computer woes :(

I noticed that I was getting some weird graphics stuff happening in the little dialogue box that appears when you're copying files, so I decided to restart my comp. That's when the real problem started. Restart no worky. All that I get is the 2 seconds of blurb detailing my gfx card, and then nothing but a black screen with only the little command line doo-dah blinking away at me from the top left corner. Is this indicative of something terrible? I assume it is, but is it something terrible with the mobo, the HDD (3 of them atm), or is there more that I should be worrying about?

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i eat paint

If this is happening before your OS is booting, then it's a hardware problem. If you saw graphical glitches right before this happened, check out your video card. Stuff might be getting too hot, or something could be broken. As far as I can tell this sounds like it has nothing to do with your HDDs.

If you HDD fails, the computer will give error messages.
I'd focus on the video card, just because that's where you were seeing problems and those are more likely to die than your motherboard. Also, if something was wrong with the board you'd get some error messages, as well as if there were a problem with system memory. See if some things need cleaning or if anything is broken or burnt.

If it's doing all this after all the diagnostic stuff and during what would normally be your OS booting, then it could easily be a HDD problem (Or Windows problem). But as far as I understood your explanation, it doesn't sound like it.

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Blame it on Microsoft, God does.

Not to panic is what helped me through a lot of this kind of computer issues over the past few years. So I suggest the same: Don't panic. I once heard a zap sound followed by black smoke and a smell of burning. I didn't dare to switch the PC back on for hours. But later it worked fine for 2 more years, without any issues. That was when I decided not to get desperate about things like this :smile:

Do you hear you PC working in the background? Maybe the monitor cable or gfxcard is loose.

Does BIOS load? Do you get the all-OK beep, the start page where it lists the RAM, the HDDs ect? (I wonder if you still see that on modern PCs, many laptops I've seen don't show this anymore)

I'd re-check every little cable in and outside the PC, then try restarting a couple of times. Chances are this is temporal.

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Why snark works.

Thanks for the optimism reaper, but there's no ok beep, no screen where I'd normally see the ram being counted, no f12 to the bios. normally it shows the 2 secs of video card details, and then onto the ram etc., but now it just sits there and blinks at me.

I've tried swapping the vid card, but it's still not playing. :sad:

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i eat paint

First, I'd flash your bios.. You do that by finding an itty-bitty jumper that's usually near the chipset. (on the motherboard, that is.) Make sure your computer is off. The jumper should be connecting 2 of the 3 pins that it's sitting on. Take it off, and connect the other 2 pins.. wait a sec, then move it back over to the other pins. Try to boot. If it doesn't work..

I'd take the video card out, and listen for the good 'beep'. If there's still no beep..

Check the memory. Take one stick out, try to boot.. if it doesn't, try the other stick. If the memory isn't the problem..

It could be the power supply. If you happen to have a spare power supply, try that one out.. or if you have the specs for your power supply, you can test it with a multimeter.

Especially since there were graphical errors, I'm leaning away from a bad motherboard, CPU, or storage issue. Sounds like a memory or power issue. From my experience, these have been how approached that blasted blinking line. Whenever I see it, I think of that scene in jurassic park.. where the power comes on, but the network isn't up. And the monitor has the same thing on it. Err, random ...

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the players tried to take the field
the marching band refused to yield

Also, if something was wrong with the board you'd get some error messages, as well as if there were a problem with system memory.

with that in mind, the only thing that I could hink of was the cpu. So, having an old 2400+ relatively at hand, I swapped it over, AND IT WORKED :biggrin: . I don't know exactly how much of a difference it will make, dropping from the 3200+, but I'm happy enough to know that all my 'stuff' is still safe. For now, anyway. :/

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i eat paint

Take a close look at it to see if it's damaged. Hopefully it's under warranty. Normally, if your CPU dies, the computer wont power on. (Fans will spin and such, but stop suddenly)

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Blame it on Microsoft, God does.

Also, if something was wrong with the board you'd get some error messages, as well as if there were a problem with system memory.

with that in mind, the only thing that I could think of was the cpu. So, having an old 2400+ relatively at hand, I swapped it over, AND IT WORKED :biggrin: . I don't know exactly how much of a difference it will make, dropping from the 3200+, but I'm happy enough to know that all my 'stuff' is still safe. For now, anyway. :/

Not that it wouldn't suck to throw away an expensive CPU, but I told ya, it's not like everything's screwed into oblivion. :razz:

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Why snark works.

There's no visible sign of damage to the cpu, like burnt bits or corners missing, and it's more than a couple of years old now, so I doubt any warranty would still be in place.

I've had a look around the net for a replacement, but it looks like the athlon xp processors are out of production, and only available in antique shops now. I'll hold off as long as I can, but it looks like I'll need to upgrade the mobo if I want a better cpu than the 2400. I'll see how it goes.

Thanks for the input, guys.

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i eat paint

if the cpu were f**ked, i don't think it'd start up at all.. i wonder if you just jiggled a wire or something. heh. have you tried putting the old one back in?

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the players tried to take the field
the marching band refused to yield

Retail AMD CPUs have 3 Year warranties. Just contact AMD to see if they can do anything.

Yeah, even the 939 socket chips are getting hard (and expensive) to find.

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Blame it on Microsoft, God does.

Bewbies said:
if the cpu were f**ked, i don't think it'd start up at all.. i wonder if you just jiggled a wire or something. heh. have you tried putting the old one back in?

The first time I installed an athlon, I managed to chip the corner off of the raised bit when I was putting the heatsink on. It still managed to boot up twice, run for a minute, and then crash. So I'm assuming that it all depends on how badly damaged the cpu is, as to what symptoms will be seen.

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i eat paint