What could be wrong ?

**lionskin** · March 05, 2007, 02:46 PM

I was Playing MTW2 yesterday, and while in battle mode, The screen went blank, and the hard drive light stayed on. So i turned off the computer, and put it back on again, but nothing, doesn't even go into bios, everything turns on though, except the screen (remains blank).

Could my CPU have fried, or even my graphic card.

Any insight on this problem would be great.

Thanks

LionSkin.

**Thy** · March 05, 2007, 02:49 PM

euhm, a dead monitor?

**lionskin** · March 05, 2007, 02:51 PM

The monitor still works, i tried it on another PC, and it was fine.

**kkbob33** · March 05, 2007, 02:52 PM

what were the temps of your system,MB,cpu, and GPU usually?

**lionskin** · March 05, 2007, 02:54 PM

Originally Posted by kkbob33

what were the temps of your system,MB,cpu, and GPU usually?

I think they were very high, i left the PC on for 4 days straight. And on Saturday i was compiling a graphics engine (Ogre3D) on Visual Studio and that would pin the CPU at 100%.

**~~removeduser_426582376423734~~** · March 05, 2007, 02:55 PM

I had a very similar problem, I got a tech guy to help me out. He used ATI Sapphire technology , do you have an ATI graphics card?

BTW, press Menu etc on your monitor to see if its the graphics card or not.

**lionskin** · March 05, 2007, 03:04 PM

Originally Posted by Shyam Popat

I had a very similar problem, I got a tech guy to help me out. He used ATI Sapphire technology , do you have an ATI graphics card?

BTW, press Menu etc on your monitor to see if its the graphics card or not.

I have an Nvidia card on that box. I'm really hoping its only my GPU.

make sure all your cables are plugged in to and from your hard drive. You say you have another PC, is there a way you can yank the graphics card out and test it in your other comp to see if its the 3d card or soemthing else. Did your comp just go blank or did it get knocked over or jarred so that something may have become loose? My diagnosis judged off of your problems, is that your hard drive is fried. Bios will still boot, and or beep even if your graphics card is burnt out. However it will not do this if your HD is busted.

The comp just went blank, the hard drive light stayed on and that was it. After turning it off and back on again, the comp turns on but i don't get any beeps or nothing. I took out each hard drive one at a time, turned on the PC, same result.

I will try my video card on another system, when i get home.

Thanks a lot for your help guys

**Plutarch** · March 05, 2007, 02:56 PM

make sure all your cables are plugged in to and from your hard drive. You say you have another PC, is there a way you can yank the graphics card out and test it in your other comp to see if its the 3d card or soemthing else. Did your comp just go blank or did it get knocked over or jarred so that something may have become loose? My diagnosis judged off of your problems, is that your hard drive is fried. Bios will still boot, and or beep even if your graphics card is burnt out. However it will not do this if your HD is busted.

**kkbob33** · March 05, 2007, 03:02 PM

yeah if the gcard and HD work in another pc i would suspect the CPU. get a good heatsinks for the cpu and gpu, have proper ventilation in and out of the case and u will never have to worry

**Plutarch** · March 05, 2007, 03:04 PM

It could easily be your Mobo too, since they seem to be the first pieces along with the HD to fry when something shorts. In this case youll prolly end up getting a new mobo / proc combo.

**kkbob33** · March 05, 2007, 03:07 PM

Originally Posted by Comte de Laconia

It could easily be your Mobo too, since they seem to be the first pieces along with the HD to fry when something shorts. In this case youll prolly end up getting a new mobo / proc combo.

good point! LOL

**lionskin** · March 05, 2007, 03:10 PM

Originally Posted by Comte de Laconia

It could easily be your Mobo too, since they seem to be the first pieces along with the HD to fry when something shorts. In this case youll prolly end up getting a new mobo / proc combo.

If the Mobo fries, would the lights on it turn on, as well as the network adapter ?

**Plutarch** · March 05, 2007, 03:26 PM

Originally Posted by lionskin

If the Mobo fries, would the lights on it turn on, as well as the network adapter ?

It depends on what part of your mobo is fried. The lights for your 10/100 card reflect that there is in fact power reaching your motherboard, but it still may not work due to the mobo being broken. If your comp is on, try opening it up and smelling the inside a bit. If you smell a burnt type smell its easy enough to assume something fried. Check your RAM sticks to make sure they didnt fry as well. I had a mobo literally almost light on fire because it got too hot, and melted one ram stick into its DDR slot. Lol. needless to say ive had like 10 fans in my pcs after that.

anyhow, if u have a Fry's Electronics near ya, they always have smoking deals on proc / mobo combos

**lionskin** · March 05, 2007, 03:31 PM

Thanks a lot for your help guys, i will troubleshoot more when i get home from work. The computer is a Dell, i thought they are very tough

**Doono** · March 05, 2007, 03:18 PM

Remove the graphics card and try rebooting the computer, if it starts up you know the card has failed. Normaly though the motherboard would issue a number of beeps depending on what component has failed so there is quite a high chance the mobo has fried.

**Doono** · March 05, 2007, 03:37 PM

Dell uses the cheapest components they can to keep costs low, never waste money on a dell unless your only goign to use it for office work. If your still under warrenty you should just get them to repalce it and if you open the case whiel under warrenty you will probably void it so be carefull.

**Kaprikorn** · March 05, 2007, 06:12 PM

Originally Posted by lionskin

I was Playing MTW2 yesterday, and while in battle mode, The screen went blank, and the hard drive light stayed on. So i turned off the computer, and put it back on again, but nothing, doesn't even go into bios, everything turns on though, except the screen (remains blank).

Could my CPU have fried, or even my graphic card.

Any insight on this problem would be great.

Thanks

LionSkin.

I had this problem twice over the last couple days, the 2nd time was an intentional reproduction. It happened to me after uninstalling the Regions&Provinces mod with the included uninstall file. Somehow, that uninstall file completely fried my M2 installation, including the same problem of the hdd light being on non-stop and becoming unresponsive. It began very suddenly after I did this and I'd never had the problem before. 75% of the time I could boot w/o the odd hdd freakout. When I did, I immediately went in and uninstalled M2tw, then went manually in to delete the m2 folder (it leaves some stuff behind). Done, now just reinstall and patch. I don't know why or how, but it affected my hdd light just like yours and I even hung on bios screen sometimes before I figured it out. Haven't had a problem since, except when I reproduced the error. Also, it seemed to have no effect whether I was running M2 or not, at least sometimes. Very odd oddity.