PC wont reboot - HD light stays on, DVD light blinks

[pglenn]

I have a problem with my PC not booting up. I had a problem with it locking up while watching TV via the HD card, and had to power off/on a few times, and now it wont even boot.

When I try to boot-up, the HD light stays lit, and after a few seconds the DVD light begins a steady flashiong on/off . the steady HD light and the flashing DVD light stay that way until I actually unplug the power cord from the PC. I dont get any boot-up / diagnostic info on my monitor during this time - in fact nothing is shown on the monitor at all.

I'm about to completely tear the PC down tonight and re-build piece-by-piece but any info or sugggestions before I actually do that will be greatly appreciated

Patrick
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WIN-XP MCE
Athlon 64 3200+
GIGABYTE GA-K8NSNXP-939 nForce3 Ultra
1gb Ram, DDR SDRAM 400
ATI AIW 9800Pro
MyHD130 v1.66 (drv 1.66.0.1)

[redwudz]

Unplug all your drives except the boot drive. Remove all your cards except the video card and try again. If no, substitute your RAM memory. Or if you have more than one module, trade them around and try to boot from each one. Next try to substitute your video card.

Are you getting BIOS beeps? Can you get into BIOS? Have you tried booting into Safe Mode?

If all the above fails and you don't get it to boot, then you may have a power supply problem or a bad motherboard or CPU. I am assuming it's not a software or OS problem.

[pglenn]

OK, so far I have removed all the cards (HD-card, TV-card) except for the video card and the network card, and I have disconnected the hard drives (I have 3 HD's in this PC - I would expect with no HD connected that I would get "NO BOOT DEVICE" message)... same thing still happening, the HD activity light stays on continuously and the DVD light blinks.

[InXess]

with no HDD's there of course should be no HDD activity. If you get no POST screen as well in simple scenario would indicate video dead but combined with your other issues probably means the end of the road for your motherboard. Check indiv. components with another (older) MB to find out if they're OK, replace the MB and off you go. I don't see anything about beeps (POST diagnostic) telling you what's wrong. Don't forget to make sure that your power supply works properly before replacing the MB. Bad CPU, video, memory would cause POST to beep. Bad HDD, DVD or expansion card would (normally) not cause what you're getting.

[pglenn]

yeah, no video, nothing happening as as far as normal boot-up video, no beeps, just stuck... I was already thinking either bad PS or bad MB.... luckily I have replacement for each - PS first...

[redwudz]

OK, I assume you have no BIOS screen either and no beeps?

You have to be systematic when troubleshooting and first rule out everything that's not causing the problem. What's left over are the possibilities.

If you have a BIOS screen, then RAM and your video card are the next suspects. Eliminate them and you have your hard drive. Boot from a CD and eliminate that. From there it could be MB, CPU or PS.

EDIT: I see no beeps, no BIOS. Yes, probably power supply first. I have seen bad RAM do that, though. After you change out the PS, if no go, no beeps, you are likely left with the MB as the problem. Try with no RAM. Even with no CPU and no RAM, you should get beeps.

[InXess]

since HDD light connector is on the MB controlled via I/O and stays on with no HDD you can safely assume MB failure. It would be very unusual for PS to cause that (I would eliminate that possibility). I'd go ahead with the MB swap.

[dcsos]

Take the onboard battery out for about 1/2hr and replace it
THIS"LL reset the BIOS and should stimulate "VIDEO" when VGA connector is placed on graphics card..unless you've got onboard video on the MOTHERBOARD
Remember that if there's onboard VIDEO, it'lll default to ONBOARD VIDEO if you reset the bios

[edsmith77]

Folks,
There is one other possibility. Depending upon the error setting in the BIOS, i.e., stop at first error or continue on or words to that effect. This BIOS setting could mask such simple errors as a stuck keyboard or missing mouse, etc. Not likely but possible. Just for my 2 cents cause I ran into this some time back.

Ed

[pfh]

I had a bad Power supply cause this error. Discovered this AFTER I swapped mobo and cpu!