Dead, or is it?

Toggle sidebar Toggle sidebar
D

dafonz

Distinguished
Jan 11, 2009
41
0
18,530
Basically my rents' computer is busted. It is really, and i mean really basic. It does the job for them though. For some reason, it looks like the monitor isn't picking up anything anymore. Turning the power on and all the fans start spinning, green light on mainboard but nothing on the screen. Any suggestions to what could be wrong?
 
Sort by date Sort by votes
That's pretty vague. A list of possibilities would take far too long.

Unplug the power, open the case, blow all the dust out, remove the graphics card (if there is one) and try to start it. See if it beeps. If no card, try removing the RAM.

At least if the board beeps you have a place to start.
 
Upvote 0 Downvote
+1 for removing the RAM. Without knowing anything about the hardware, I'd have to say this type of issue is often a problem with the RAM. If it has more than one stick of RAM, try taking one out and see if it will boot. If it doesn't, try the other stick by itself.

Posting the complete specs will make it easier to troubleshoot.
 
Upvote 0 Downvote
I was going to list specs but don't actually know the Mobo. It is a celeron 325 with 256MB ram. I have bought an extra gig for it but not installed it yet because of this problem.

cant find anything on the board to suggest the model, except intel. there is an exhaustive list on intel's website but impossible to find. it has two DIMM slots, and 3 PCI slots. There is not gfx card.

I took out all the RAM and powered up and i got the same. Green light on board, CPU and PSU spinning and nothing. there was no beep or anything.
 
Upvote 0 Downvote


Can I assume that this was something bought in a retail store? Frankly, it could be almost anything. Not that it helps my saying that.
 
Upvote 0 Downvote
Yeah my mum bought it a while back. It's an emachines mutherfucker. One of those types. will have a look in the meantime closer and see if there is anything on the main board that could mean anything useful.

 
Upvote 0 Downvote


The smart thing to do is tell your parents that a new computer costs $500, and then upgrade your own videocard while you're at it. But, given the economy, telling them the truth is probably the right thing to do.
 
Upvote 0 Downvote
I had an old comp I gave them that is better anyway. If the mobo is getting the green light, does that in any way mean that it is not actually dead? also, what is the deal with the beeps? None atall = goner? I suppose any thing that happens, good or bad can be a learning experience. I am pretty new at all this so I suppose I gotta start somewhere, even with prehistoric components. retro
 
Upvote 0 Downvote
Who knows? The green light could just mean power, or it could mean something more.

Many boards have no speaker built in, so no beeps could mean that, or that the BIOS never gets started.

If you find out what socket that Celeron is using, you might be able to get a very cheap replacement motherboard.
 
Upvote 0 Downvote
You must log in or register to reply here.

TRENDING THREADS

Latest posts

Moderators online

Share this page

COMPANY
RESOURCES
FOLLOW
Top Bottom