Anyone any ideas for this one?

RedXIV

Hi guys,

ok, this one is definitely the weirdest issue I've ever had.

My girlfriend's dad gave me two computers from his house, he tried to take the DVD drive from computer 1 and put it in computer 2. And here's where everything went wrong. Now he's not the worst out there but he's no electrical engineer either. When he turned on computer 2, the computer turned on, the LED's at the front came on but no signal went to the monitor. At this stage it was handed over to me with the request to:

• take harddrive from computer 1 and put it in computer 2
• fix the signal problem
• get the dvd drive from computer 1 to computer 2

Now i've tried every combination of hardrives, dvd drives, RAM (I gave him 1GB stick to try in computer 1, he never checked if it worked) and even stripped down to motherboards only to try and get signal out of EITHER computer. Thats right, BOTH have lost the ability to output a signal. I know it's not the monitor because my computer is working fine with it.

I've listened for system beeps, nothing there, when i turn on the computers, the keyboard and mouse get no juice, the computers turn on but they just don't do anything. I'm lost guys, any ideas?

Cheers!

Solitaire

Did you try switching the power and VGA cable as well? Those can bail on you too!

If you've tried with a known-good set of power and video leads, try doing the minimum boot routine (mobo, CPU, one DIMM, video card if no onboard VGA, no drives or other cards or bits at all) and rebuild step-by-step from there. Before you try powering up again clear the CMOS on each machine by removing the battery (and pressing the button or changing jumper if applicable) for a minute before trying to power up the machines again.

majiktripp

Is it possible that the father initially in his effort to swap the DVD drive inadvertantly killed both pc's?
I would try and revert both machines to their original specification and configuration, and focus on one at a time. Start with asking the father did either machine work before giving them to you!

RedXIV

Solitaire wrote: »

Did you try switching the power and VGA cable as well? Those can bail on you too!

If you've tried with a known-good set of power and video leads, try doing the minimum boot routine (mobo, CPU, one DIMM, video card if no onboard VGA, no drives or other cards or bits at all) and rebuild step-by-step from there. Before you try powering up again clear the CMOS on each machine by removing the battery (and pressing the button or changing jumper if applicable) for a minute before trying to power up the machines again.

Have tried most of that, including the CMOS clearance. still nothing

majiktripp wrote: »

Is it possible that the father initially in his effort to swap the DVD drive inadvertantly killed both pc's?
I would try and revert both machines to their original specification and configuration, and focus on one at a time. Start with asking the father did either machine work before giving them to you!

It's possible but is it likely that he's caused the exact same fault in two PC's without realising it? one PC I would have believed but two?

I tried original spec and got nothing from either. Have no idea how to get any visual feed from the machines

Think it might be time to write them off...

Solitaire

He most likely fried both mobos with ESD when fiddling with the drive cables

RedXIV

Solitaire wrote: »

He most likely fried both mobos with ESD when fiddling with the drive cables

Thats what I was thinking I was just hoping maybe I had missed something stupid

Thanks anyway guys! appreciate the input!

poggy

try one of hte systems with a bad config ie no ram or gfx or cpu and see if it responds this a warning, if it doesnt the board is probally fried if it does there is some hope.

try to boot the machine out of the case he may have shorted the mobo to the case worth a try