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Pc Going Mental Again.....


Herbie

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Help needed once again.

My home PC, showed up with a blue screen error (can't remember what it was). Anyhoo, followed the on-screen instructions, rebooted and all was okay.

The system then froze on me. Left it for a while - no change, so did the old switch off at the mains and try again.

It now won't start up at all and is beeping angrily at me every time I try. Monitor is showing "no signal", but all is connected fine.

Anyone help?

Cheers.

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Monitor is showing "no signal", but all is connected fine.

Have you actually disconnected all the connections, dusted 'em off and firmly reinserted (?)

Since starting this reply - I've been off on a trawl...

and the following is the best set of help I can find on the www. Not my brains and experience someone sensible.

But as above - the emBOLDened bits often DO make the difference... :)

"I have fans that spin; LED's that light up, all seems normal but I have no signal on the monitor" is a problem that crops up almost daily on this forum.

Usually the cause is simple - but "no signal" invokes a sense of panic that can often lead to unnecessary RMAs or even new hardware shopping.

So you would be well-advised to follow all the advice in this FAQ before giving away your beloved graphics card or shelling out $$$ on new hardware to replace a mother board that works perfectly.

First things first - If it has NEVER worked, are you sure all your hardware is compatible, check PSU watts and gfx card requirements. (Make sure it's all plugged in).

1) Kind of obvious) Switch all off and try again.

Switch off the power at the PSU (switch on back), then hold down the ATX switch (on button on the front of the case) for 30 seconds to clear residual charge in capacitors. Switch back on. - If this worked you really didn't need this FAQ...

2) Ensure that ALL cables are tight, pay special attention to the dongle going to the GFX card (if applicable).

Also make sure that your monitor is actually plugged in to your GFX card...

3) Reseat the GFX card, take it out, check for obvious signs of damage, you may want to clean the gold contacts with alcohol or meths.

Put a small amount on a "lint-free" tissue, or use coffee filters.

Put it back in. Make sure it's all the way in and nice and tight.

You should just be able to see the very tops of the gold contacts sticking out of the socket. Make sure that there's nothing obstructing it - e.g. open RAM clips on the motherboard.

If there are any clips to lock it down make sure they are tight.

4) Clear the CMOS.

The CMOS battery provides charge when there is no power at all going to your motherboard; this charge keeps the adjustable settings of your BIOS set. Clearing these settings resets you BIOS.

If you have one, use the clear CMOS jumper located near the battery on your motherboard. Get exact details in your motherboard manual, but basically it's three pins, with a jumper over two of them

[◘ ◘]◘

With power switched off as in step 1, move the jumper to short the other pin

◘[◘ ◘]

leave for about 5seconds then put back, switch power back on.

If you do not have a clear CMOS jumper, remove the CMOS battery. The battery's a pretty easy thing to spot. It looks like a watch battery... To remove it, look for the little clip holding it down towards one edge, push it back so that the battery "pops up" (Tooth-pick is a useful tool for this - Do not use a screwdriver or force the battery in anyway.). Once it's out, place it on a nonconductive, clean, and surface. Try to hold the battery by the edges if possible.

Leave for about 30 minutes then put back in. Switch on.

If you're still getting "no-signal" at this point then you may have more serious problems.

5) Last-resort, but oddly the most common cause - imho) Thermal Paste. Thermal paste forms a thin layer connecting the Heatsink to the processor. Both the heat spreader on the CPU (the metal bit) and the Base of the Heatsink have tiny grooves in them; the thermal paste fills these grooves and provides a Larger S.A. of contact between the CPU and Heatsink, thus increasing thermal conductivity.

If the Heatsink moves even the slightest amount, it can break this bond, losing that critical thermal advantage. And causing the CPU to shut down instantly on startup.

This is particularly common if your thermal paste is old or thinly applied. Newer and a higher quantity of thermal paste is more mobile, allowing more Heatsink movement. As it adapts to fill those grooves.

*I know it SOUNDS unlikely, but try this before RMA or shopping spree.*

(Ensure you have thermal paste to hand before you begin)

Remove the Heatsink, (this can be tricky, you should be able to work out the release mechanism but it's still very difficult sometimes.) then clean it remove the CPU (Look for obvious burn marks at this point on the bottom of the CPU).

Wipe away as much of that thermal paste as you can with a coffee filter or "lint-free" tissue, Then use a dab of meths/alcohol to get the rest off - you need it out of those tiny grooves remember? Be VERY careful when using solvents around CPUs, only use a small amount on the tissue/coffee filter and only touch the metal heat spreader. You can be more careless with the Heatsink. :)

Put the CPU back into it's socket and secure it, Place a SMALL (no more than a BB sized amount) of thermal paste/AS5 in the centre of the CPU heat spreader Remember, you can always add more if needed but too much will cause the same problem you're trying to solve. Spread the Compound over the CPU heat spreader using something like a razor blade or hobby knife blade. The compound should cover the heat spreader, and be no more than a paper thick layer; it should also be even... Just a flat layer of white or grey...

Reattach the Heatsink - If you got a S754/939/940 processor this is easy, so count yourself lucky, other CPUs it's more difficult, so be prepared to sweat. Ensure you have the correct orientation before you put the Heatsink down, once it's down, keep it down. If you lift up you'll get bubbles in the thermal paste and problems start all-over.

Reattach fan cable and switch on...

If it's still not working then you're pretty stuck... Start thinking about RMA. It's more likely to be the motherboard than the graphics card - static maybe?

I hope this FAQ helps you, remember if it does reps are always appreciated :).

ty - Jacks Smirking Revenge

(apologies for lack of pictures, also any glaring grammatical or spelling errors I’ve made.)

I hope this helps? :)

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Help needed once again.

My home PC, showed up with a blue screen error (can't remember what it was). Anyhoo, followed the on-screen instructions, rebooted and all was okay.

The system then froze on me. Left it for a while - no change, so did the old switch off at the mains and try again.

It now won't start up at all and is beeping angrily at me every time I try. Monitor is showing "no signal", but all is connected fine.

Anyone help?

Cheers.

Have you installed any new hardware recently? (external hard drives, new graphics card, memory upgrades etc)

Can I ask, do you happen to know how many times it beeps when it starts up? When your machine starts up it tests all its components to see if they're working properly. Generally speaking the number of beeps reports the hardware's condition with multiple beeps usually indicating an error.

It sounds a bit complicated but the beep combinations are relative to the software used to run your motherboards; as a result you'll have a motherboard with AMI BIOS, AWARD BIOS or IBM BIOS software or something of the like. This software type will determine the combinations of beeps and what they mean.

I've found a general table here...

Best thing to do is to try finding out through the make and model of your machine, which type of BIOS software your machine uses and from there tie up the beeps to the error...

Just as a first guess you might have a damaged bit of RAM that's causing this but you'll need to find out...

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