POST Card

[Jayson]

Would anyone on here recommend a POST card for finding out what's wrong with a computer? I have reseated everything and even attempted a new power supply as I thought that might be the issue. I am now at a loss and looking for the next line of troubleshooting for the PC.

I have a computer that doesn't start up. It powers on and there is movement in fans, HD and everything else, just doesn't display anything or beep. I pulled the HD and it still works properly so I know it wasn't a HD crash.

Thanks computer savvy forum members!

Jayson

[ChadS]

If it's not beeping it's usually the RAM. Can you pull the sticks and replace one?

[Jayson]

Good plan, will try that...

Nope not RAM.

[rlriii13]

+1 on Chad's recommendation.

Would you mind posting the specs of the system? And just to clarify, you cannot see the POST on screen, or you see the POST and nothing after it? I dealt with an issue where the OS and the graphics driver didn't play nice together and I had to jump through a million hoops.

Also, it's a long shot, and you may already have checked, but plug the monitor into something else to make sure it works. If you're only indications of problems are no beep during POST and no display, you might as well rule out the possibility that the monitor is a problem since it's easy to check if you have something else you can plug it into.

[Jayson]

My computer is basically this http://www.dell.com/us/dfh/p/inspiron-546s/pd

Needed something cheap for me and the kids and this was it. Works for everything I need, or it did until this issue.

Monitor isn't the issue. I have two of them for display and both work with my laptop. I took out all of the ram and tested each one in the 4 different slots and still blank.

As for displaying anything. I cannot see anything on screen. There is no POST at all. I installed windows 7 on it about a month ago after having Vista 64 and didn't have an issue. I thought it might have been something with the USB ports since my kid keeps plugging in a USB microphone, but after unplugging that it didn't remedy the situation. I have since unplugged everything and tested it, but nothing is working.

Thanks.

[ChadS]

If the motherboard doesn't beep then it's either faulty RAM (or DIMM slot), badly-seated or damaged CPU, or the graphics pathway is garbled. Those are the only 3 things checked at POST. After that BIOS takes over and it handles disks, NICs, etc. If you're certain it's not bad RAM it may be a shot motherboard. That happens more than I'd like to think about.

[rlriii13]

If the motherboard doesn't beep then it's either faulty RAM (or DIMM slot), badly-seated or damaged CPU, or the graphics pathway is garbled. Those are the only 3 things checked at POST. After that BIOS takes over and it handles disks, NICs, etc.

But would the disks still spin up if it wasn't actually getting past the POST?

Monitor isn't the issue. I have two of them for display and both work with my laptop.

So, you have two monitors plugged in? One is HDMI and the other is VGA? While doing your diagnostics, did you have both monitors plugged in? I would recommend only plugging in the VGA monitor when testing. Mixing an analog and digital signal can cause some confusion.

It powers on and there is movement in fans, HD and everything else

If you power it on and just let it run for a few minutes, do the fans and the HD continue running?

Are there LED lights inside the case that light up and remain lit? How about the LED lights on the outside of the tower? I don't know about that model, but certain Dell models are infamous for problems with this or that. Many times the behavior of the main power button's LED light can help you find out if there's a hardware issue. You could also try calling Dell.

[Jayson]

Its funny because the same thing happened to my old computer before I bought this one and I never bothered to figure out what happened. Just bought a new one. I had a feeling it might be a little more serious and not an easy fix. Thanks guys for your input.

[rlriii13]

No problem Jayson. Everything I'm writing is just that - input. I'm no computer technician. But computer problems are the worst and I hate to go through them, so I know your pain. When problems arise, it makes you realize how much we rely on our electronics.

A quick Google search led me here:
http://www.techsupportforum.com/foru...on-298889.html

and here:
http://en.community.dell.com/support....aspx#19756400

[ChadS]

Disks and fans can spin up simply because they have power. Depending on the Mobo some will regulate the fan speeds even before POST based simply on some analog control circuitry. Once the advanced thermal management takes over (BIOS) then it's under fine control.

The beep is really, really important...