odgalvin Posted October 31, 2010 Share Posted October 31, 2010 I have this old Pentium 4 PC that I put together with a big HDD for use as a home server, and has bee working fine for ages. Until yesterday, I connected an external HDD to transfer some stuff to it, and when I wanted to remove the drive I went to My Computer and Windows crashed, that is nothing was responding. So I restarted the PC, and it showed the motherboard BIOS screen, it beeped once for POST, but then the screen just went blank (but the computer stayed on, fans ran and lights were on etc). I tried restarting without the external HDD plugged in, and various other combination of stuff connected/disconnected but it just won't boot fully. It's Pentium 4 2.4GHz, 1.5GB 400MHz RAM, 640GB SATA Hard Drive, Built in Graphics and sound, running Windows 7. Does anyone have any ideas? Any help appreciated thanks, Ollie. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Wolf68k Posted October 31, 2010 Share Posted October 31, 2010 2 possibles; mobo or psu dead Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
odgalvin Posted October 31, 2010 Author Share Posted October 31, 2010 Thanks for the reply. Thing is, its happened before but in rectified itself after a few attempts. And the BIOS screen appears so doesn't that mean it cant be the mobo? And it may well be the PSU cos I had my suspicions about it anyway, seemed a bit cheap... Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Wolf68k Posted October 31, 2010 Share Posted October 31, 2010 I have had a mobo once that had some issues getting the system restarted. Some times it did and others it didn't. And for the times it did the system ran fine. Then one day it didn't want to restart fully only showing the BIOS until it finally completely crapped out and nothing. Turned out to be a blown capacitor. However I did have a PSU that would suddenly kill the system while viewing images yet I could surf the web just fine and do time killer games for a while. And again after a while just trying to get Windows to boot would kill it, usually SafeMode was ok but normal boot was hit or miss. Then finally it gave out, it had enough juice in it to boot the BIOS but then die mid-way through the Windows boot screen. Replacing the PSU is the easiest to do and for what you're using the system for, it'll be the cheapest and easiest to find a replacement for. The mobo on the other hand is normally a pain in the butt, however in your case it'll be even harder since you're using a P4, so good luck finding a new board. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
odgalvin Posted October 31, 2010 Author Share Posted October 31, 2010 Tell me about it... Well, cheers for the help I'll get looking for a PSU Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Recommended Posts
Create an account or sign in to comment
You need to be a member in order to leave a comment
Create an account
Sign up for a new account in our community. It's easy!
Register a new accountSign in
Already have an account? Sign in here.
Sign In Now