Blank Screen, unusual

[Redsennacy2189]

This will be long, to give you a full background:

My computer was a pet project for me October 2010, and made my boyfriend a duplicate one.  They had the same blue screening issues until we figured out that the ram was incompatible and the power supply was not enough.  Boyfriend's comp immediately stopped blue screening after a good ol' reformat and replacement parts.  He hasn't had an issue in a year.  I, however, had a dead GPU about 2 months in and never got around to replacing it.  My onboard graphics card worked well enough for what I needed.

I had moved in with him for that year, so I shared the computer.  I moved home in preparation for school a month ago, and ordered my own new PSU and RAM.  I, unfortunately, have still been having problems.  I ordered different parts, but they are just as compatible (posting my specs below).  Today, I was logging into a game, when it blue screened with no error code and went blank.  It auto-restarted (sounding fine) but absolutely nothing was on the screen. 

I did some research before I came onto here.  I unplugged, restarted, to no avail.  More research, starting taking things out.  Went down to Mobo, PSU, keyboard and sound.  one long beep and 2 short beeps.  I plugged in one RAM stick, and it started up with a screen.  I pulled it out, tried the other stick.  No screen.  Tried the first stick again to see if I would still be successful, and I was disappointed to find a blank screen. 

No beeping occurs when I have one RAM stick in.  Only when I have *everything* out.

I'm confused as to either pronounce time of death for my mobo, or if there might be something else going on that I just can't figure out.

Help would be appreciate! Thanks guys!




Mobo: ASUS M488t-M (October 2010) On board Radeon HD 4000
RAM: Gskill Ripjaw (2x4Gb) DDR3 1600 (1 month old)
PSU: Corsair TX650W (1 month old)
HDD: Seagate 1Tb 7200.12 internal (Oct 2010)
CPU: AMD Phenom II 3.1GHz processor (Oct 2010)

Windows 7 Ultimate 64 bit, Service pack 1. 

[Accessless]

You could try flashing the BIOS and rebooting with just one stick of RAM.
If that fails (obviously after trying the other stick of RAM), use your boyfriends power supply to test for failure.
If that fails pronounce time of death.

[Redsennacy2189]

I did try one stick.  But what do you mean by flashing BIOS?  I will not be able to try his PSU until a few weeks, since he lives over the border and I'm stuck in school now.

When I tried one stick of RAM, and I tried both separately, it did not always start up.  I tried each slot, too (4 total)

[Popeye67]

sounds like an intermittent fault i would start by checking all your connections, last thing i would do is flash the bios.

flashing the bios can and does go wrong (theres been a post on here today where one went badly), if you have a known problem that has had a bios update created to fix it fine, otherwise its best leaving it alone, besides chances of it working are nil or thereabouts.

[Redsennacy2189]

Is there a good way to tell if it's my mobo entirely?  I understand that the onboard videocard may have died, and with that, the whole motherboard.  What am I looking for specifically with my connections?  I have checked all wires and inserts, as well as reciprocals.  I've plugged and unplugged several times, and clean all connections.  Seems like a game I'm not winning, but I'm honestly fearing that the mobo's output may be crappy, since it will occasionally restart with a full screen (but no correlation so far as to when it does it)

[Raptor]

Is the AMD Phenom that you have the 95-Watt or the 125-Watt edition?

No beeping occurs when I have one RAM stick in.  Only when I have *everything* out.

That would be the mainboard's way of saying that it isn't detecting any RAM...

Out of curiosity: have you tried resetting the BIOS to its default values?

Since someone mentioned flashing your bios: there are several vague BIOS updates that are related to system stability and memory compatability for your mainboard. Well, assuming that you have a M4a88t-M, that is. What BIOS version are you at?

[Redsennacy2189]

125W.

Yeah, sorry, it's a M4A88t-m, was typing a little too fast. 

Also, I've never had to deal with beeps before.  When I did research on the specific sound, it wasn't a clear "oh hey, no ram" kind of message.  In fact, it said almost nothing about that.  It's better I try everything and relate the information to you since your rules ask for more info than less

My BIOS is all at default since I reformatted two days ago.  I was blue screening with driver errors, updated them, but today I got this.  Don't quite understand.  My computer was stable until I tried to download the graphics drivers.  Then I uninstalled.

Unless you guys want me to just google flashing BIOS, and since I've never done that, I would like a brief walkthrough.  I can fill in gaps myself, I just need starting points.

[Redsennacy2189]

BIOS version: American Megatrends Inc. 2106 - 05/27/2010

Also, my screen was flickering quite heavily when it loaded from the log in screen.  It's never done that before.

/worried.

[Raptor]

No, don't flash your BIOS if the system is unstable.

So basically you had a blue-screen, took your PC apart, put it back together and now it won't show anything on the screen. Does it still go through its Power-On-Self-Test routine? Do you hear the hard drive spin up and the fans rev up and down?

And did you reset your BIOS by removing the battery, using the jumper or by loading the fail-safe settings?

I am not so sure about the stability of those 125-Watt CPUs. Your mainboard is listed as compatible but they still draw a lot of power. Some mainboards just can't handle it. You said you had two computers, do they both have the 125-Watt version?

And are we sure it's not your monitor that's giving up the ghost? The flickering sounds like it could be the backlights failing if it's LCD.
Got another one to test?

[Raptor]

BIOS version: American Megatrends Inc. 2106 - 05/27/2010

I was looking at the wrong BIOS'. The ones released for this particular mainboard are completely uninteresting.

You might want to turn on C1E multiplier in the BIOS as it seems to be turned on by default in a later update. Which probably means it's turned off right now. It's a power saving feature. Particularly useful on those 125-Watt things ...

[Redsennacy2189]

My computer has been blue screening for months, as was my boyfriend's.  They are(were) identical.  The power before hand was too little  and our RAM was just totally incompatible.  When I was living with him, I found a Corsair TX750W on sale, and bought compatible kingston 6Gb (2x3) RAM.  We reformatted his computer, and the blue screens never happened again.  We had no room for my tower as well, so I left it at home since the GPU had [then] just died.

I got my PSU and new RAM and installed them about a month ago.  Ran tests, seemed fine.  I came home 2 weeks ago, my computer was still blue screening.  I decided that maybe a reformat was necessary.  Still was blue screening, and finally today when I was trying to play LoL, it BS'ed without an error code, auto-restarted and the monitor never turned on.

I checked the monitor and the vga option.  Monitor works with other desktops, and the vga on the motherboard doesn't make a difference, still blank. 

Hm.  I guess I assumed reformatted would reset the BIOS.  I can remove the battery I guess. 

Both computers use the 125W version, and my bf's pc runs like a dream.  It's mine that seems to have all the issues, which frustrates me since I've treated them the same.

I'll take a look at the C1E multiplier right now.  You think it could be power?  My bf has 750W, and I have 650W...  We upped from 450W.

[Raptor]

Hm.  I guess I assumed reformatted would reset the BIOS.  I can remove the battery I guess.

Reformatting does not in any way affect the BIOS. You should check the manual for instructions on resetting it.

You have to turn off the power to the computer if you want to reset the BIOS.

I'll take a look at the C1E multiplier right now.  You think it could be power?  My bf has 750W, and I have 650W...  We upped from 450W.

Nah, it's just a handy feature to have turned on. Saves power by clocking down the CPU if there's not much to do.
Your PSU should be powerful enough unless you have an extremely high-end videocard.

[Redsennacy2189]

I have my mobo manual on me, and I'll reset and then check the multiplier.  I'm guessing I have to update it again after I reset?

[Raptor]

I have my mobo manual on me, and I'll reset and then check the multiplier.  I'm guessing I have to update it again after I reset?

Update what?

[Redsennacy2189]

I could have sworn that i had to update bios once, but I might be thinking of a completely different computer.  I just checked myself, pretend like I said nothing.  working on resetting it.