ccrogers15 Posted February 1, 2012 Share Posted February 1, 2012 Ok so i have an IBM thinkcentre computer. Well its got 1GB Ram. This is not my primary computer, i got it from a friend cause its been having problems. Ok, so any OS on it will do this 100% exact thing: The screen goes black. There is no reason i can think of for this, but it quickly at no warning goes black. And the keyboard and mouse lose light as well, but the hard drive lights and power lights stay working. So... Any thoughts? My initial thought was that the PC video was dieying until i realized its effecting the keyboard and mouse as well. Motherboard maybe? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Slamman Posted February 1, 2012 Share Posted February 1, 2012 (edited) I have a ThinkCentre from the "dumpster diving", which, BTW, did not involve actual DIVING into a dumpster, several desktops were put near the garbage recepticle and I picked and chose the best, the IBM I still have is featured on my YouTube channel, it works, it's sharing chipset with my Dell Optiplex computers, so it allowed me to swap HDDs among the two computers, it's single core, or 945 compatible Intel, Not sure, I think it's only single core HT, so likely the Dell SX280s share compatibility, allowing me to get an OS up and going on it easily (Dells OEMs format on the Dell, then swap directly to the IBM in this case. It has 4GB of DDR400, I'm just going over a quick spec run down from my experience, ThinkCentre obviously covers a number of computers, so... M51 model with Pentium 4 HT, SATA connections x4 and PATA x1 I would say your memory is always the first place to check, what config of parts are on it? My other IBMs are from NetVista or earlier gens Edited February 1, 2012 by Slamman Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
ccrogers15 Posted February 1, 2012 Author Share Posted February 1, 2012 (edited) I have a ThinkCentre from the "dumpster diving", which, BTW, did not involve actual DIVING into a dumpster, several desktops were put near the garbage recepticle and I picked and chose the best, the IBM I still have is featured on my YouTube channel, it works, it's sharing chipset with my Dell Optiplex computers, so it allowed me to swap HDDs among the two computers, it's single core, or 945 compatible Intel, Not sure, I think it's only single core HT, so likely the Dell SX280s share compatibility, allowing me to get an OS up and going on it easily (Dells OEMs format on the Dell, then swap directly to the IBM in this case.It has 4GB of DDR400, I'm just going over a quick spec run down from my experience, ThinkCentre obviously covers a number of computers, so... M51 model with Pentium 4 HT, SATA connections x4 and PATA x1 I would say your memory is always the first place to check, what config of parts are on it? My other IBMs are from NetVista or earlier gens 1GB ram Intel Pentium 4 CD-RW/DVD SATA 80GB HD SATA Floppy Drive OEM IBM Motherboard Btw, the video card is an internal. Im thinking the motherboard may be going out... EDIT: Exact model: Edited February 1, 2012 by ccrogers15 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Slamman Posted February 1, 2012 Share Posted February 1, 2012 (edited) What config of RAM sticks? 1GB could be in 256 or 512 individually The graphics card could cause problems, and I've been debating this buying laptop repair projects, since having integrated or card based graphics could offer you a road to repair, or replacement My 8600GT Palit I just added a second identical card off eBay, very happy, but the IBM doesn't support SLi, obviously, but some Dell XPS models do If you can scare up a mobo example, that is always helpful, me thinks I would have at hand, PCI graphics card for testing rigs, and PCIexpress and AGP, which of course, I have collected Edited February 1, 2012 by Slamman Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
ccrogers15 Posted February 1, 2012 Author Share Posted February 1, 2012 (edited) Both are 500 i think. I need to look again, hold up and i will edit this post after. By the way, i do know both are different brands of ram sticks, both offbrand. Edit: 1 is 510MB and the other i cant read. Im guessing the same. Edited February 1, 2012 by ccrogers15 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Slamman Posted February 1, 2012 Share Posted February 1, 2012 I use RAM not based on brand, more or less, base a purchase on density, ECC error correction typically NOT enabled (server memory I believe) and having the speeds match, some times it takes a bit of mix and matching on a budget, as you don't buy matching pairs all the time, or building a computer, on a budget, etc The vids I show here cover a bunch of things I wanted to show, and I nearly forgot I replaced my motherboard, but as such, I have a spare Heatsink bracket for the CPU socket that IBM uses, is yours a tower or SFF desktop version? I am not sure of the mobo is the same but the specs should be, that is if your model is avail in a tower and SFF, mine is I believe The above shows the PC version of Sega's Road Rash running on Vista! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
ccrogers15 Posted February 1, 2012 Author Share Posted February 1, 2012 I wonder if its the motherboard though. I know that sometimes the tower wont respond to power button presses. Sometimes i try to turn it on, and it turns off right after, and i need to try again a few times before it really kicks on. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Slamman Posted February 1, 2012 Share Posted February 1, 2012 (edited) Two mobo issues I had, the one with the IBM I mention in my video, the RAM was not pushed down firmly because it was SO tight to get the RAM locked down in their respective slots, the mobo is color coded Dual Channel Another situation I encountered is under the board itself, you have to screw and mount it, but a short still happened to me because, I assume the amount of warping, this can happen with hard to mount topside components, like the heat sink SNAP ON variety that Intel likes to use, I've had to press those rather hard. SOLUTION, put NON conductive material in the free space under your board, it's just a matter of looking around for junk mail to stuff under the mobo! haha Works! Anyway, Look into those areas, Are you using an exclusive vid card or the chipset on the board? Edited February 1, 2012 by Slamman Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
ccrogers15 Posted February 1, 2012 Author Share Posted February 1, 2012 Two mobo issues I had, the one with the IBM I mention in my video, the RAM was not pushed down firmly because it was SO tight to get the RAM locked down in their respective slots, the mobo is color coded Dual Channel Another situation I encountered is under the board itself, you have to screw and mount it, but a short still happened to me because, I assume the amount of warping, this can happen with hard to mount topside components, like the heat sink SNAP ON variety that Intel likes to use, I've had to press those rather hard. SOLUTION, put NON conductive material in the free space under your board, it's just a matter of looking around for junk mail to stuff under the mobo! haha Works! Anyway, Look into those areas, Are you using an exclusive vid card or the chipset on the board? Its embedded to the board. So its internal. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Slamman Posted February 1, 2012 Share Posted February 1, 2012 (edited) Which model and chipset? You can try Search Engines to see if there's a common deficiency, if not, it could be a specific problem, but memory should be looked at first, use one stick in every slot, even a slot FOR memory can be funky and will continue to cause issues no matter what RAM you try. Borrow or pickup some sort of Video card, I got a great deal on my recent Palit 8600 GT, and it WILL run GTA IV on PC, so you'd do well enough being able to play GTA on a PC Low Profile, judging on your PCIexpress, I would assume that computer platform should still support, it could be older, with AGP, but there are a new rash of low profile cards I saw at MicroCenter, would hopefully work in it Edited February 1, 2012 by Slamman Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Wolf68k Posted February 1, 2012 Share Posted February 1, 2012 Try a different PSU? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Slamman Posted February 2, 2012 Share Posted February 2, 2012 Well, he's getting lights to the board, There'd be some indication of power still getting to it Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Wolf68k Posted February 2, 2012 Share Posted February 2, 2012 Yes I figured that out when he said the system starts to boot and then gets to some point and it goes black. That however doesn't rule out that the possibility that the PSU can't still be bad. I've seen the exact same thing happen to me with a dying PSU, the BIOS loads just fine and stayed up but when trying to boot to the OS it would go dark. And the mobo had a light on it. Also he never said the mobo had a light on it, he said the power and HDD lights, meaning the LEDs on the case. There is a difference. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Slamman Posted February 3, 2012 Share Posted February 3, 2012 (edited) Always focus attention on the easiest things to replace, cost wise, or ease of swapping out, so that to me is nearly a "given". Speaking of the lights, I can't recall a mobo LED telltale or not, for the main ATX size IBM I had, my NetVista is similar, but at heart it's more a conventional miniATX laid flat for the SFF layout IBM cases Edited February 3, 2012 by Slamman Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
ccrogers15 Posted February 3, 2012 Author Share Posted February 3, 2012 Ok so i got a little farther in fixing something. I took 1 of the ram sticks out, now the screen wont go out... for 5 minutes after its on. So my thoughts have narrowed down to ram issues. Cause now, it will stay up and fine, but it will go off. I will post a video later when i get my crappy tablet out. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Wolf68k Posted February 3, 2012 Share Posted February 3, 2012 Wait. Confused. You took out a stick of RAM and said it won't go out. But then you said, "Cause now, it will stay up and fine, but it will go off." This to me sounds like although you took a stick out it still works for a short time but still turns off anyway. If that is what you mean then you didn't narrow it down to RAM any more than before you took the stick out. The only thing different is that the PSU instead of pushing power to 2 sticks is now only having to push power to 1 stick. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Slamman Posted February 3, 2012 Share Posted February 3, 2012 The video display won't lose the computer signal but it's freezing? The monitor WILL turn off though? It's good to know how it's all hooked up so we know what you're operating with and what phase of operation the computer is in. A video would be good, but make it as clear as you can. Some I've seen are not good for a number of reasons, some would argue my own narrative line of thought videos! haha Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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