Dying power supply?

Well crap. I thought the video card was dead on my old gaming rig that I use as a media center in the living room. I bought a cheap HD 5450 ($25.00 and free ship!) to replace it. Well same issue. No video output at all. I thought it was the old video card that was making so much noise but now I'm hearing the extra fan noise and still not seeing any video output of any kind.

Should I be looking at the power supply? This system has been sitting in the living room and I generally only fire it up once a week or so. Nothing happened to it except one day I turned it on and it sounded much louder and isn't outputting any video signal.

Any thoughts? Thanks guys.

I have had 2 Power Supply's die, both no name brands.

Some symptoms of a failing power supply.

- noises from the power supply and fan.

- smelling.

- computer turns on, but if you play a game or do something intensive it turns off.

For me I pressed the power button on mine and only the fans/lights would come on for about half a second and turn off. You could keep pressing the button but they wouldn't do that again.

I have had 2 Power Supply's die, both no name brands.

Some symptoms of a failing power supply.

- noises from the power supply and fan.

- smelling.

- computer turns on, but if you play a game or do something intensive it turns off.

For me I pressed the power button on mine and only the fans/lights would come on for about half a second and turn off. You could keep pressing the button but they wouldn't do that again.

jakes456

Hmm. The only symptom along those lines I have is the noise. The fans are roaring like a vaccum cleaner. It would normally be that loud for the first second or two when I powered on the system. Now it makes that noise non stop and again there isn't any video output.

All right, lets go over the basics and tell us what your results are.

Have any beeps when you start the machine?

Did you plug your monitor into the vga/dvi/hdmi (which ever one you have) port on your motherboard to see if you get any video?

Are you getting any type of bios screen when you boot up? If it's a hard drive issue, you should still see the bios text when you first boot as the hard drive hasn't even kicked in yet at this point.

Can you hear any audio coming from your speakers (like windows starting up)?

Are you able to boot into Safe Mode and get video there?

Answering those questions will really help narrow down the possibilities as it's hard to say "It's the hard drive or psu" if we don't know how far along in the boot process you are, haven't tried onboard video, etc.

All right, lets go over the basics and tell us what your results are.

Have any beeps when you start the machine?

No. There are no beeps and the motherboard's small indicator light turns on green as normal.

Did you plug your monitor into the vga/dvi/hdmi (which ever one you have) port on your motherboard to see if you get any video?

There isn't any onboard video on this motherboard that I am aware of and I don't see any ports for video.

Are you getting any type of bios screen when you boot up? If it's a hard drive issue, you should still see the bios text when you first boot as the hard drive hasn't even kicked in yet at this point.

No. There is no video output of any kind. I used the HDMI and VGA ports on the old video card. Assume that was the issue so replaced it. Same issue with the new video card. No output at all.

Can you hear any audio coming from your speakers (like windows starting up)?

I have the PC hooked up by HDMI to a flat screen TV. No audio via the TV. I don't have independant speakers hooked up to the PC. I could pull a set of speakers from another PC and try that if you think it would be helpful.

Are you able to boot into Safe Mode and get video there?

There isn't anything happening on screen at all. So I haven't been in safe mode.

Answering those questions will really help narrow down the possibilities as it's hard to say "It's the hard drive or psu" if we don't know how far along in the boot process you are, haven't tried onboard video, etc.

joseph_mach

Thanks for taking the time. I appreciate your thoughts.

[QUOTE="joseph_mach"]

All right, lets go over the basics and tell us what your results are.

Have any beeps when you start the machine?

No. There are no beeps and the motherboard's small indicator light turns on green as normal.

Did you plug your monitor into the vga/dvi/hdmi (which ever one you have) port on your motherboard to see if you get any video?

There isn't any onboard video on this motherboard that I am aware of and I don't see any ports for video.

Are you getting any type of bios screen when you boot up? If it's a hard drive issue, you should still see the bios text when you first boot as the hard drive hasn't even kicked in yet at this point.

No. There is no video output of any kind. I used the HDMI and VGA ports on the old video card. Assume that was the issue so replaced it. Same issue with the new video card. No output at all.

Can you hear any audio coming from your speakers (like windows starting up)?

I have the PC hooked up by HDMI to a flat screen TV. No audio via the TV. I don't have independant speakers hooked up to the PC. I could pull a set of speakers from another PC and try that if you think it would be helpful.

Are you able to boot into Safe Mode and get video there?

There isn't anything happening on screen at all. So I haven't been in safe mode.

Answering those questions will really help narrow down the possibilities as it's hard to say "It's the hard drive or psu" if we don't know how far along in the boot process you are, haven't tried onboard video, etc.

dubkin

Thanks for taking the time. I appreciate your thoughts.

All right then, so at this point I'm thinking it's a posting problem, and that means it's one (or more) of 4 things. CPU, memory, mobo, or psu. Make sure that all the connections look good (including the wires that go from the power button on the front of your case to the mobo). Check that the 4-pin power for the mobo didn't come loose (usually near the cpu). Pull the memory, and reseat them making sure they snap into place. The next two steps are a bit harder, but would you happen to have access to another power supply/mobo you could swap out and give it a go?

Also, would it be possible to post a picture of the back of your case, where all your ports are? I've seen it before, but it's rare that there isn't some sort of video out on mobo's these days.

Well that was emberassing. I unplugged each and every connector on the motherboard and plugged them in again. Now everything seems to be running without issue. Thanks so much for your help!

Well that was emberassing. I unplugged each and every connector on the motherboard and plugged them in again. Now everything seems to be running without issue. Thanks so much for your help!

dubkin

Huzzah! Glad to hear it all worked out.