Start up problem........

[kmorfoot]

My desktop pc won't start up at all..........power light is on, cpu and monitor are on but no video. I originally thought it was the monitor since it had been acting up but its fine. I also replaced the power supply but still nothing only one beep when I first turn it on. I was thinking my next step would be to replace the video card and then the motherboard if that doesn't work. Please let me know if anyone else has had this problem or if you know what I should do. Its a Medion M3 Composer 5100 512mb. Thanks........

[HayZee518]

Have you checked your boot up procedure from the BIOS?
Normally it's C:\ then CDROM and finally A:\ (if you have an A drive.)
If its an older unit then I'd look into the autoexec.exe file and config.sys to see what's supposed to initiate and when.

[skeezix]

Do you get any beep codes? If computers fail during the POST they will beep a code at you in a series of short and long beeps. If you don't get any beep codes than the computer isn't even POST-ing.

If that is the case, the next step in trouble shooting is to reduce the system to a minimum configuration. Which means unplug everything that isn't nailed down. Unplug all IDE/SCSI cables. (But remember where they go and which way the red wire is facing). Unplug power cables, take your video card out, and any other peripherals. take out your memory. And turn on your computer and listen for a beep code. If you still don't get a beep code than there is something wrong with your processor, motherboard, or PS. If you do get a beep code, you can add things back in one by one (starting with the memory) and find the culprit.

[wak]

Before you start changing parts you need more diagnoses. Meaning, Is it the Motherboard (MOBO), software, Hard drive or Bios to drive start up seqience.

Depending on your make-model you can start it up and press F3, F8 or F12 or even Cntrol key and one of them. Heck I've done all at once to guess which it is. This will get you in your Bios and see if it's even reading your drives and how your MOBO is doing or if it's even working

Let's walk through your start up:

Often, the problem is simply that the monitor isn't turned on, or they left a floppy disk in the A: drive and received the "Invalid system disk" message. Other times, the user might mean that WINDOWS itself won't start up. You said you changed monitors so we won't go there anymore.

A problem often occurs in the boot sequence, even before the hard drive comes into play. When a computer is first turned on, its Basic Input/Out System (BIOS) routine performs a Power On Self Test (POST). Before the computer is ready to use the display monitor, it communicates the success or failure of the POST to the user with beep codes. After the display is initialized, only then can it send codes to the screen.

If your computer stops booting and displays an error code on the screen, you first need to find out who made your computer's BIOS and check the website of the BIOS manufacturer for the meaning of the error code. Your saying you see nothing here which is a major "problem".

When your computer starts the boot process, the BIOS reads the hard drive's partition table in order to get the boot record. If the partition table is damaged, the screen will display the message "Invalid drive or drive specification". The partition table never changes after the drive is partitioned and formatted unless it has been damaged (usually by a computer virus).

If the boot record of the hard drive is damaged, you'll receive this message: "Invalid system disk". If the partition table and boot record are valid, the computer will read the hard drive's File Allocation Table (FAT) in order to start loading the Microsoft Windows operating system files. If the FAT is damaged, this message will be displayed: "Sector not found reading drive C".

If you don't receive any beeps, error codes, or other messages and your computer still won't boot, then the problem is Windows will not start up. You said you receive one beep in which case a single beep is to test the speaker. This is normal and it doesn't indicate an error.

If your hard drive's partition table, boot record, or FAT is damaged, you can repair it using Nuts & Bolts Disk Minder or Norton Disk Doctor or you can d/l boot disks from http://www.bootdisk.com/
But to do so you must have the utility on a bootable floppy disk and execute it from your A: drive.

You can also install a new hard drive and load Microsoft Windows and one of the above utilities on it. Then simply configure the old drive as slave and repair it using the utility on the new drive.

If your hard drive makes a loud whining noise when you first start your computer, you need to run out and get that new hard drive right away. The whining sound means that the bearings in the hard drive are failing and the drive will stop working soon.

I don't know why this next technique works but it has for me on some occasions. I have unplugged a harddrive with power off. Started the computer then turned it off a second time, reconnected the hard drive and restarted computer.

Regarding your graphics card, I fried one over clocking it and I still had minimum video.
You would see bios start up info before the video card even kicks in so I would tackle those things first before you start buying graphics adapters.

[a_lightning_bug]

My desktop pc won't start up at all..........power light is on, cpu and monitor are on but no video. I originally thought it was the monitor since it had been acting up but its fine. I also replaced the power supply but still nothing only one beep when I first turn it on. I was thinking my next step would be to replace the video card and then the motherboard if that doesn't work. Please let me know if anyone else has had this problem or if you know what I should do. Its a Medion M3 Composer 5100 512mb. Thanks........

you're on the right track. the one beep you hear is normal, it means that your computer completed the post just fine. when you turn on your computer, listen to it for awhile. do you hear your hard drive spin up? if you do, then your video card is the first thing you should look at. when you turn on your computer, press F8 to boot into safe mode. there is no need whatsoever to unplug things from your mainboard. booting into safe mode will keep all unnecessary drivers from loading & it will use it's generic video driver. if you still get nothing on your monitor in safe mode, go to a tech shop & get a used video card that is compatible with your hardware, you can get used ones really cheap & no decent tech shop is going to risk it's reputation by selling you a used card that doesn't work. a good place to go for used parts is Computer Renaissance, I like them. or ask a friend to loan you their video card for an hour.

if the problem was your mainboard, it isn't likely that your pc would complete the post ok. if the problem was anything other than your monitor, driver, or video card, you would get an error message on your screen. when you said that your monitor is fine, do you mean that you plugged into a different pc & it worked ok?

let us know what happens.