After monkeying around with Virtual PC, I decided to buy a cheap used PC for the apps I have to use on Windows. I bought a KVM switch that worked quite nicely, and I thought I would add a ethernet card and USB/Firewire card as well. I took memory out to insert the PCI cards and put it back in…
So I turn on the power and long persistent beeping comes from the speaker - no video. I go online and find that this means the memory is not seated properly. I reseat it, and lo and behold, no beeping but no video either.
I have an ATI Radeon card and put that in, no dice. I deduce that I did something bad to the mobo, so I replace the Abit KG-7 with a Soyo Dragon KT-600. Install the CPU, memory, PCI cards, attach all cables, etc. I turned it on and nothing. Fan noise, disks seem to be whirring, but nothing else happens.
After a while, turning on the power does nothing. The keyboard lights flash when I plug it in but nothing else. I can hear a quiet click, like it’s being turned off when I unplug it.
Does this sound like a bad power supply to you? Is there a way I can check (unfortunately everyone I know is fairly computer illiterate and I don’t think I can take someone’s PC apart to test mine)? I do think it’s kind of cool to build one’s own PC - I’ve customized my G4 quite a bit - but all of this is adding up. PC was $120, KVM switch was $40, new mobo was $50… I’m thinking about getting one of these Dells for $299 - although I don’t want or need another keyboard or monitor, but at least I know that will work!
Advice from the PC gurus amongst the SDMB? And I refuse to pay someone $100 for opening the computer at CompUSA (here in Boston)!
Have you tried clearing the BIOS? Also try taking everything out bar the CPU and one DIMM. See if that works. If it does, add in everything else one item at a time. If it doesn’t try swapping DIMMs.
It does sound like a bad power supply, but it’s not always easy to tell for sure, other than swapping the thing out with a good one. When my power supply was dying, all the leads registered correct voltages when measured with a DVM, but the PC didn’t like it. There must have been spikes too brief for the DVM to detect.
Second what Quartz suggests, try pulling everything bar a DIMM. My mobo lets me get to the BIOS screen with nothing but a power supply, a graphics card and memory - doesn’t even need the CPU. Narrows down the candidates, anyway.
Your mobo manual should include instructions for clearing your BIOS with a jumper, but since the problem seems to have spanned two mobos, it seems more likely that some other component is responsible.
I’d double-check all of the cables that connect the motherboard to the power supply and case. Pay special attention to the cable that goes to the front panel power switch on the case. It’s easy to make a mistake when attaching these cables.
Per matt and Quartz’s advice, I stripped down everything so it was just mobo, cpu, and DIMM. No dice. I guess I’ll try a new power supply… thanks for the advice so far!