all of your cards, and ram. re-install just the ram and the video card. Then power up and see what happens. If it still beeps, try another video card to check. If you don't have a spare, it would be a good idead to have a cheap one around, a PCI one even. Could be RAM or Video.