another dead computer

[stupidcollegekid]

Hey all, I'm new to the site but it looks really cool. I'm a member of another place kinda like this but for cars. Anyway, I was watching a DVD the other day and my computer completely died. I tried to turn it back on and nothing. It isn't the monitor, I plugged it into something else. I took out the motherboard and sent it back to the manufacturer who told me they reseated the cpu and it works perfectly. I just plugged everything back into the motherboard and still nothing. Fans work, light on the board comes on, I can 'start' the machine, it beeps once and nothing else boots. I hear no harddrives kick in etc. I'm at a loss here, so are all the 'live' people I know to ask. Any ideas? I thought maybe the memory?
Motherboard is an ECS 915P-A, 1 gig memory, 2 150 gig harddrives, 256 mb geforce graphics card. It was all together and working well.
Please help!! Thanks!!

[Flame]

Sounds weird for me to ask, but describe the beep.. Long or short? Only one?

[glb]Flame[/glb]

[stupidcollegekid]

not weird at all, its short and a single one. I was told before that a memory problem was two short beeps ?? I was also thinking that maybe the harddrives are not getting any power whereas everything else is? Thanks for the quick reply.

[Frankie]

You can tell if the hard drive is getting power, by getting rid of any static you have and placing your fingers on top of the drive. You should feel it humming. What happens if you disconnect all the drives Hard drive dvd cdroms, Do you get an error on screen.

[stupidcollegekid]

well the hard drives are getting power, but they aren't booting. I unplugged everything and no image whatsoever. Completely black screen. Any other ideas??

[stupidcollegekid]

Flame, the beep is more like a scratchy sound. The computer makes it without the harddrives connected. weird huh?

[SDNERD]

I am also having a problem with a notebook.  I can not turn it on at all and all I need to do is try to retrieve the info off of it the toss it.  Should I just remove the drive and try to get it from a source? No lights come on....Nothing happens.  What should i do?

[Frankie]

Are you able to try a diffrent Graphics card and if you have one a different stick of Ram.

[stupidcollegekid]

Frankie, I am currently on the look for both. I have ddr2 ram and haven't been able to find someone else who has this too (I live in a dorm on campus) but I'm going to try a ddr stick. I'll also try to locate another graphics card and give an update.

SDNERD, I had a Dell notebook die on me too. It needed the motherboard replaced, which was free for me because it was still under warranty. There isn't any other way of accessing the harddrive that I am aware of.

[stupidcollegekid]

new memory didn't help and neither has the vid card. Any other ideas???

I'm thinking of taking it to Geek squad, are they any good at troubleshooting computers?

[etphn23]

try removing the vid. card if its removable

[merlin_2]

Disconnect the the hard drive without the o/s on it...make sure the jumper is set to master the one with the o/s on!.......and retry it.....

[stupidcollegekid]

this is probably a stupid question, but is o/s the operating system? My hard drives are sata, does that change anything?

[Raptor]

Replace the PSU or test it in another computer.

[stupidcollegekid]

took the ol thing to Geek Squad and they were baffled. They suggested a new mother board. I'm not especially interested in staying with ECS unless someone knows that I just happened to get a bad one. I've been recommended an Asus, any ideas of suggestions? I want comparable power etc. as what I had before this incident. Thanks for all the help guys!!