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QuikDraw

FIRST:
My name is Quik_Draw and I am a PC-Holic :-P
...I now admit that I have a problem...LOL

My system:
Athlon FX 64 "Manchester" (3.8 Gig or 4 Gig ?)
MSI K8N-SLi MOBO
OCZ Platinum 400 DDR Dimms (2 Gigs)
650 Watt PSU
Western Digital "Caviar" 80 Gig HDDs (2)
Sony DUAL DVD/CD drives (2)
NVidi 7800 GT (ASUS Built)
Creative SF-Xi Card
3 - 120 mm BB Fans
3 - 80 mm BB Fans
ThermalTake Armor series VA8000 case
ThermalTake Big Typhoon CPU Cooler
Windows XP Professional edition
Logitech MX 5000 Gaming mouse
Logitech standard keyboard
Creative Acoustics 5.1 surround speaker system
NEC 19 inch CRT Monitor (Now, anywway...)

My problem:
Hangs (Sort of...) during SYSTEM boot

Symptoms:
Blank Screen...Power LED comes on, all fans come to life, activity LEDs on DVD drives flash through initialization,
Monitor power led ON steady AMBER...Diagnostic LEDs in PCI slot show 1 - Red, 2 - Green, 3 - Green, 4 - RED, which accordinbg to my MOBO manual, indicates "Intializing Processor"...I cannot determine whether the failure occurs during the sequence step immediately PRIOR to this step, or, whether something IN the CPU initialization is occuring...The previous step ( I think...) is initializng and mounting the VGA requirements...System seems to be all operationg normally, I can even hear the fans changing RPMS as it responds to the thermal management settings...With blank screen, I never see whether the BIOS ever mounts or not and it DEFINITELY never gets to the O/S boot step...Just ists running, but sans any visible or audible activity outside the cycling of the fan RPMs up and down at random intervals...

Diagnostic details (So far):
My graphics card has 5 output ports - DVI-I (2)...VGA (2)...S Vid (1)
I have always used the primary DVI-I out, through a DVI to VGA adapter, because, EVEN from initial build and power up, the 2 VGA ports never seemed to work...I have never used the S Vid port and don't own a compatible cable to test that possibility...However, during the course of THIS troubleshooting dilemma, I HAVE attempted switching among the DVI outs and the VGA outs with no more success...My graphics card also comes with an optional EXTERNAL power supply...I tried hooking up through that unit, to test whther (Doubtedly) even with the 650 W PSU, I thought just MAYBE the system is still too taxing on the single PSU...I also seperated out Monitor power, and satellite modem and so forth, all to seperate household power outlets, just to be thorough on isolating breakers and limiting components tied to the internal PSU...No luck...SAME...

Next, I then COMPLETELY disassembled the system down to CASE, PSU, and MOBO/CPU (Which I did NOT bother to remove from the socket, Since the systme WAS working previous to attempting to switch monitors and also WAS working since the 650 W PSU upgrade, I figured the HEAT sinking/Paste, SHOULD be no less intact than prior to this failure...).

I...METICULOUSLY...pieced the system back to BASIC...Case, MOBO/CPU, DIMMs, PSU, only the PRIMARY HDD, and a single DVD/CD Drive...SAME, again!!! Man...How that takes the wind out of your sails!!!
I further went ahead and added the graphics and sound back in, MAKING SURE that everything was properly seated in the slots...All connections/connectors accounted for and connected appropriately...SAME...AGAIN...Geez!!!

Not to digress, at this point...Wife comes in..."Is it plugged in???"...yeah...Thank you SOO very much...How could I have missed that?...RIGHT, SEE YA!!!...(Of course it was, I keep trying to start it up) Still the same...again!

Last, I tried again with the internet connection also included (Although if it did the same thing from trying it at the basic level, this is now just wishful thinking by continuing to return components to the system...).

Summary:
The PC comes up SEEMINGLY normal, with the sequencing through the DVD/CD drives, and the fans coming up and cycling up and down, albeit, without any other audibly or visibly evident activity and the blank screen of death...and...Since I can't see it, I have no way of knowing whether the system is mounting the BIOS or not, or, whether it ever makes it to the Windows loading screen...No failure indicators apparent, outside the four little LEDs on the diagnostic card...I would hate to think its a CPU problem, just to go drop another 400 bones on another one, just to find out the gremlins decided to stay over awhile longer...I may be wrong, but, I wouldnt think it's a power issue once I seperated out the components to various household pwer outlets (Unless the exception is here and my landlord just has 1 or 2 insufficient breakers on the room with ALL of the outlets in there tied back to them)

I would greatly appreicate any constructive input into what I can do further...Sorry for the windy post, trying to provide you as much clear detail as possible and avoid treading over ground already covered...
Thank you for your consideration...

Best regards,

Quik

upgrader · 08:15 PM

Welcome to PCHF Quik!

Im unsure as to how to solve your problem but someone else will be along soon to help. Very good layout of your problem btw.

QuikDraw

Thanks, M8...I figuredd this is the place for it...Thanks for the welcome...Apppreciate that too...

upgrader

Yep you have come to the right place.

QuikDraw

Some additional input since my original post...

The IT guy where I work told me rather than rely on the push button CMOS reset on my MOBO, to remove the battery located ON the MOBO, wait about 15 minutes and try booting again...He claims that the flimsy push button is not always a reliable way to guarantee that the system DID reset...

The only reason I add this is so that if this SHOULD work when I get home, at least I have a record of the possibility posted somewhere where it may help someone else with a similar instance...I will update the results tomorrow, one way or another...

Quik

QuikDraw · 02:48 PM

Another update...

I used a second more basic graphics card borrowed from my other PC...Still, it's a Radeon 9600 XT Pro...The result was the same, whether I attempted to tie in the monitor through the VGA or the DVI ports...With that information, I am relatively certain the other (NVidia 7800 GT) is not the culprit here...

Also, I tried the idea of removing the CMOS battery (I left it out for 30 minutes) and I still see the same symptoms...

I guess I am now down to either the MOBO or CPU is defective...Is it possibly a virus or similar culprit that is causing the system not to startup competely??? I am usually quite thorough with my security suite, regular scanning, and running of several redundant utilties...I am a methodical "House keeper"...I don't have the knowledge in that area to know better...

Questions I am still weathering due to my limited knowledge of cause and effect in PCs...

- Can the new monitor be defective right out of the box?
- Would an issue like that cause it to hang here?
- Could I be looking to deep into the rest of the system if that is what's going on?

Thanks for any further input I can get here...

Quik

Hengis

Welcome from me

You certainly have an interesting problem here and whilst it isn't what you want to hear (and considering the amount of diagnostic process you have followed) I would concur that this is going to turn out to be a CPU/mobo issue. I think the fact that you have also had the forethought to try another graphics card cements my thoughts about this.

As you may be aware, a motherboard problem can be as isolated as the AGP ports or as widespread as the northbridge - effecting many other component parts. I don't remember seeing any mention about warranty but you do have "cutting edge" components so is there a warranty on the mobo/cpu?

In answer to your questions in the previous post;

- Sure, a monitor could be faulty straight out of the box but in my experience it is very rare.

- The monitor wouldn't cause a system hang, merely a blank screen with a "no vga" message

It seems that you have done all of the accepted diagnostics for this type of problem so I guess major system component failure is your next stop on this particular journey.....

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