fans run, but won't boot up (HP Pavilion)

[twoincollege]

This PC (HP a230n) was shipped across the US to me so that my college student kids wouldn't have to share a PC...the power supply light on rear is lit, as is the power button on front. All the fans run at power up. Keyboard light flashed, but no beep, and no display on the monitor I hooked up. It is supposed to have XP on it. Should I insert the system restore disk? (The CD tray will open and shut.) I'm guessing the shipper may have given it a few knocks, and things may have broken loose, but I have the chassis open and things look secure. If anyone has experienced this type of boot problem, I would appreciate advice. Thanks in advance.

[twoincollege]

I would really appreciate some help on this, since I don't have the resources to begin purchasing parts (power supply, etc.) and seeing if they resolve the problem. I read the announcement that gave guidelines for giving all the necessary info to get good answers....excuse me, but if the darn machine won't boot, I can't give you the registry, BIOS, or anything else, because I just don't have any way of getting it.

[Monty007]

I would start by taking the side cover off and check that every cable and every hardware item is inserted fully and correctly. It may be a simple as a loose cable, you need to check everything! Get back asap.
P.S. make sure you earth your self b4 touching any components!

[twoincollege]

Thanks, Monty. I did that, and made sure every connection was secure. When I first unpacked the pc, and plugged it into power, the fans came on and then went off. It did this a couple of times, then stayed on, with the light on the on/off button on the front lit up, and the power supply light on the rear lit up. I only hear the fans running, no sound of the hard drive, no beep, and no display on monitor. The keyboard light flickers when I plug the pc into power, but so far nothing else is happening.
Someone here locally said to try a new power supply, but I would rather not spend 20-30 bucks and then find out the motherboard was shot, or something similar. Money is too tight for that!
I would appreciate any guidance anyone can offer......

[Tom.g]

Check that the CPU and heatsink/fan are well seated. The CPU is always in a socket and can be jostled loose during shipping.

Also, there is a handy device made called a Power Supply Tester. It's about 3.5 x 2.5 x 0.5 with connectors on each end and lights for each supply voltage. They cost from $5 to $40 when you can find them. They will find major problems like one output dead, but will miss subtle things such as high ripple or noise.

Your school probably has folks that maintain their PCs. Try taking your PC to them and asking for a quick power supply test. This is a case where you supply the manual labor of transport, removing covers, etc. for a free test. You may be able to pick their brains for other ideas while you are there too. You could also try at a local computer shop, pleading student poverty of course.

[Abflug]

Hi mate, sorry if this wont help however I've been searching for the answer to this problem on the web when I found your question. I've tryed to find the REAL reason for why this happeneds as there are theories but no real answer as yet.
One thing as an answer is the worst possoble one and that is that your motherboard died. THe thing is I never accepted this as an answer as in Many cases including when it first happened to me many years ago including several times recently is that I managed to save it and have the computer running again after no load up and I didn't know how it worked out.

In my last cases I've noticed that first my computer as in your case would just shut down normally at night and the next day just loads black screen, all fans fine but no keyboard mouse .. etc, Like you and everyone else tryed the ram, video card and so on.. however there should be beeps if these are the problem, ( no beeps if the mother board is dead so thats the wors thing) However In my case it just started working the following day for no reason, even though I tryed on, off, on, off all day before. By the way I was only able to reset and couldn't power off from the power button. Used the plug at the back.

Any way I noticed after it started running that on one of my cpus, (i run 2) the fan was slowing down and was making bad sounds for a sec. Then after testing noticed the fan was getting old and wasn't acheiving its right speed and the cpu was slowly heating up. I did try intentionally to inclrease temperature by closing off the case while running diagnostics (don't try it if you don't know what your doing).. Anyway it did reset the computer on 5 occasions and I got a blue screen on the sixth. (probably overheated the ram on the sixth) .

Anyway my fix was quick then as I opened up the case, while in the limbo mode , switched off the computer, ran a cooling fan (regular household type, 18, 19 " for a room and had it on the motherboard and cpu for 10 min)
The computer started up after the cool down and after it was in the limbo mode previously.

Since then I tryed many times to get the limbo bootup and have, however never managed to make it stay in limbo mode for more then 48hours. That was the longest it stayed in before it fixed itself.

I know this isn't an answer however do try cleaning out your cpu fans, take out the ram for the sake of it and blow out dust from around them, clean the contacts, and do try and keep you case open with vanilation when you try and bring it out and test your procedures.

Good Luck I know that wasn't an answer but I doubt there is one out there for this problem , as I am sure your mother board isn't dead just because it didn't like to travel a long way. Actually I am suppose to try and fix this same problem 2morrow for a friend which is why I was searching for propper answers in the first place so If I manage anything tomorrow will post it here..

[Abflug]

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One Other thing I forgot to state even though I wrote too much anyway,

I forogot to state that had diagnostics check running to follow temps on the video card, and the temp was really rising there as well. The card I was running was an agp Matrox Perhillia 256mb type. This card had its fair share of use and it is possible that due to it being near the end of its life to cause the limbo mode. If there is a video card in a motherboard slot and is DEAD it will not make bips as well in many mother boards unlike if the video card is not pluged in properly or at all where you will hear bips to indicate no video card or error with it.

Before replacing anything if all fails to test a new video card so you don't have to follow with the mother board test from above. It is possible that my no boot up mode , limbo mode was caused by overheated video card and not the over heated cpu, however as I said above I can't confirm this as neither of them were dead to fully confirm this and in my case the computer just kept on working after the 48h (max) period.

Best Advice I can give again is clear up all fans , ram for dust etc, clear the fan or heatsink of video card if possible, as well as CPU, If the video card is NOT an Onboard type try swapping for another and reset computer, If it starts up normally straight away then your video card is dead or near death like mine is. If not continue to check the Motherboard.

Good Luck again and this was of some help

[davedarkstar]

hi, you say you have a resorce disk,did you get the xp os disk too,if so a format and xp rinstall will probably do the trick,xp reg no is usually somewhere on the cace ,youll need it.can you hear the if the hard drive is spinning.

[davedarkstar]

by the way, are you sure the monitors ok for that pc,can you try a different one.