HP desktop not booting at all

[Guest]

I have a 2-3 year old HP DX2080MT which was working fine till now, except for a known problem that we could not use pen drives on the USB ports (used to crash). Well, yesterday I must have forgot and plugged a pen drive in to the front panel USB and immediately got a blue screen (running WindowsXP).

Now the PC will not boot at all, not even the BIOS screen (no video signal). When I press the power button the power comes on (fans, lights) but no boot and not even any system beeps (I removed RAM, mouse/keyboard and HDDs). Removing the battery did not help either.

Really appreciate any help getting out of this. Thanks.

 

[Twoboxer]

Try removing ALL USB devices from your PC, including mouse and keyboard, if USB.

Boot up, and let it go as far as it will.

Power down. Reinsert keyboard and/or mouse as necessary. Boot up. Shut down.

If you're booting OK, re-insert USB devices one at a time, rebooting after each one.

 

[Guest]

@Twoboxer - that's not it. Presently there is nothing connected to the motherboard (USB or otherwise) except for power and video cable. Still it will not boot.
:-(

 

[Twoboxer]

OK, its not a USB lockup then.

Do you have another power supply to try?

 

[Guest]

The power supply is fine, in the sense that when I pres the power button, the fans come on and the LEDs on front panel also and I hear the disks spin (though no access). So I would say power supply is OK no?

 

[Twoboxer]

No.

That's a pretty common situation when a psu replacement solves the problem.

PSUs fail in a wide variety of ways, and are the cause of more than 50% of the hardware related issues resolved here.

 

[Guest]

OK actually I do have another PSU, and I replaced it, but still it does not boot.... (power seems to be coming just like with the original PSU)

 

[Twoboxer]

OK.

Is the mobo out of the case, or still in it?

If in the case, please remove the USB front panel connectors from the mobo and try again.

I couldn't quickly find the spec for your PC. What graphics are you using?

 

[Guest]

Mobo is in the case but front panel USB plugs are removed.
The graphics card is the one on board, there are no cards plugged in.

 

[Twoboxer]

Do the boot symptoms change if you remove the video cable from the board? monitor?

 

[Guest]

Sorry there is a power cut here now so I will get back to you in 30-45 minutes (but I don't think that there is a change if the video cable is unplugged).

Shouldn't the mobo beep if it has no keyboard and no RAM?

 

[Twoboxer]

Yes, just trying to work my way to motherboard failure.

 

[Guest]

Yah.... I don't want to resign to that yet, but, if that is the case, can I just go and get a simple motherboard? What I have in the box is:
- CDROM (IDE)
- HDD (IDE)
- HDD (SATA)

Are the form factors the same for all mobos? (for desktops that is)

Again, still hoping to recover, but....

 

[Twoboxer]

Could also be cpu, but odds seem to favor mobo.

I'd try once again to boot with one stick of memory, then the other. As a last ditch effort, you could remove the mobo from the case and run it (on a non-conductive surface) in case there's a screw loose rolling around that has shorted something.

The form factors are not standard for desktops. If your form factor is BTX, you're screwed unless the manufacturer will sell you a mobo or you can buy one second hand. When you look at a BTX mobo from the backpanel side, the expansion slots would be on the left.

More likely you have an ATX form, with expansion slots on the right. Next is to determine microATX (mATX) or ATX. mATX is 9.6" square and has 4 expansion slots. ATX is 9.6"x12" and has more than four slots

You'd need a mobo that supports your cpu (I still don't know what that is, or have forgotten lol), and supports bothe IDE and SATA. Post your cpu and tomorrow night I'll see if I can find one.

Off for the night.

 

[Guest]

This is my box.....

http://bizsupport2.austin.hp.com/bc/docs/support/SupportManual/c01471741/c01471741.pdf

 

[Twoboxer]

Its a micro ATX mobo. Depending on your exact cpu and memory, one of these 5 should be fine.

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Produ...57-173^13-157-173-TS,13-157-165^13-157-165-TS

Asrock is a "value" brand made by Asus, one of the top two mfgers.

But installing the new mobo will bring its own issues. You will need to reinstall Windows, and you probably have just a "Recovery Disk". That disk basically restores the hard drive to what it held when you bought it. Since the motherboards (chip sets) are different, there is no guarantee you will have a working system. Even if it works enough to install new chipset drivers, the PC may suffer performance issues unless a fresh OS install is done.

If you have (or can borrow) a real Windows XP disk, you can use that to load the operating system and use your own key (a sticker somewhere on your case) to activate it.

Otherwise, you need to buy a new copy of an OS. That's about $100.

If you want to proceed, I'll need your exact cpu model and a measurement of your motherboard so you don't buy one bigger than you can fit in there. Also, you need to verify that you do not have more than two IDE devices.

Keeping in mind that the mobo may not be the problem, the cost of a new mobo (+ maybe an OS), and the "old technology" . . . I don't know at what point you may feel buying a new box is the cleanest, simplest choice. And maybe get your pen drives working too.