At least it's a very weird mystery for me, I hope not for all of you. It's a bit of a long story ro please bear with me. Last week my computer had a hiccup. While I was gaming I got some error message and the game shut down. I didn't think much of it as it was the same sort of error I've had a hundred times before. But then I noticed a little yellow triangle in the system tray (Vista by the way). Looked it up here to be told that means some kind of hardware malfunction. Followed the advice I read here to check device manager and look for the triangle, but found nothing. Still wasn't too worried about it though, I assumed it would disappear when I restarted. So the next time I started up the computer, it beeped horribly, and nothing at all came up on the monitor. The screen said "no display" and switched itself to standby mode. After a long series of trial and error experiments unplugging various components, I got beeping sounds every time I started up, although they did vary a little depending on what hardware was plugged in. What's really perplexing is that with the speakers plugged in, I can hear windows starting up just fine. It even shuts down if I press the power button once. I think the mouse was working OK too as it was lit up, but the keyboard was not, and pressing Alt-F4 and then the doown arrow and then enter didn't get the computer to shut down, so I don't think the keyboard was being registered. So I took the computer to a local repair place, thinking it must be the graphics card but not having any spare equipment to test the theory. So in the shop we replace the graphics card, and still no display. Replace the RAM, no luck. So the guy there tells me it must be the motherboard, or the PCI Express slot in the motherboard. We figure it can't be the harddrive or CPU or RAM since the computer does seem to boot OK (based on the sound). This is further supported by the serious beeping noises. I ask if he's sure, because he doesn't seem to be, and this will mean investing in a new board, but he says he is. So I go out and I order a new mobo. After a long week with no computer, it arrives and I install it. When I try to start it up, the same beeping and no graphical display. I plug the speakers in and sure enough, windows is starting up. So, someone please tell me, what the hell could this be? He replaced the RAM and graphics card and that didn't fix it. I have a whole new mobo and still no go. And Windows starts up and shuts down! I'm no computer wiz but this has me totally stumped. We've had bad experiences with this repair place before, so I'm loathe to take it back there, and I'm not sure if there's another one in town. Seems it must be a hardware failure, but in which piece? I have an MSI Neo-F (old mobo) and now an MSI K9A2 CF-F (new mobo), ASUS x1950Pro GPU, 2 gigs of PC2 6400 Corsair RAM, Athlon X2 4600 CPU, Tripower powersource (can't remember the details of this off the top of my head, can find them if someone thinks it matters). Running 32-bit Vista home premium. Please help me
Hi, have you tried replacing the power supply unit? there is nothing wrong with your board if it's posting and also booting into windows. so the guy in the pc shop made you waste your cash. how many beeps do you get? my best bet right now would be go with the power supply unit. can;t see it being graphics card either or cpu or ram because as you say it is posting and booting into windows as you can hear it in the background. Good luck let us know how it goes.
