Member Avatar for Crindle

After noon,

This computer I am working on for a person, and I cant get it to boot.

I have tried:
Different Monitors, cables, using hd drive in another comp.
MS-DOS boot disk.

When you turn on the lights on the cd drives flash, and the power on is solid green, floppy has no light.

Turn it on and the montior has power but is amber, the keyboard does not have numlock light or cant toggle it on, no post screen, bios, or windows.

The hard drive makes a makes a funny sound likes it searching for something like 2 same sound, then 1 different. No beeps though to follow.

Is it totally burnt out, or do you think there is a way to save it, at first I thought it was video but tried on another system to no avail.

Thanks,
Chris

  • 4 Contributors
  • 6 Replies
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  • 3 Years Discussion Span
  • Latest Post Latest Post by Bill Shumate
Member Avatar for mechbas

A board that won't post is a very troubled board. The two things that come to mind are PSU and/or BIOS.
Have you tried another PSU? If that doesn't work the only other possibilty is CAREFULLY changing the BIOS chip itself, if that doesn't work it's surely another board.
If it doesn't post it isn't going to do anything else.
Hard drives have a startup sequence, self checking, maintance, etc.

Member Avatar for Crindle

So what would the sound of the hard drive be then the 2 shorts and a long kind of noise. Like its trying to find something to read?

Member Avatar for Crindle

*Update*

I tried the hard drive in another computer both ide and it didnt work or boot. I then swapped the dead hard drive for another one that I knew work in the dead machine, and it didnt display anything but a black screen so I am assuming that the motherboard, integrated graphics, and hard drive are all faulty.

Member Avatar for dcc

The power on self test looks at the RAM, disc drives, and all of the peripheral devices and if there is a failure in any of these it will fail to start without at least prompting.

This computer is what seven or eight years old? If you have to replace any parts it won't be cost effective to invest anymore money in this machine.

Another issue here is taking the hdd and installing it in another computer, if you install it in another computer with a different motherboard as a master you may have damaged the operating system. When a hdd is installed with one motherboard it will recognize the chipset of that motherboard, and when you introduce another motherboard with a different chipset it confuses the OS and can even be fatal for it.

Member Avatar for Crindle

Okay for future testing only test hard drive on another board as slave, got it. Anyways, the HD drive, and mobo are both gone as far as I am concerned. Right it isnt cost effective to buy parts for this system, but it isn't my computer.

Member Avatar for Bill Shumate

I have a HP Pavilion a6342p. It will not power up, have changed power outlets and tried a different power cable, no help. Green light on the power supply flashes very fast. Need help,

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