PC Pals Forum
Technical Help & Discussion => Self Building, Upgrading & General Hardware Help => Topic started by: Rik on April 02, 2010, 16:38
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My main machine wouldn't fire up this morning, it hung half way through POST at the 'Initialising USB controllers' point. A reset got no further, so I powered off and disconnected all USB devices then tried again. Now the machine powers up, the drives spin up, the fans all run, but there's no graphics output and it doesn't even present a POST screen. The power LED on the Asus P5W64WS mobo is lit and there's no beeps. The machine responds to the reset button by simply running all the drives, including optical, but it won't re-start, nor does it respond to the power button.
Any thoughts gratefully received.
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Have you considered the same thing you suggested to me? Could it be the graphics card? Does the motherboard have onboard graphics you could switch to?
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Yes, re-seated, no. ;)
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Bugger. SANDRA!!! ;D
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Indeed. I've looked at clearing the BIOS/CMOS but the battery and jumper are behind all the SATA leads and, with my shakes, that's likely to cause damage. :(
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Gosh, this is getting as scary as the X-Files.
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when was the last windows update you downloaded lol
either the memory or graphics cards
is going out on both of your machines or you both have a bad infection of some kind
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Well it sounds like its not even getting to the windows bit?
Can you get into the bios at all?
Your monitor works with another machine? Just a thought.
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I think Rik's symptoms are worse than mine, in that at least mine works, once it's booted up. I also believe Rik has connected his monitor to another machine, so it's not that.
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hmmm... RAM?
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:dunno:
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If you are on XP then boot off your XP CD and go to the repair option then at the dos prompt type FIXMBR or FIXBOOT and reboot as it sounds like the MBR has become unuseable. If one doesnt fix it try the other.
If its Vista or Windows 7 theres an extra word that goes before fixboot and fixmbr but I cant remember it at the moment.
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but it doesn't even appear to be getting to the boot screen!
What's the motherboard spec?
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It's an Asus P5W64 WS Pro, Sam, and you're right, it's not a Windows issue, the machine doesn't reach POST.
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I wonder if it's the PSU? Mine went recently, and although, in my case, the machine was totally dead, I wonder if they can almost, but not totally, fail?
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It's possible, Simon, but the drives and fans are spinning, and the power light on the mobo is on. At the moment, I've got it narrowed down to:
Motherboard
CPU
RAM
Graphics card
USB controller (effectively the mobo)
PSU
Scrambled CMOS
;D
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It's a shame the Motherboard doesn't have onboard graphics, as that could have eliminated at least one of those.
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Have you actually tried booting from a Windows CD?
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I can't, it doesn't get anywhere near booting.
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:bawl:
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Exactly. Frustrating, isn't it. :( I think my best 'self help' would be to start by clearing the BIOS. Problem is, physically, I can't do the job.
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Any techie neighbours?
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Not one, and all my friends come to me for advice. :(
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Does the warranty mean they will come to you?
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Yes, it's on-site, next business day, so they should be here on Wednesday.
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Hopefully it's something simple. :)
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Hopefully. Otherwise I can see them saying they need to take it in.
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Well, at least you have a backup.
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There's still two more machines after this. ;D
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Damn! :devil: ;D
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;D
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Engineer's been, tried a new graphics card and power supply - nada. Cleared CMOS RAM, so he's coming back with a new mobo.
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:x:
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Bloody hell. Good job it's under warranty! :o:
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By about 5 weeks. I wonder if I can extend that. :)
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Worst I ever had was a faulty HDD just two weeks after I bought my 486 DX2 in 1992. The company replaced it for me very quickly. Then in 2002 I bought an Athlon 2200 from Adept
which I suspect had a faulty graphics card as the screen used to rapidly scroll with tightly packed coloured lines which would only correct itself after a reboot. The fault was intermittent and was never solved despite some other components being changed by Adept himself. For some reason he wouldn't replace the graphics card but then again the fault didn't occur whenever he visited.
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I once had a disaster machine at a client's premises. Sixteen PCs were supplied, 15 were faultless, while the sixteenth just kept failing, one after another. It got replaced by the supplier after four call outs.
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Blimey, Clive. Adept - that's a name from the past. Is he still alive?
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We haven't heard from him since he left the forum, Dave.
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That must be some years ago, I think most of us were still on dial-up when he was "The Management"!
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;D
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Yes, it was a shame because he was quite...well.. adept! ;)