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Geek Culture / Computer woes

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Ian T
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Posted: 8th Jan 2004 07:32
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My computer won't boot up.

I was playing Diablo online, and it crashed (or more accuratly, some jerk joined the open game and crashed me, I forgot to have my anticrash hacks up), taking my system down with it. So I take the power out... try to boot it up again... it beeps, but makes none of the usual sounds of the hardware starting. CD and floppy drives don't warm up. Nothing but a low whirring from the box that holds the CPU, power supply and HD.

Ralen on the IRC says the power supply's fried and I have little doubt that's the case. I guess Windows compelled me to cut off the power cold one too many times. I've checked everything obvious, it's not the cable, but I'm just wondering if anyone here has any ideas I can try. I'm penniless right now and it'd take me a long while to save up for another power supply.

Right now I'm busy trying to resist the urge to hang lagmaster on the IRC.

--Mouse: Famous (Avatarless) Fighting Furball

I am the chainsaw paladin.
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CattleRustler
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Posted: 8th Jan 2004 07:43
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Mouse, sorry to hear that. I am not sure why "taking the power out" was the way to boot the machine but it may not necessarily be the power supply itself that is dead (although it is most likely). Are there any beeps at boot? If there are, note down the pattern as long-short sequences and post em here. There are different patterns based on whats blown/not responding ie video, memory, controller, etc etc. if there absolutely no beeps then power dump is most likely sorry mate. Let us know.

-RUST-

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Ian T
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Posted: 8th Jan 2004 07:45
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There's a single beep which is always the first thing to happen when the computer turns on, that's it .

I know it's not ideal to cut the power but there's not really any other option when your system locks up like that .

Thanks.

--Mouse: Famous (Avatarless) Fighting Furball

I am the chainsaw paladin.
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CattleRustler
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Posted: 8th Jan 2004 07:51
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when the single beep happens is there anything on the screen?

-RUST-

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Ian T
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Posted: 8th Jan 2004 08:02
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Nothing goes to the screen, as far as the monitor's concerned the computer never turned on. No surprise as the video card dosen't start up so it wouldn't get any feed anyways.

Tried removing both RAM sticks, one then the other, at Indi's instruction on the IRC, no luck

Again thanks .

--Mouse: Famous (Avatarless) Fighting Furball

I am the chainsaw paladin.
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AlecM
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Posted: 8th Jan 2004 08:05 Edited at: 8th Jan 2004 08:06
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Um, if you don't know what your doing touching lots of parts isnt a good idea? Were you grouding yourself? Did you hold the DIMMs by the edges?


So it beeps but doesnt post?


Who made your PSU?

[P4 2.8C @ 3.03 with an 866mhz FSB:: MSI Neo-2LS running PAT:: 1gb Mushkin PC-3500 DDR High Perf level 2@ 2,2,2 :: ATI Radeon9800ProAIW :: 120Gb SeagateBarracuda 7,200RPM SATA HD :: Antec Plus1080AMG]
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CattleRustler
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Posted: 8th Jan 2004 08:06
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Just for sh*ts and giggles, do you have a different Vid card you could try? also try re-seating all the devices/cards/connections. usually whe a vid card fries it will do a 4 beep sequence (long-short-short-short if me remebers correct). Try a diff vid card if you can - keep me posted.

I may be off here until tomr buit have no despair until we are sure - for sure.

<hugs mouse>
(ok, not in a gay way or nothing!)

-RUST-

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Shadow Robert
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Posted: 8th Jan 2004 08:06
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if it beeps then the power supply is fine, because if it wasn't then the power supply would do something but the system wouldn't.

is it a single beep, or does it beep followed by a pattern of beeps?
there is a chance that something else has been damaged or reset, but there is no real way to know what without knowing the pattern that followed.

. ... = gfx error, card not present or not valid
this also could be a capacitor problem, as sometimes when the computer crashes the power supply will dump the capacitor energy particularly on a BAD crash; like when lightining hits the powerlines and blows the fuse and such.

what you have to do is slowly recharge the capacitor, but taking everything off and running it for a second or two. Then attaching one drive (without ide cables), and again until the system is booting up the devices well.
Then do the same for the cards onboard.

eventually it'll start working find again


Detonating a nuclear device within the city limits results in a $500 fine!
900mhz|256mb|FX5200Ti 52.16|Dx9|WXP-Pro
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CattleRustler
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Posted: 8th Jan 2004 08:08
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just for some encouragement-I fried my ti4600 by punching my cpu case during a hockey game. I thought the entire computer was dead but revived it with a new fx5200 ultra - heh

-RUST-

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Ian T
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Posted: 8th Jan 2004 08:11
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'Um, if you don't know what your doing touching lots of parts isnt a good idea? Were you grouding yourself? Did you hold the DIMMs by the edges?'

I was grounded, I'm touching the RAM sticks by the edges, being very careful with everything . Thanks.

Cattle 1-> Yeah actually I have my old TNT2. I'll try that. Thanks.

Raven-> Single beep, fan spins, nothing else. Thanks.

Cattle 2-> Ouch glad you got a new card

--Mouse: Famous (Avatarless) Fighting Furball

I am the chainsaw paladin.
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CattleRustler
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Posted: 8th Jan 2004 08:11
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RAVEN

Quote: "is it a single beep, or does it beep followed by a pattern of beeps? There is a chance that something else has been damaged or reset, but there is no real way to know what without knowing the pattern that followed."


do you read the other posts before you post? no, of course you don't.

-RUST-

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CattleRustler
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Posted: 8th Jan 2004 08:13
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good luck MOUSE-
I'll try and check back b4 tomr. (tis 1:12 am here)
I am sorry if I started a flame session with Raven but it is almost always unavoidable.

peace

-RUST-

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Shadow Robert
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Posted: 8th Jan 2004 08:25
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cattle don't get shirty, he never fully explained what happened only that there was a bleep ... he never said how many and you asked the exact same question; so shut the f**k up for once and think about the problem than having a pop!

try the solution i gave cause that definately sounds like what i suspected now.
a complete strip down and rebuild probably isn't a bad idea cause you can clean the dust from inside as well, which helps keep the connections healthy.


Detonating a nuclear device within the city limits results in a $500 fine!
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CattleRustler
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Posted: 8th Jan 2004 10:02 Edited at: 8th Jan 2004 10:04
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@ RAVEN: this shows you, and everyone, how obnoxious you are...

Quote: "MOUSE:it beeps, but makes none of the usual sounds of the hardware starting"


Quote: "CR:Are there any beeps at boot? If there are, note down the pattern as long-short sequences and post em here. There are different patterns based on whats blown/not responding ie video, memory, controller, etc etc."


Quote: "MOUSE:There's a single beep which is always the first thing to happen when the computer turns on, that's it"


Quote: "RAVEN:cattle don't get shirty, he never fully explained what happened only that there was a bleep ... he never said how many and you asked the exact same question; so shut the f**k up for once and think about the problem than having a pop"


Anything else RAVEN?

Are we reading the same thread? And btw, wtf is "shirty"? Oh and for the record:
Quote: "so shut the f**k up"


Can I get a MOD? Indy? Anyone?

-RUST-

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CattleRustler
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Posted: 8th Jan 2004 10:06
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@Raven: and NO, YOU asked the same question ten posts later, that I had already asked - prompting "DO YOU EVEN READ THE POSTS?"

J-W

-RUST-

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Shadow Robert
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Posted: 8th Jan 2004 11:28
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no i didn't... you people posted whilst i was posting my post
it only popped up like a few below

just because my attention was drawn for a second and 10posts appear in like 2minutes doesn't mean that it wasn't posted just after yours.

get your f**king facts straight next time... BUHT no, that would be too much bother to ask from someone like you wouldn't it be.


Detonating a nuclear device within the city limits results in a $500 fine!
900mhz|256mb|FX5200Ti 52.16|Dx9|WXP-Pro
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lagmaster
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Posted: 8th Jan 2004 12:39
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what have i done to get hanged?

when you press the power button on your computer.

do you hear the following:

psu start up and fans whirling
cpu fan whirling
lights on the motherboard light up (a few motherboards have lights to say it's on!)
any extra fans start up

hear the POST test (bleep bleep bleep) etc etc etc
is the monitor on?
can you see the post test on the monitor

tons of possibilities

you choose

lagmasteruk - http://www.lagmaster.net is alive! http://www.dbforums.co.uk/ - another db forum!

Dark Snippet Pro V9.2 is out!!
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HZence
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Posted: 8th Jan 2004 13:19
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Quote: "get your f**king facts straight next time... BUHT no, that would be too much bother to ask from someone like you wouldn't it be."


Is this really something worth fighting about?

@Mouse: I really fail to see how someone could remotely do this to your computer...you sure it wasn't a coincidence, or are you sure that someone else crashed your computer?


Team EOD :: Programmer/Storyboard Assistant
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DivW
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Posted: 8th Jan 2004 15:00
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There's test to know if your PSU is fried. The main one, to test if any circuits are fried, is that when you turn on the computer, the CPU fan will give a quarter turn, then it will stay off. It won't take another quearter turn till the capacitors have discharged. I'm sure this is a test for PSU. If it gives a single short beep, or a sort of tone, (a beep, then a second beep with lower pitch with no pause) then it's posting. That means everything is probably still working. I would try a new video card...but then again, if you say that none of your devices are booting up, then it's entirely possible that a small power surge on the cold, or hard, reset flashed the EEPROM containing your BIOS. This would cause the trouble you've mentioned, as basic connections like the fans etc. would still run, but the IDE devices, PCI and AGP devices would just sit there. However if this has happned, it's highly unlikely that you're going to hear that beep. Sounds like some problem you've got there.
What i would do:
Take a good look at my Mobo and make sure everything's the way it should me. This is not a RAM problem, PC's still post and show a boot screen without RAM (beleive me, i know, i was working on a PC and it was almost finished, everything except the RAM, and my idiot brother plugged it in and turned it on while i was out.)

All i can say is what is isn't:
It's not your PSU if it boots and the fans run, unless it's a wire coming out of the PSU that's broken.
It's not a PCI card, but removing them all would be reccomended because you don't want them damaged, and i once had a faulty sound card that gave a problem similar to this.
It's not likely to be your CPU, you would get a boot error message of some sort.

Basically, i think it's probably your Motherboard. Have a good look at it.

-Dave

Your soul...it tastes like chicken

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