I came home from work last night to find my PC not giving a video signal. The fans were still running, but no video and no response from the mouse or keyboard. I pressed the reset button, but it refused to boot. When I press the power button everything spins up like normal, but nothing happens after that. I pulled my D-Bracket out of my "big box o' stuff" and plugged it in, then tried again. I get a series of flashing lights, then the system hangs with three green LEDs and one red in the bottom-right corner, which according to the Basic Troubleshooting Guide means "Testing Real Time Clock". I don't know what that is or what it means.

I tried removing the battery to clear the CMOS, but that didn't have any effect. I'm not sure it would even help my situation.

I have checked the motherboard for any visible damage such as burn marks, bulging capacitors, etc. but have found nothing. I checked and reseated every connection in the entire PC.

Unfortunately I do not have another system available with which I could swap out and test parts. I used to have a couple friends whose PCs I could borrow, but I recently moved and have no such contacts around here.

I have this old PC here which has a PSU I thought I could use, but it turns out it doesn't have the extra connector for a P4. I had unplugged some things before I found this out, so I plugged them back in and tried booting. I got a series of scary-sounding beeps, then I turned it back off. I tried again and no beeps, but now my D-Bracket says I'm freezing at "initializing video interface".

Is my mobo fried? Is this fixable? What should I do?

Here's my specs, as best I can remember. I kept a .txt file with the exact description on my main hard drive, but obviously I can't currently access it:

P4 2.8e @ 3.01GHz, HT enabled
2x512MB OZ PC3700 DDR466, matched pair, 2.5-3-3-5
MSI 865PE Neo2 PFISR, not overclocked, BIOS version 3.8 (I think)
Enermax Noisetaker 470W PSU
Seagate 200GB SATA HDD
WinXP Pro SP2 + latest updates


Thanks in advance for any help.

I just got a second opinion who said it's unlikely to be the PSU, since anything at all comes on. Does this seem likely?

It's not your PSU, it's either your video card, memory, or even your motherboard. Try taking the ram out, clean the dust away and put it back in. Do the same with the video card. Try a minimum boot, i.e. take out any extra cards you may have in there, and leave only the cpu, motherboard, ram, video card, and hard drive connected and see if it boots.

Quote from shiny_red_cobra :

It's not your PSU

What makes you so sure of that? I don't mean that in a mean way; it's meant literally. I want to know as much as I can about what led you to conclude that it definitely isn't the PSU, so I can know that for myself in the future.

Swapped out video cards and it booted just fine.

Damn it.

I just downgraded from an X800XL to a 9600XT.

I cleared the CMOS so all my BIOS settings reverted. I haven't gotten them exactly right yet, and the bootup sequence is really strange. Stuff I've never seen before.

And I have to uninstall / reinstall new catalysts for this card. Any suggestions as to which drivers are best for this old card?

More bad news.

The 9600 worked fine with no drivers installed, but once I installed the latest and restarted, I got to the desktop and the screen instantly corrupts into stripes and colors. I've seen it before with corrupted and damaged cards.

I tried in a vain attempt to plug my good card back in, but I get the same results (i.e. no post).

Is it safe to assume that the graphics card is the problem, and that I should buy a new one?

Here's what I know:

1. Stripes, and other sorts of artifacts on the screen are usually the sign of a bad graphics card, as you have indeed determined.

2. A computer turning on but not doing anything (e.g. no video output or response form keyboard or anything) CAN be the sign of a bad PSU. The reason I know this is because just two weeks ago a friend turned her desktop off, and next time she went to use it, she had the exact same problem. Turned out the PSU was faulty, so I replaced it and it's been running fine now.

1+2 = It is a POSSIBILITY that perhaps the PSU is bad, and as a result, plugging in the less-power-hungry 9600GT means the dying PSU now puts out enough power to run the computer. However, you get artifacts and stuff because the GFX card is still being undervolted. The more power-hungry X800XL on the other hand draws enough power to completely cripple the system on startup.

Were I in your situation, I'd try a different power supply in your PC. If that doesn't solve the problem, at least try your X800XL in HIS computer to make sure that it's functioning correctly.

But the PSU is definitely the culprit here.

I got the exact same artifacts when I put the 9600 into this secondary PC. So I'm sure it's the card causing the problem.

This motherboard on the secondary PC is AGP 4x. I can put my X800XL (AGP 4x/8x) in this one to test it, right?

Quote from Lateralus :

I got the exact same artifacts when I put the 9600 into this secondary PC. So I'm sure it's the card causing the problem.

This motherboard on the secondary PC is AGP 4x. I can put my X800XL (AGP 4x/8x) in this one to test it, right?

Sure. I know this sounds loopy, but it could be that both components (GPU and PSU) are faulty. The odds are slim, but both cards not working isn't a good sign. That or both the GPU and the Mobo (the AGP slot might be whack). At this point I think you need to just start swapping parts. A good place to start is to remove EVERYTHING except the PSU, Mobo GPU and one stick of RAM and see if it boots past the post screen. If that works, add HDDs and other things ONE at a time and see where you hit the snag.

If that doesn't work, you might be better off mixing parts with another computer until you can isolate where the problem is coming from. Sucks.

Quote from Stang70Fastback :

Sure. I know this sounds loopy, but it could be that both components (GPU and PSU) are faulty. The odds are slim, but both cards not working isn't a good sign.

The 9600 doesn't work because it's damaged. It has done the exact same thing in 3 PCs. It failing in my main PC doesn't mean my main PC has a problem.

I got my hands on a Radeon 9000 64MB. Put it in the problem PC and it booted fine. I'm posting this on this PC and everything is OK, except it looks like crap because no drivers are installed. I tried the X800XL in the other PC and sure enough, same problem of not booting. So it is definitely a fried graphics card.

I thought this might happen and made a thread asking about current graphics cards. If anyone could help, please look here.

Thanks for the help.