PCA Forums

I was going to help a friend do a clean install. We got the comp to my house and it was filthy. Must have been an inch of dust inside. Well I blew it out with some air, hooked it up, and nothing. I've got power to everything. There is no video, post beep's. The Hdd drive looks like it is starting to spin then stops.I think it is the bio's searching for everything. Any ideas what it is?
I don't know what mobo it is. It uses a sis chipset 530 and a socket 7. Evrerthing is onboard. The casesay's Tiger K6 K-series.

first, did you reset the bios?

if ya did that, try reseating any and everything you can.

Maybe if none of that works remove the battery on the mboard, unplug the PS from the Mboard, and unplug the PS from the wall for atleast overnight.

Greg

I tried to reset the bio's, and reseat everything. The ram does seem to fit very tight. I cant seem to find what mobo it has. So I don't know if a jumper fell off. I hate it when this stuff happens.

If post beeps, then its not memory so I wouldn't worry about that. And actually, if post beeps, everything should be fine. Must be a problem with video-card/monitor. Check the cable going from the card to the back of the monitor and make sure they are both in tight. You can also try another monitor on the same comp to see if it is in fact the video card or monitor.

I found the mobo is a pc chips model m599lmr. The cpu is a K6-2 400Mhz. Also there are no beeps. And I tried different monitors, swapped ram, ram in different slots.

ah...there <i>aren't</i> any beeps... I haven't heard many good things about PC-Chips motherboards But anyway, have you tried to unplug all of which is not necessary to boot up with? As in, unplug your hard drives, CD-ROM drives, etc. Just run the motherboard, ram, CPU, and vid-card. Those are all that is necessary to boot and check out BIOS and all. If you get that far, start putting the cards back in one by one to find where the problem is.

Everything is onboard, so there aren't any cards to pull. I just tried to unplug everything, still nothing.
I just don't understand how something like this can work, then blow out the dust, then it don't work.

Maybe something is shorting out? I know one time my friends PC wouldn't post after I put in a sound card. Ended up shorting something somehow or another, we put it in another PCI slot and it was fine.

- Make sure the ram is frmly seated. Ram can be locked into the socket and still not seated. Also might be a bit of corrosion. Remove the ram and re-install it.

- Make sure the CPU is fully seated. Alot 1 and Slot A CPUs are notorious for working loose when moving the computer.

- Check the PSU plug to the mobo to make sure it's fully seated. Also check for nicked wires.

- Turn the case over and give it a good shake - examine the mobo carefully and look for a stray screw or scrap metal that might be shorting something. Sometimes a screw gets wedged under the mobo.

- Check the power switch connection to the mobo

- Disconnect ALL ribbon cables to the mobo, pull the power cables from the drives, and pull all the cards except the vid card (IMPORTANT: make a notr of which slot each card was in and put them back in the same slot) and see if it POSTs.

- Check the voltage switch on the power supply - may be you accidently switched it to 220V

- Check the sleep button if ther is one - temporarily disconnect it. Maybe it's shorted. Ditto for the reset button.

Hope this helps...

What did you use to blow it out ?

It was the ram. I am having trouble getting it to seat. I got 1 stick to seat and got to the bios. I still can't get the other 2 to seat yet. I haven't had problems getting ram to seat like this before.
I use an air compressor to blow the dust out of comps. It's setup for painting, 40 psi at the nozzle.
EDIT: sorry I forgot to thank you all

You may have some corrosion or contamination (see below) on the ram socket pins or edge connectors. Try using a pencil eraser on the ram stick edge connectors to remove any corrosion. Get some good quality ELECTICAL CONTACT CLEANER (not WD40 - it leaves a residue) - try Radio Shack or hardware store - and sparingly spray the ram sockets.


One thing I'll warn you about with a compressor. I use to blow out computers too BUT you have to drain the water out of the air tank after EVERY DAY OF USE!

If moisture builds up in there you'll be blowing moisture on your mobos as well as eventually rusting out the compressor's tank.

Some people never drain their tanks and you can wind up blowing out a LOT of crud (doesn't help with the painting either).

Thats why its a good ideo to put a water seperator on the outlook

I work in the maintenance dept. at a plant.... i recently let about 5 gallons of water (condensation) out of just one of our 10 air compressors....but the painting A/C's should have some kinda dryer on it ? Good Luck....looks like the best have already assisted you