VO-BB - 20 YEARS OLD!

melissa eX · Posted: Tue Jun 10, 2008 1:56 pm Post subject: ackkk - computer died

Great. Just what I need. I turn the computer (PC) on and get....nothing. The on light goes on - nothing on the monitor. Could be the display adapter I guess. I THINK I hear the fan running - hard to tell 'cause it's such a quiet computer that I don't really hear the fan when it's running. Video card has no fan - heatsink instead so I can't tell by that either.

Since it's the (gulp) ONLY working computer in the house I'm kind of at a loss. I have to get this fixed tomorrow - waiting for a call back from a place that may or may not call back.

I'm at my radio shift right now and have a couple more hours with the computer I'm on now. Any suggestions before I freak out? I've turned it on (and off) a couple of times via the front button but I'm kind of wary about hitting the hard shutdown switch on the back of the computer, but maybe that's what it needs.

arrghh

louzucaro · Posted: Tue Jun 10, 2008 2:06 pm Post subject:

If it's turning on and off, it's not likely the switch on the back will do anything more on that front...that's usually a "last resort" kinda thing if the softswitch feature of the regular power button doesn't do anything.

Did you try disconnecting the display cable and putting it back in? Not that that will fix anything unless the only thing wrong is you can't see what's on the monitor.

Or is your monitor saying it's not getting a signal? (would it, if it weren't getting one?)

No strange beeps?

And you can't hear if the hard drives are spooling up, huh?
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Jeff McNeal · Guest

Sounds like the video card or display driver went south. That would be the second thing I'd check. You should see SOMETHING on the monitor. Check your monitor connections first. It's possible that the monitor just died, or hopefully something really simple like a loose monitor cable. If the board is getting power, then your power supply is probably okay. Do you have any other monitors in the house that you can try?

louzucaro · Posted: Tue Jun 10, 2008 2:08 pm Post subject:

It wouldn't be the driver, because that would require Windows to load first. Definitely hardware, whether an actual piece of hardware or a cable.
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imaginator · Posted: Tue Jun 10, 2008 2:21 pm Post subject:

ouch!

i'm no computer expert, so i have some in town and call them when i'm in trouble.

not knowing where you live, i'm not sure whom to recommend. but here, a company called intrex offers a premium/same day service for an additional 50 dollars. i've used it twice during such emergencies over the years. fortunately, each time it was something which could be fixed quickly and i was back up before day's end.

i hope you have such a store in your area, and that your problems are as easily solved.
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Jeffrey Kafer · Posted: Tue Jun 10, 2008 2:27 pm Post subject:

Double check the fan. If you're getting absolutely nothing on screen and NOT getting fan noise, then you have a burned out power supply, possibly.
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Gp · Guest

It could be a simple battery issue. I once had a similar problem. I would turn on the computer and get no image on the monitor. If I then shut it right back down and turned it on again it would work. It was a simple fix to replace the battery. Once I had that changed all was well and right with the world once again.

melissa eX · Posted: Tue Jun 10, 2008 2:57 pm Post subject:

Thanks, I'll try all that when I get home. Early this morning it had frozen because I had something frozen on the monitor. When I turned it off and on again, I got nothing on the monitor and then I had to run out so I couldn't try anything else.

It's not the power supply 'cause the light is on and I see another light inside the vents. It's not dead silent, which makes me thinks the fan is running. The one disadvantage to having a nearly silent computer lol!

I'll check the connections and I do have another monitor so I'll try that. I'd been having driver problems earlier - kept having to roll back the display driver whenever windows tried to update it. I'm thinking it may be the video card itself.

Yoda117 · Posted: Tue Jun 10, 2008 3:20 pm Post subject:

This will sound dumb, but especially if it's a Dell I've found it to be worth while. Check the primary connection from the PSU to the motherboard.

If that wasn't seated properly or for some reason (moving around, sudden change in temp) then it could work itself loose enough to cause this issue.

I've only seen it a few times, and always with Dells.
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melissa eX · Posted: Tue Jun 10, 2008 3:47 pm Post subject:

No Dell - It's a Carillon - but I can't even find the company anymore.

Going home now to mess with it. If I can't figure it out tonight I might actually get to bed before 2am... Shocked

KaseyKruz · Club 300 Joined: 18 Apr 2008 Posts: 336 Location: Michigan

Radio gig? where do you work? Im in Fresno Ca. ...not that i want to admit that I work in radio.. ehh hem...
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Doc · Guest

I'm with Jeff Kafer on this one.

About 4 years ago, I had the same symptoms with my computer. And, it turned out to be the power supply. That's a good thing because it's a simple fix and not too expensive.

Fans would power on, hard drives would spin up... but, I couldn't get any monitor.

Sometimes power supplies act strangely when they're about to fry.

Here's hoping that's your problem.

Craig · Posted: Tue Jun 10, 2008 4:21 pm Post subject:

Melissa,

I too had a power supply go bad.

It didn't just die, but a variety of symptoms occurred before it was diagnosed.

I don't want to sound stooopid, but check the power source to the monitor too. I had mine off once and didn't know it... (k, now I sound stooopid!)

Craig
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louzucaro · Posted: Tue Jun 10, 2008 5:24 pm Post subject:

Also, what do you have the computer plugged into? Maybe try a different plug in the surge protector / UPS...could be some line noise (if it's power-related) although that's unlikely.
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ccpetersen · Posted: Tue Jun 10, 2008 6:22 pm Post subject:

Oh, good luck with that. Power supply sounds like a culprit; hard to tell.

Two weeks ago my main computer just stopped. Dead. when I rebooted, I got BSOD over and over again. I finally managed to get it to start in safe mode and found out that somehow the OS got corrupted. Reinstalled, and it's working, sort of, but I keep getting disk errors.

I managed to copy everything off to an aux drive, but it was touch and go there for a while. Nothing more scary than the dead computer gambit.
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