So my pc with Windows XP won't boot.
The screen stays black, nothing appears.
The hd rattles a little like always like it is loading and the light comes on.

But then... nothing.

This probably means a new HD but what can I do or check.
(Checked the wiring already!)

TIA

 

What color is the light on the monitors power button?

 

 

Alright so it's getting a signal....

Do you get to see the bios screen before it starts booting windows?

Ussually a black screen with white text that has the comuter manufacturer or the bios chip manufacturer name and says press esc for option "or somethign like that" when you first turn the computer on?

 

The HD only rattles like 2 or 3 seconds like it is loading then it stops.

 

Nope, no BIOS screen, nothing, nada, niets.

 

ewww....

If the Hard drive spins it's probably not the hard drive.....

Well it could really be anything at that point.

Worse case scenario is CMOS or bios, or bios shadowing shadowing (but Cmos and bios shadowing will ussually give you an error.)

It could be the video card or any card has come loose from the slot, or that the processor has come loose. Bad PCi slot, bad IDE or SATA cable.... literally ould be anything.

It's going to take somebody there and poking around, maybe swapping out parts one part at a time until they find the one causing the hang.

If the monitor light was yellow I'd lean torwards video card. Still could be but it's odd to have a green light and no picture.

Your proabbly not going to get much help on the internet, or will take somebody better than me.

 

Are you familiar at all with inside the case of this computer?

 

Not really, I checked for loose cards and connectors though.
Everything is tight.

"Bad PCi slot, bad IDE or SATA cable.... literally ould be anything.

It's going to take somebody there and poking around, maybe swapping out parts one part at a time until they find the one causing the hang."

I agree.

 

It still dont rule out the possiability of a bad monitor cable, actually migth be just as good of chance as anythign else.

If your fairly comfortable inside, then might try taking out or unhooking from power all non essential items. any of the cards besides main video, second HD if applicable, rom drives etc etc until all you have is MB, HD and video. try to boot it like that. If it boots then add one item at a time.

 

damn
first it was everyone crashing their trucks.
now everyones having PC issues.

hope im not next.

 

When you try to start it, does it post? Do you hear a beep or a series of beeps? If there's no beeps at all I would guess it's your motherboard. If it gives it's single short post beep it could be anything. If it beeps more than once it's like a troublecode so then you decipher it. If it's never beeped when you've started it disregard all of the above because you have no internal speaker.

 

What brand PC ? Dell, Gateway, HP, home brew, etc.

If it is a Dell or Gateway, it could have the BIOS splash turned off...

Turn the PC off.

Hold a key down on the keyboard. Turn the PC on. Keep holding the key down.

If you are lucky, it will detect the stuck key and throw it up on the screen.

If no luck, pull every card out, disconnect the hard drive cables, disconnect all the cables except for the power to the motherboard and then re-install the video card.

If you don't get something then, it is probably 1 of 4 things:

1. Power supply

2. Video card

3. Motherboard

4. Monitor

Good luck !!!

 

That's a pretty good list.
Highly unlikely that it has anything to do with your hard drive or anything like that.
If you've got a multimeter, make sure you get the correct power everywhere.
If you've got another computer, hook it up to your monitor.
If that's all good, I'd try replacing the video card.

 

You just need a big enough one of these to fix the problem.