Computer powers on, no video, no beep without graphics card

[darts100]

Recently my graphics display driver started crashing, this seemed to be caused by games using above 90% of the GPU. I tried playing Risk of Rain, which only used 5%, and it ran fine.

Then the display driver crashed while I was just running Chrome (GPU usage was less than 20% at the time, was just loading webpages) and then my computer blue screened.
It then blue screened again at the login screen and continued this cycle about 4 times before I finally shut it down.

I left it for a few hours and then tried powering it on, all the fans started, including the GPU fans, but my screen displayed "No signal".

So far I've tried:
different monitor
different PCI-e slot
resetting CMOS
different PCI-e power cable
taking the motherboard out and reapplying thermal paste
booting with nothing attached but the GPU, RAM and CPU+cooler
using a PCI (non-e) graphics card
probably some more, I'll add them when I remember.

Booting without RAM will cause the PC to do three long beeps, however it doesn't beep if I remove all PCI and PCI-e devices.
I don't know what this means.
Edit 1: booting with the GPU installed but without the PCI-e power results in a siren sound that seems to last until the PC is shut down. Currently have system "breadboarded".


My specs are:
Motherbard: intel bx97520j
CPU: Intel Q6600 (8-9 years?)
GPU: Nvidia GeForce GT8800 GTS (8 or so years. I believe it's the 640~ MB model)
PSU: Xigmatek 750 watt (no idea how old)
RAM: 8GB (4x2GB) Kingston DDR2 (again, no idea how old)


At first I assumed it was the GPU that died, but now I'm not so sure.
All the parts are very old so I'm not that surprised, but it would be nice to not have to buy a new computer just yet.

Wasn't sure whether to post this in GPUs, CPUs or motherboards, apologies.

 

[sancho_mic]

first of all, i cannot appreciate enough the folks like you that are really doing their best to investigate before asking for help. well done, you covered comprehensively...!
secondly, i understand your puzzle, since there is no clue coming from the tests that you tried.

have you tried with single ram stick? in different slots?


having said that, i don't think i can help much, but let me share my understanding of your problem, as an outside perspective:

1) your initial symptoms appear to be GPU related. it could be GPU, or power to GPU/mobo, or motherboard talking to GPU.
Let's assume for now that GPU is the culprit

2) you tried with second PCI GPU (if i remember, no power cable from PSU required) - and nothing. Either that PCI GPU is also damaged or problem lays with Mobo or PSU.

Assuming that also PCI GPU is faulty - borrow another GPU card (from a friend that has it around, low specs) for a short test.

Assuming it's the PSU - again to borrow from a friend?

And we're left with Motherboard being problematic - this is bad luck because it the most unfortunate from all possibilities and you have to go with different PC or else buy similar socket, secondhand, if you can find...

So take them one by one, i hope you will not reach to the mobo.
-s

 

[darts100]

first of all, i cannot appreciate enough the folks like you that are really doing their best to investigate before asking for help. well done, you covered comprehensively...!
secondly, i understand your puzzle, since there is no clue coming from the tests that you tried.

have you tried with single ram stick? in different slots?


having said that, i don't think i can help much, but let me share my understanding of your problem, as an outside perspective:

1) your initial symptoms appear to be GPU related. it could be GPU, or power to GPU/mobo, or motherboard talking to GPU.
Let's assume for now that GPU is the culprit

2) you tried with second PCI GPU (if i remember, no power cable from PSU required) - and nothing. Either that PCI GPU is also damaged or problem lays with Mobo or PSU.

Assuming that also PCI GPU is faulty - borrow another GPU card (from a friend that has it around, low specs) for a short test.

Assuming it's the PSU - again to borrow from a friend?

And we're left with Motherboard being problematic - this is bad luck because it the most unfortunate from all possibilities and you have to go with different PC or else buy similar socket, secondhand, if you can find...

So take them one by one, i hope you will not reach to the mobo.
-s

Hi, thanks for taking the time to reply.

I've just tried booting with one stick of RAM, testing each RAM slot one at a time.
I haven't tried with a PCI or PCI-e card that is confirmed to be working. My friend has a working PCI-e AMD card that's around the same specs as the GT 8800 GTS, waiting to see if I can borrow that. Hopefully get to test with it in a day or two.

I don't have another PSU with the right specs for my motherboard (have a 450W one, but it doesn't have an 8pin CPU cable, and the motherboard gave me a red light when i plugged it in). Will see if my friend has one I can borrow.

 

[sancho_mic]

welcome i guess that you would be extremely unlucky if you tested with a faulty stick. so just to eliminate the chance that that ram stick is faulty, try also with different stick.

good luck and really curious on the outcome...

 

[darts100]

welcome i guess that you would be extremely unlucky if you tested with a faulty stick. so just to eliminate the chance that that ram stick is faulty, try also with different stick.

good luck and really curious on the outcome...

I tried with 2 or 3 different sticks.

Another thing I tried was plugging the DVD Drive in and putting a Windows 10 install disc in it to see if it would attempt to boot off the DVD (by watching the usage indicator light), unfortunately it didn't seem to.



[strike]The thing that worries me about the motherboard is that it doesn't beep if no GPUs are connected.
I don't have a lot of experience building computers, but shouldn't the motherboard beep if it doesn't detect a GPU?
It beeps if I boot it with no RAM, or if I press the space bar a lot when powering it on, but no indication if I remove the GPU.
If I boot it with the GPU plugged in but no 6pin plugged in I get a long whistle but I think that's the GPU, not the motherboard.
I can't seem to find a definitive answer online, maybe I'm using the wrong search terms.
[/strike]
Thanks again.

Edit 1: after reading through a manual for the motherboard, it seems to only have beep codes for memory issues and thermal warnings

 

[sancho_mic]

I think in most cases, the mobo will beep when gpu missing... but who knows the condition of the motherboard, maybe it just gave up on this notification and otherwise it's ok or maybe it cannot detect GPU presence anymore which i guess would mean that mobo is dead, kaput, R.I.P.

Your problem is too specific/complicated to get definitive answer by google

After so many tries, your overall system confirmed dead as in the current state. Most probably parts of it are still doing great, when taken one by one... But no chance that you could boot from dvd...

one more test if you have the time and patience - remove the cooler and CPU - any difference in behaviour?
though i doubt that it's the cpu - they are more resilient than the mobo ... and anyhow, unless you can test it in another motherboard, you cannot make a correct determination with current state of your system

 

[darts100]

I think in most cases, the mobo will beep when gpu missing... but who knows the condition of the motherboard, maybe it just gave up on this notification and otherwise it's ok or maybe it cannot detect GPU presence anymore which i guess would mean that mobo is dead, kaput, R.I.P.

Your problem is too specific/complicated to get definitive answer by google

After so many tries, your overall system confirmed dead as in the current state. Most probably parts of it are still doing great, when taken one by one... But no chance that you could boot from dvd...

one more test if you have the time and patience - remove the cooler and CPU - any difference in behaviour?
though i doubt that it's the cpu - they are more resilient than the mobo ... and anyhow, unless you can test it in another motherboard, you cannot make a correct determination with current state of your system

I ended up buying a 9600GT and my system had video again, after some more fiddling I got the PC to boot up and everything seems fine.
Ran into a lot of blue-screens at first, but after reseating the RAM everything's been running fine.

Now hopefully nothing else fails before I upgrade.

Thanks for your help!

 

[sancho_mic]

great news