Mobo or cpu

[wothought]

Hi everyone, I was having a problem when booting up just some of the time. It would show my 8800 gt card then show the motherboard emblem and freeze. I couldn't go into bios. this happened a couple of times so I cleared cmos and it booted but then a few days latter it completely stopped showing anything on screen. when I turned the computer on it would look like it was booting but the drive light would just keep running, and nothing would show on screen, it would say no signal. My guess was motherboard. So I bought a new Intel DP43TF. I have a LAG 775 2.66 ghz p4 duo core. It's about 4 yrs old. I put everything back together and it still doesn't show any picture. what is different is when I boot the drive light stops now after about 30 sec. I tried my old nvida card which I know works and nothing. I don't have another cpu to try in it. this is my next guess. the cpu. when I boot I see all the fans come on drive lights etc. help!!!!

 

[UltraO]

It's clearly the cpu, because if the cpu is not working... Then you can't simply boot, and you will get those symptoms mentioned above.

 

[UltraO]

Oh try to maybe switch the RAM memory, because it could be that too.

 

[AKM880]

Try starting the computer with bare minimum components, one stick of RAM, etc. See if it POSTs.

 

[jsc]

Troubleshooting ideas:
http://www.tomshardware.com/forum/261145-31-read-posting-boot-problems

Having said that, I'd guess either power or motherboard, but probably not CPU. CPU's are seldom the problem.

And if you are going to put up a thread asking for help, you should also post complete system speccifications.

 

[wothought]

what exactly does it mean when you say a computer POSTS?

 

[wothought]

Sorry for bothering you guys, I figured it out. I was reading up on one of the links someone sent me about how much compound to put on the cpu so I cleaned it off and discovered my cpu was not 800fsb. I feel so stupid. I thought for sure this cpu had 800fsb. this new board only supports 800 or higher. Thanks everyone, it did help. it got me looking again at everything.