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(PC was fully working for last 3 years and is computer-shop built)

On powering up, the psu and cpu fans spool up, and the power light on
the case turns on. There are no post bleeps that you normally get if
your gfx card or memory is bad or missing, and i tried d/c'ing the
memory, gfx card, floppy drive and all IDE devices. Same effect.

Normally in that situation u'd get a post bleep for the no gfx card,
and if you reconnect the gfx ud get a bleep for no ram, and an error
message for no ram. However the computer dosnt even get that far.

This leaves the mobo and cpu. The last time i fixed a pc im pretty sure
the system checks for a working cpu *after* checking for gfx and
memory, so IMO the system isnt even getting far enough into startup to
even look for a cpu. Test by removing the CPU? Tried to do that, but
the damn heatsink overlaps the zif handle, and i snapped the bloody zif
handle trying to pry it over the top of the HS.....

So im thinkin, dead mobo, screwed bios, or dead cmos battery. Anyone
think they know the problem from this description?

Also, dead mobo's and batteries are easy enough to replace (although if
its the mobo im pretty sure it will mean a new cpu too since with no
zif handle its as good as being soldered on), but how do you fix a
bios? Ive heard people say use a program to 'flash' it but i cant even
get to the ram test screen, let alone an os to run programs on!

have you tried removing the gfx card and then trying to boot? You
won't get any video but you might get your post beeps. As far as the
bios goes, I have only heard of flashing it.
Not sure of the cmos battery either. I have a pc at work that the
battery has been dead for awhile now and all it does is not save the
date and time upon a reboot.

Dan

On Oct 17, 6:38 pm, briq...@yahoo.co.uk wrote:
> (PC was fully working for last 3 years and is computer-shop built)
>
> On powering up, the psu and cpu fans spool up, and the power light on
> the case turns on. There are no post bleeps that you normally get if
> your gfx card or memory is bad or missing, and i tried d/c'ing the
> memory, gfx card, floppy drive and all IDE devices. Same effect.
>
> Normally in that situation u'd get a post bleep for the no gfx card,
> and if you reconnect the gfx ud get a bleep for no ram, and an error
> message for no ram. However the computer dosnt even get that far.
>
> This leaves the mobo and cpu. The last time i fixed a pc im pretty sure
> the system checks for a working cpu *after* checking for gfx and
> memory, so IMO the system isnt even getting far enough into startup to
> even look for a cpu. Test by removing the CPU? Tried to do that, but
> the damn heatsink overlaps the zif handle, and i snapped the bloody zif
> handle trying to pry it over the top of the HS.....
>
> So im thinkin, dead mobo, screwed bios, or dead cmos battery. Anyone
> think they know the problem from this description?
>
> Also, dead mobo's and batteries are easy enough to replace (although if
> its the mobo im pretty sure it will mean a new cpu too since with no
> zif handle its as good as being soldered on), but how do you fix a
> bios? Ive heard people say use a program to 'flash' it but i cant even
> get to the ram test screen, let alone an os to run programs on!

wrote:
> (PC was fully working for last 3 years and is computer-shop built)
>
> On powering up, the psu and cpu fans spool up, and the power light on
> the case turns on. There are no post bleeps that you normally get if
> your gfx card or memory is bad or missing, and i tried d/c'ing the
> memory, gfx card, floppy drive and all IDE devices. Same effect.
>
> Normally in that situation u'd get a post bleep for the no gfx card,
> and if you reconnect the gfx ud get a bleep for no ram, and an error
> message for no ram. However the computer dosnt even get that far.
>
> This leaves the mobo and cpu. The last time i fixed a pc im pretty sure
> the system checks for a working cpu *after* checking for gfx and
> memory,



No you need a working CPU / motherboard to even start the boot up process.
Have a read of this Wikipedia article to get the gist of what happens.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Power-on_self-test




so IMO the system isnt even getting far enough into startup to
> even look for a cpu. Test by removing the CPU? Tried to do that, but
> the damn heatsink overlaps the zif handle, and i snapped the bloody zif
> handle trying to pry it over the top of the HS.....
>


er you're supposed to remove the HS first.




> So im thinkin, dead mobo, screwed bios, or dead cmos battery. Anyone
> think they know the problem from this description?
>
> Also, dead mobo's and batteries are easy enough to replace (although if
> its the mobo im pretty sure it will mean a new cpu too since with no
> zif handle its as good as being soldered on), but how do you fix a
> bios? Ive heard people say use a program to 'flash' it but i cant even
> get to the ram test screen, let alone an os to run programs on!
>

Classic method of troubleshooting a 'no post beep' PC is to remove all
plug in cards & drives leaving only motherboard/CPU Graphics card and
one stick of ram.

If still no Beeps test the removable bits in a compatible working PC.

Best
Paul.