Hello, On wednesday night, I was happily using my computer and playing around with some wengophone software. At the end of the evening I shut my machine down. On Thurday lunch time, I went home for lunch and thought I'd fire up my machine to play with the wengophone software somemore. The Nvidia BIOS flashed on the screen and then nothing further came up on screen. I waited a while and still nothing more. I held in the Power button until the machine switched off and restarted it again. Same result except I noticed the harddrive light was fluttering away. So I switched it off and tried booting a knoppix CD. No result. So I disconnected the power supply to the second harddrive thinking maybe there was some argument between the harddrive and tried starting again. The first harddrive contains the master boot record. This time, still get the Nvidia BIOS notice but still doesn't boot but this time no harddrive light persistently fluttering. So, I am running out of options. Bascially, the computer doesn't seem to get to the BIOS screen but I am not sure what I can do about that. I had moved the computer or changed any of the power requirements. Is the motherboard stuffed? Is the BIOS stuffed? Any thoughts or recommendations etc. Chris
On 7/21/06, Chris O'Halloran <cmoman(a)gmail.com> wrote:
Hello,
On wednesday night, I was happily using my computer and playing around with some wengophone software. At the end of the evening I shut my machine down.
On Thurday lunch time, I went home for lunch and thought I'd fire up my machine to play with the wengophone software somemore.
The Nvidia BIOS flashed on the screen and then nothing further came up on screen. I waited a while and still nothing more.
I held in the Power button until the machine switched off and restarted it again. Same result except I noticed the harddrive light was fluttering away.
So I switched it off and tried booting a knoppix CD. No result.
So I disconnected the power supply to the second harddrive thinking maybe there was some argument between the harddrive and tried starting again. The first harddrive contains the master boot record.
This time, still get the Nvidia BIOS notice but still doesn't boot but this time no harddrive light persistently fluttering.
So, I am running out of options.
Bascially, the computer doesn't seem to get to the BIOS screen but I am not sure what I can do about that. I had moved the computer or changed any of the power requirements.
Is the motherboard stuffed? Is the BIOS stuffed?
Any thoughts or recommendations etc.
Chris
Hi there, There is a possibility your battery that backs up the BIOS data (CMOS) is flat. This often corrupts the BIOS data. Open up your PC, take the battery out, leave five minutes (as there may be a capacitor storing data charge) and then put back in as this will reset the BIOS data. Sometimes you can also do this by putting a jumper across two pins but you will need a manual to tell you where thos are. The battery is a round button cell about the size of a 20 c piece. If this fixes it go get a replacement one from Dick Smith or even the Warehouse if it is something like a CR2025 or similar - it will say on it. Ian -- Ian McDonald Web: http://wand.net.nz/~iam4 Blog: http://imcdnzl.blogspot.com WAND Network Research Group Department of Computer Science University of Waikato New Zealand
The battery is a round button cell about the size of a 20 c piece.
The only nasty part can be if your battery is soldered in. Unfortunately some motherboards do this and you have to unsolder it first.... -- Ian McDonald Web: http://wand.net.nz/~iam4 Blog: http://imcdnzl.blogspot.com WAND Network Research Group Department of Computer Science University of Waikato New Zealand
Thanks for the quick response. I'll have a look tonight for the BIOS battery, I'm pretty comfortable with a soldering iron and I am familiar with the battery that you are talking about. Cheers On 21/07/06, Ian McDonald <ian.mcdonald(a)jandi.co.nz> wrote:
On 7/21/06, Chris O'Halloran <cmoman(a)gmail.com> wrote:
Hello,
On wednesday night, I was happily using my computer and playing around with some wengophone software. At the end of the evening I shut my machine down.
On Thurday lunch time, I went home for lunch and thought I'd fire up my machine to play with the wengophone software somemore.
The Nvidia BIOS flashed on the screen and then nothing further came up on screen. I waited a while and still nothing more.
I held in the Power button until the machine switched off and restarted it again. Same result except I noticed the harddrive light was fluttering away.
So I switched it off and tried booting a knoppix CD. No result.
So I disconnected the power supply to the second harddrive thinking maybe there was some argument between the harddrive and tried starting again. The first harddrive contains the master boot record.
This time, still get the Nvidia BIOS notice but still doesn't boot but this time no harddrive light persistently fluttering.
So, I am running out of options.
Bascially, the computer doesn't seem to get to the BIOS screen but I am not sure what I can do about that. I had moved the computer or changed any of the power requirements.
Is the motherboard stuffed? Is the BIOS stuffed?
Any thoughts or recommendations etc.
Chris
Hi there,
There is a possibility your battery that backs up the BIOS data (CMOS) is flat. This often corrupts the BIOS data.
Open up your PC, take the battery out, leave five minutes (as there may be a capacitor storing data charge) and then put back in as this will reset the BIOS data. Sometimes you can also do this by putting a jumper across two pins but you will need a manual to tell you where thos are.
The battery is a round button cell about the size of a 20 c piece.
If this fixes it go get a replacement one from Dick Smith or even the Warehouse if it is something like a CR2025 or similar - it will say on it.
Ian -- Ian McDonald Web: http://wand.net.nz/~iam4 Blog: http://imcdnzl.blogspot.com WAND Network Research Group Department of Computer Science University of Waikato New Zealand
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On Fri, 2006-07-21 at 12:26 +1200, Chris O'Halloran wrote:
Hello,
On wednesday night, I was happily using my computer and playing around with some wengophone software. At the end of the evening I shut my machine down.
On Thurday lunch time, I went home for lunch and thought I'd fire up my machine to play with the wengophone software somemore.
The Nvidia BIOS flashed on the screen and then nothing further came up on screen. I waited a while and still nothing more.
I held in the Power button until the machine switched off and restarted it again. Same result except I noticed the harddrive light was fluttering away.
So I switched it off and tried booting a knoppix CD. No result.
So I disconnected the power supply to the second harddrive thinking maybe there was some argument between the harddrive and tried starting again. The first harddrive contains the master boot record.
This time, still get the Nvidia BIOS notice but still doesn't boot but this time no harddrive light persistently fluttering.
So, I am running out of options.
Bascially, the computer doesn't seem to get to the BIOS screen but I am not sure what I can do about that. I had moved the computer or changed any of the power requirements.
Is the motherboard stuffed? Is the BIOS stuffed?
Any thoughts or recommendations etc.
Chris
Usually when I attempt hardware troubleshooting of this kind I start by disconnecting all devices, periphials incl video card, keyboard and mouse (it'll give the appropriate beep code when it can't find the video card). Leave RAM in Boot up and see if it gives the no vid card found beeps (can't remember them off the top of my head - anyone?) Then one by one reconnect everything starting with video. Hopefully this will narrow down the cause Jodi
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Jodi Thomson, Mr (BA, A+, MCP) IT Support Engineer - Turbo Investments Group Ltd Phone: +64 6 834-0537 ext 1008 cell: +64 21 799 961 jodi.thomson(a)turbogroup.co.nz "Right now I'm having amnesia and deja vu at the same time. I think I've forgotten this before."
On Friday 21 July 2006 12:26, Chris O'Halloran wrote:
Is the motherboard stuffed? Is the BIOS stuffed?
Any thoughts or recommendations etc.
Chris
OK easy stuff first. Make sure the keyboard is plugged in properly. All the other plugs are seated properly. Actually remove and re-plug them. Can you access the bios menu? Does it all look sensible? Try changing a non-essential value, saving and then see if it boots? Or resetting the bios to default values. How many different things screens do you see on screen? I'm not sure about the nvidia bios but sound like it runs a custom splash screen. can you turn this off in the bios? The you should see something similar to the follwing three screens, the graphics card is detected, then post screen where disk drives are found and memory checked, then another screen that lists bios settings for components and a message "Booting..." If you still have no joy my first thought is that your power supply is fried. Does it smell bad (burnt acidic smell)? Fan goes etc? Strange sounds comming from it? eg ticking snapping or other :( similar things. You seem to be happy enough to open the case so here's some other ideas. BIG FAT NOTE: Don't have the pc plugged into the mains while you do this, and wear an antistatic wrist strap. Read all of the below before starting. Vibration can jiggle components out of place. As a last resort, very carefully remove and and reseat all components including power plugs an memory sticks.If needful do the same to the CPU, but remember that you will need to clean off and reapply the contact material for the heatsink. -- Nobody ever forgets where he buried the hatchet. -- Kin Hubbard
On Friday 21 July 2006 13:04, Glenn Enright wrote:
On Friday 21 July 2006 12:26, Chris O'Halloran wrote:
Is the motherboard stuffed? Is the BIOS stuffed?
Any thoughts or recommendations etc.
Chris
OK easy stuff first. Make sure the keyboard is plugged in properly. All the other plugs are seated properly. Actually remove and re-plug them.
Can you access the bios menu? Does it all look sensible? Try changing a non-essential value, saving and then see if it boots? Or resetting the bios to default values.
How many different things screens do you see on screen? I'm not sure about the nvidia bios but sound like it runs a custom splash screen. can you turn this off in the bios? The you should see something similar to the follwing three screens, the graphics card is detected, then post screen where disk drives are found and memory checked, then another screen that lists bios settings for components and a message "Booting..."
If you still have no joy my first thought is that your power supply is fried. Does it smell bad (burnt acidic smell)? Fan goes etc? Strange sounds comming from it? eg ticking snapping or other :( similar things.
You seem to be happy enough to open the case so here's some other ideas. BIG FAT NOTE: Don't have the pc plugged into the mains while you do this, and wear an antistatic wrist strap. Read all of the below before starting.
Vibration can jiggle components out of place. As a last resort, very carefully remove and and reseat all components including power plugs an memory sticks.If needful do the same to the CPU, but remember that you will need to clean off and reapply the contact material for the heatsink.
On second thoughts dont worry about the CPU, if thats loose you probably have bigger problems... -- Whatever is worth doing at all is worth doing well. -- Lord Chesterfield
Thanks for the suggestions. On rereading my email, perhaps I wasn't clear. My computer is not actually getting to the BIOS screen, it's only doing the quick text display that the nVidia graphics chip flashs just before the motherboard bios takes over. Power supply is a good suggestion but no, nothing untoward sounding and the CD and DVD roms operate so the 12V rail is probably good. I'll test the supply to the harddrives but I am still suspcious that the BIOS screens aren't coming up. Thanks for the suggestions. On 21/07/06, Glenn Enright <elinar(a)ihug.co.nz> wrote:
On Friday 21 July 2006 12:26, Chris O'Halloran wrote:
Is the motherboard stuffed? Is the BIOS stuffed?
Any thoughts or recommendations etc.
Chris
OK easy stuff first. Make sure the keyboard is plugged in properly. All the other plugs are seated properly. Actually remove and re-plug them.
Can you access the bios menu? Does it all look sensible? Try changing a non-essential value, saving and then see if it boots? Or resetting the bios to default values.
How many different things screens do you see on screen? I'm not sure about the nvidia bios but sound like it runs a custom splash screen. can you turn this off in the bios? The you should see something similar to the follwing three screens, the graphics card is detected, then post screen where disk drives are found and memory checked, then another screen that lists bios settings for components and a message "Booting..."
If you still have no joy my first thought is that your power supply is fried. Does it smell bad (burnt acidic smell)? Fan goes etc? Strange sounds comming from it? eg ticking snapping or other :( similar things.
You seem to be happy enough to open the case so here's some other ideas. BIG FAT NOTE: Don't have the pc plugged into the mains while you do this, and wear an antistatic wrist strap. Read all of the below before starting.
Vibration can jiggle components out of place. As a last resort, very carefully remove and and reseat all components including power plugs an memory sticks.If needful do the same to the CPU, but remember that you will need to clean off and reapply the contact material for the heatsink.
-- Nobody ever forgets where he buried the hatchet. -- Kin Hubbard
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I'll just come out of lurking ... I'd would suggest pulling out all the peripherials including the video card - make sure you have the speaker plugged in. When you power on, you should get the beeping indicating no video card. You could also try pulling the memory - a lot of bioses give a series of beeps when there's no memory either. In fact - it possibly could be a power supply issue - does your video card have a molex power supply to it as well? Perhaps your 5V rail has either gone pffft. (You haven't mentioned the loss of magic smoke - so it must be a pffft) Either that, or the 12 V rail is good enough to operate the optical drives + hard drives, but if the mother board has detected 'dirty' power supply, it may refuse to boot. (You may need to physically unplug from the mains and leave the machine for 15 minutes ... I did this on a very old computer when I was attempting something you shouldn't with the machine fully powered on ... tripped the 'dirty power supply'[0] rail and the machine needed to be unplugged from the wall completely first ...) If this is the case ... perhaps the video card is getting enough power from the molex, hence the Nvidia BIOS splash with nothing else? Hope this helps in some way. Warren. 0 - AKA shorted the incorrect two pins :( On 2006-07-21, at 01:54 , Chris O'Halloran wrote:
Thanks for the suggestions.
On rereading my email, perhaps I wasn't clear. My computer is not actually getting to the BIOS screen, it's only doing the quick text display that the nVidia graphics chip flashs just before the motherboard bios takes over.
Power supply is a good suggestion but no, nothing untoward sounding and the CD and DVD roms operate so the 12V rail is probably good.
I'll test the supply to the harddrives but I am still suspcious that the BIOS screens aren't coming up.
Thanks for the suggestions.
On 21/07/06, Glenn Enright <elinar(a)ihug.co.nz> wrote:
On Friday 21 July 2006 12:26, Chris O'Halloran wrote:
Is the motherboard stuffed? Is the BIOS stuffed?
Any thoughts or recommendations etc.
Chris
OK easy stuff first. Make sure the keyboard is plugged in properly. All the other plugs are seated properly. Actually remove and re-plug them.
Can you access the bios menu? Does it all look sensible? Try changing a non-essential value, saving and then see if it boots? Or resetting the bios to default values.
How many different things screens do you see on screen? I'm not sure about the nvidia bios but sound like it runs a custom splash screen. can you turn this off in the bios? The you should see something similar to the follwing three screens, the graphics card is detected, then post screen where disk drives are found and memory checked, then another screen that lists bios settings for components and a message "Booting..."
If you still have no joy my first thought is that your power supply is fried. Does it smell bad (burnt acidic smell)? Fan goes etc? Strange sounds comming from it? eg ticking snapping or other :( similar things.
You seem to be happy enough to open the case so here's some other ideas. BIG FAT NOTE: Don't have the pc plugged into the mains while you do this, and wear an antistatic wrist strap. Read all of the below before starting.
Vibration can jiggle components out of place. As a last resort, very carefully remove and and reseat all components including power plugs an memory sticks.If needful do the same to the CPU, but remember that you will need to clean off and reapply the contact material for the heatsink.
-- Nobody ever forgets where he buried the hatchet. -- Kin Hubbard
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Warren Boyd online.geek.nz IT Solutions Phone: +64-9-974 3042 Mobile: +64-21-0222 4649 Web: www.online.geek.nz
As a Tech, I must say ... Your right in your assumptions The Flash bios is the Video card (yes video cards have their own bootstrap) starting then the Motherboard and Bios should take over and are not Pulling cards is the next step, just in case, but right now a motherboard is looking pretty questionable, The supply is unlikely in this case, and your diagnostics look sound. Its looking like money will need to be spent Chris O'Halloran wrote:
Thanks for the suggestions.
On rereading my email, perhaps I wasn't clear. My computer is not actually getting to the BIOS screen, it's only doing the quick text display that the nVidia graphics chip flashs just before the motherboard bios takes over.
Power supply is a good suggestion but no, nothing untoward sounding and the CD and DVD roms operate so the 12V rail is probably good.
I'll test the supply to the harddrives but I am still suspcious that the BIOS screens aren't coming up.
Thanks for the suggestions.
Hello, thanks for the responses Well today, I pulled my machine apart into every last bit, including removing the BIOS battery and the motherboard from the case. With a set of special brushes connected to a vacuum cleaner I removed almost every trace of dust in my machine and reassembled it. I then put only the graphics card and ethernet card back into the PCI bus on the machine and switch on the power. This time, I didn't see a thing on the screen but could tell from the noises the machine was making, it was booting up okay. I then got another machine going on my lan and found I could ping the faulty machines ethernet card. I trieed SSH'ing to but so far I have not been able to get past the password checks. I am not sure if this is because of the way I've configured the ssh server on the faulty machine or if its part of the present failures that I am having. So it appears that the motherboard may be okay but the fault is now manifesting itself as a graphics issue. Or it have resolved the first fault but created another. I was quite careful to use an antistatic strap the whole time so I hope I haven't damaged the nVidia card. Thanks again for your help. On 21/07/06, Gavin Denby <redhat(a)ihug.co.nz> wrote:
As a Tech, I must say ... Your right in your assumptions
The Flash bios is the Video card (yes video cards have their own bootstrap) starting
then the Motherboard and Bios should take over and are not
Pulling cards is the next step, just in case, but right now a motherboard is looking pretty questionable, The supply is unlikely in this case, and your diagnostics look sound. Its looking like money will need to be spent
Chris O'Halloran wrote:
Thanks for the suggestions.
On rereading my email, perhaps I wasn't clear. My computer is not actually getting to the BIOS screen, it's only doing the quick text display that the nVidia graphics chip flashs just before the motherboard bios takes over.
Power supply is a good suggestion but no, nothing untoward sounding and the CD and DVD roms operate so the 12V rail is probably good.
I'll test the supply to the harddrives but I am still suspcious that the BIOS screens aren't coming up.
Thanks for the suggestions.
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Hello, just following up. Fiddling around I remember the one of you (infact its was Jodi and Warren) that mentioned the BIOS beeping the speaker when it couldn't find a video card. Well that was the clue, I hadn't seat the video card quite properly when i put it back together. Once reseated everything booted fine! yeah yeah yeah. So the problem was probably a screwed BIOS that needed resetting by removing the battery. Cleaning the insides probably helped and the other clues you guys passed on helped me to diagnose a problem of my own making :) So thanks again for your contributions. The other benefit was I turned my server into a desktop using Xubuntu so I could get back onto the internet. Its pretty tidiy actually so I think I'll keep using it. Cheers On 22/07/06, Chris O'Halloran <cmoman(a)gmail.com> wrote:
Hello,
thanks for the responses Well today, I pulled my machine apart into every last bit, including removing the BIOS battery and the motherboard from the case. With a set of special brushes connected to a vacuum cleaner I removed almost every trace of dust in my machine and reassembled it.
I then put only the graphics card and ethernet card back into the PCI bus on the machine and switch on the power. This time, I didn't see a thing on the screen but could tell from the noises the machine was making, it was booting up okay.
I then got another machine going on my lan and found I could ping the faulty machines ethernet card. I trieed SSH'ing to but so far I have not been able to get past the password checks. I am not sure if this is because of the way I've configured the ssh server on the faulty machine or if its part of the present failures that I am having.
So it appears that the motherboard may be okay but the fault is now manifesting itself as a graphics issue. Or it have resolved the first fault but created another. I was quite careful to use an antistatic strap the whole time so I hope I haven't damaged the nVidia card.
Thanks again for your help.
On 21/07/06, Gavin Denby <redhat(a)ihug.co.nz> wrote:
As a Tech, I must say ... Your right in your assumptions
The Flash bios is the Video card (yes video cards have their own bootstrap) starting
then the Motherboard and Bios should take over and are not
Pulling cards is the next step, just in case, but right now a motherboard is looking pretty questionable, The supply is unlikely in this case, and your diagnostics look sound. Its looking like money will need to be spent
Chris O'Halloran wrote:
Thanks for the suggestions.
On rereading my email, perhaps I wasn't clear. My computer is not actually getting to the BIOS screen, it's only doing the quick text display that the nVidia graphics chip flashs just before the motherboard bios takes over.
Power supply is a good suggestion but no, nothing untoward sounding and the CD and DVD roms operate so the 12V rail is probably good.
I'll test the supply to the harddrives but I am still suspcious that the BIOS screens aren't coming up.
Thanks for the suggestions.
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participants (6)
-
Chris O'Halloran -
Gavin Denby -
Glenn Enright -
Ian McDonald -
Jodi Thomson -
Warren Boyd