Can't boot to windows or monitor doesn't work

[cojack]

I have a EMachines w/ athlon 64 3200+ processor running on XP home. This PC has onboard video.

Recently I developed a strange problem. The monitor goes crazy (screen garbled) on boot, clears up and the next time I boot I get no monitor, and the HDD is spinning but no boot that I can tell. (Since I have no screen, I don't know if it is booting or not) I Googled the problem and followed the suggestions. Remove and reinsert RAM, remove and reseat all cables, remove all cables except for power cable to MB. Nothing. The next day I reinstalled all cables except for peripherals and the PC booted up fine.Worked for two weeks. Then same thing happened. Did the same procedure as before, tested PSU OK, replaced PSU, Replaced RAM. Purchased a new video card but can't install it because the first thing I need to do is disable the onboard video. Can't see anything on the monitor so I can't do that.

BTW, I connected another PC to the monitor using the same cable and the monitor is fine.

[patio]

Some vid cards do this automatically when they are installed...what make and model is it ? ?
Also what brand and wattage PSU did you put in there ?

[cojack]

The vid card was a visiontek radeon 7k. Visiontek support told me I needed to disable the onboard vid. The PSU is a KDM 350w, tested OK.

[patio]

It may seem i'm being stubborn about the PSU but how was it tested ? ?
It's not a brand name i'm familiar with...

You could try booting up in safemode by tapping F8 rapidly while powering up...if the video works there (it will be a lower resolution by default ) you could disable the onboard from there for the card installation.

eMachines are notorious for underpowered PSU's.

[cojack]

I tried the safe mode and couldn't boot up. I replaced the 300w PSU with a 350w psu. I used a PSU tester to test it.

I'm saying the HDD is spinning but it doesn't flicker like it is booting. I'm just assuming it's booting. No beeps but I don't think EMachines beep at startup. My other EMachine doesn't beep on startup.

[patio]

When you say safemode wouldn't boot what does this mean ? ?
Did you get nothing on the screen ? ?

You may have a failing hard drive here...

[cojack]

I'm beginning to think that. Like I mentioned, the HDD is spinning (light lit solid, not flickering like it was reading data), but no screen at all. Very strange that it would stop working, run fine for about two weeks then crash again.

[patio]

When you say safemode wouldn't boot what does this mean ? ?
Did you get nothing on the screen ? ?

You may have a failing hard drive here...

[cojack]

I tried booting in the safe mode (F8) and got nothing on the screen. I also tried booting from my XP disk to see if could do a repair of XP. Wouldn't boot from cd.

[patio]

Failing/Dead HDD...
Failing PSU...
Something is not hooked up properly...

[cojack]

HDD test OK. I put it in my external HDD and I was able to see the files on my other PC. PSUs test out OK but I'll test them again.

[Kurtiskain]

corrupt gfx card memory?

[cojack]

What is gfx card memory?

[patio]

A pretty wild guess i would say...

The tests you have done still won't determine anything...
PSU testers do not test under load so may not be that accurate.
Borrow a known working PSU of the same or greater wattage and swap it in there.

A bad/failing HDD will sometimes work perfectly fine for periods of time.
Just hooking up to an external enclosure and accessing the data also proves nothing.
DLoad and run the FREE diagnostics from the HDD manuf. website. Use the instructions provided to create a bootable CD and run the long test.

[cojack]

I have three spare HDDs. Why can't I boot from CD to any HDD? I'm beginning to think its either the processor or MB.

[patio]

What CD are you trying to boot to ? ?

Why is it difficult to try what's been suggested ? ? You keep avoiding this.

We're trying to determine if it IS the motherboard but in order to do so you have to start following instructions...

[cojack]

I've replaced the PSU twice. Checked all the cables several times. Can't boot in the safe mode, nothing on screen. Will try another HDD but will need to boot from XP CD since the HDD is a formatted HDD so I will try to reload XP.  Not sure what you think I'm missing what you are asking me to do? You wanted me to create a bootable CD from the HDD manufacturers website but how will that help If I can't boot from a CD?

The only other thing I can try is to replace the HDD, RAM and PSU from my other EMachines PC that works fine but I really don't want to mess that one up. I've already moved the PSU and RAM from there to the failing PC before with no luck.

[cojack]

OK, I swapped out my HDD, PSU, all cables (bus or otherwise), and RAM from my PC which is working fine. Still no good. Put everything back in my PC and it works fine again. The only thin left is the MB and Processor. Do I have to get a EMachines MB or any other make that will accept the Athlon processor? Do you think it may be the processor or MB?