HP COMPAQ with no image to monitor..Help ?

Dunlaffin

I've just been given a HP Compaq Micro tower because my boss knows nothing about computers and because no image was being displayed on the monitor he just wanted rid of it. So I tested the monitor and it worked on a different PC , then removed the offending PC. Now I'm wondering could I possibly salvage it for myself as back up or for kiddies or something. It turns on it beeps , whirs etc but just no image appears
Any pointer would be greatly appreciated. I know this is kindergarten stuff, but if you had a spare minute...Please ?

Procrastastudy

More than happy to help but this could be a number of things - any idea on specs?

Firstly ope it up and make sure everything is seated correctly. Just give everything a wiggle!

If there is one remove the GPU card and reinsert it. If you can take some pics and post them here for us to have a look and see if anything jumps out.

Here's a video about building PCs - it should give you some idea of what everything in the machine does and what needs wiggling!

Dunlaffin

Thanks Procrastastudy, I'll watch that video. I'll get some photos up shortly , charging up the cam. Something tells me that it might have an integrated video card, I read it somewhere yesterday and there just seems to be so little inside by way of cards. I read somewhere that faulty RAM modules can cause it, so I tried removing each of them but no joy.

Dunlaffin

inside and out

number66

Just a stab in the dark, but if the computer is beeping when you turn it on there is likley a hardware fault.

http://www.computerhope.com/beep.htm

Try identify the beep code

Procrastastudy

Is that the GPU? Does the monitor plug into it?

XPOT4

looks like you have no ram (memory) .

Procrastastudy

Pretty sure they're in the black slots unless they are just spacers.

ED E

Look at the cooler on it GCD, its gotta be some old ATI card.

OP(Dunlaffin that you) as GCD said, pop this out and reseat it.

Also, when it boots count the beeps. If its just one thats normal on some machines, if its more, it could be a POST code(tells you wtf is going wrong).

XPOT4

Your right Procrastastudy just zoomed in on photo.

number66

And one more thing, looking at the ram it is normal for ram to be placed in the ram slots in sequence, you start at slot one and work up, skipping slots can cause problems. looks to me like you got an empty slot. Ram can be tricky to install. be carefull not to push too hard on the ram as you can crack the motherboard, you should push gently down untill the white tabs start to move into position, then push the white tabs together while keeping gental downward pressure on the ram. the white tabs should click into place on the side of the ram.
One more thing, when handling ram don't touch the pins and try earth youself before handling the ram by touching something that is earthed.

Schorpio

If everything is present and correct I would try resetting the BIOS to the defaults by removing the motherboard battery for a few minutes and reinserting it.

Procrastastudy

number66 wrote: »

And one more thing, looking at the ram it is normal for ram to be placed in the ram slots in sequence, you start at slot one and work up, skipping slots can cause problems. looks to me like you got an empty slot. Ram can be tricky to install. be carefull not to push too hard on the ram as you can crack the motherboard, you should push gently down untill the white tabs start to move into position, then push the white tabs together while keeping gental downward pressure on the ram. the white tabs should click into place on the side of the ram.
One more thing, when handling ram don't touch the pins and try earth youself before handling the ram by touching something that is earthed.

Dual channel RAM is installed as per the photos - has been for a number of years.

Dunlaffin

XPOT4 wrote: »

looks like you have no ram (memory) .

There are two sticks of RAM, Im pretty sure. I took them out yesterday and put them back in. Before I took them out I'm pretty sure there was a beep when i booted it up, but now it doesnt beep at all, yet I put them back in the same slots I took them from, There are 4 slots, two blue and two black , they are in the black ones, the blue ones are empty.

Dunlaffin

There is a blue "port" at the back where the monitor plugs in it seem to connect directly into the Mother Board.

ED E

Dunlaffin wrote: »

There is a blue "port" at the back where the monitor plugs in it seem to connect directly into the Mother Board.

Ok, thats integrated graphics. Try remove the card Procrastastudy highlighted above, then booting.
(You were connecting to the integrated chip but it was be bypassed by the dedicated card).


If this doesnt work, please post a picture of the rear of the machine.

Dunlaffin

Procrastastudy wrote: »

Is that the GPU? Does the monitor plug into it?

Whilst there is a white plug in that card that i think some kind of adapter can be fitted to in order to connect the monitor , the actual monitor port is furhter down and connects into the mother board.

Dunlaffin

The back of the computer.

The white port connect into that card the other ones below connect directly to the mother Board.

Dunlaffin

number66

Are there two ports that the monitor can connect to at the back of the computer? Never mind, just saw the picture. is that card a graphics card/HDMI or a firewire card?

ED E

Yep, remove the card with the white connector and you're golden!


The red card is "better" though so you should get a DVI-D to VGA adapter so you can use it, but for now, just remove the card.

number66

Anyway, remove that card, try use the motherboard's video.

Procrastastudy

It's 2 Display ports and a DVI - take that out and it should boot attached to the blue socket - as ED E says get an adapter and use that care if pos.

Post a pic of it so we can see what it is please?

Dunlaffin

OK guys I removed that card you indicated, and hey presto I have vision...but.... i get the set up menu .. press F10 for this F11 for that, so i did nothing and it went on after a minute to say :

PXE-EG1 Media test failure
PXE-MOF Exiting PXE ROM.

Reboot and Select proper Boot Device or Insert Boot Media in Slected Boot Device and Pres Key.

Dunlaffin

Procrastastudy wrote: »

It's 2 Display ports and a DVI - take that out and it should boot attached to the blue socket - as ED E says get an adapter and use that care if pos.

Post a pic of it so we can see what it is please?

I dont understand , so far i thought i understood that the reason it wasnt working was becasue the Card was overriding the integrated video and because the card was faulty i had nothing on screen. So it it is faulty, how can i use it ?

Procrastastudy

The card isn't faulty - it switches off the integrated video that is output to the blue (VGA) connector. If you could connect the monitor to the white (DVI) connector it would have worked from the beginning.

Procrastastudy

Dunlaffin wrote: »

OK guys I removed that card you indicated, and hey presto I have vision...but.... i get the set up menu .. press F10 for this F11 for that, so i did nothing and it went on after a minute to say :

PXE-EG1 Media test failure
PXE-MOF Exiting PXE ROM.

Reboot and Select proper Boot Device or Insert Boot Media in Slected Boot Device and Pres Key.

This sounds like the Hard Drive isn't set up to boot - you'll need to so some messing about in the BIOS to get it to see the HDD - wait and see if anyone else knows what this is on Compaqs - not something I've seen personally.

Dunlaffin

Procrastastudy wrote: »

The card isn't faulty - it switches off the integrated video that is output to the blue (VGA) connector. If you could connect the monitor to the white (DVI) connector it would have worked from the beginning.

Well no I'm not so sure because it was connected to the white port through an adapter when I tested it in the office, then I took off the adapter and tested it and neither worked. The guy who was using that comp before me had it rigged with an elastic band because the actual adapter was loose, but I wiggled it and pushed it and got no picture either way, blue or white port.

Procrastastudy

Its possible it is faulty and still over riding the integrated GPU - or that the DVI port is banjaxed. If you're not sure just don't use it again.

Dunlaffin

Procrastastudy wrote: »

Its possible it is faulty and still over riding the integrated GPU - or that the DVI port is banjaxed. If you're not sure just don't use it again.

Okay , Thanks so much I hope someone can get me the rest of the way. Heres a photo of the card I removed. Thanks again.

Dunlaffin

number66

Try pressing "Delete" or F2 a few time just after you turn the machine on, should get you to the BIOS menu, also look at the screen to see if it recomends the key you need to press. This would probably go faster if you give as much info as you can when you get stuck. saying " press F10 for this F11 for that" does not give us much to work with

Dunlaffin

I just did a diagnostics check on it in the set up menu and it says the Cpu is Fine , the memory is fine than it says that the Boot path was not detected and to check that all drive cable are securely connected... ?

number66

well, not knowing the BIOS that that computer uses It's hard to make suggestions, maybe taking a picture of the menus would make it easier if you are up to that. You should be able to find a menu item that will show/search for connected HDD's, also there should be somewhere to set the Boot Device/Boot Order.
If this is a work computer did they wipe the HDD before giveing it to you ?

Dunlaffin

number66 wrote: »

well, not knowing the BIOS that that computer uses It's hard to make suggestions, maybe taking a picture of the menus would make it easier if you are up to that. You should be able to find a menu item that will show/search for connected HDD's, also there should be somewhere to set the Boot Device/Boot Order.
If this is a work computer did they wipe the HDD before giveing it to you ?

No its a rural small office. The boss doesnt know which end of a computer the pictures come out. Wiping a computer for him would involve a teatowel. No chance !

I went through the menus , there is very little options in them, just to selct a drive to boot from there are four drives listed and 3 are blank and the other has a name and numbers after it , so I set it to that one and saved. but it went straigh to the error message i posted earlier.
Mind you when I pulled out the vidoe card there was a kind of sucky pop noise , but there are no sucky type connectors (scuze the technical lingo) on the VC, could I have pulled a cable off something important by accident ?

number66

That drive could well be the DVD/CD drive, I assume there is one. Have a look at the HDD in the PC box and check the wires are secure, one should be a power supply and one a data bus. check to see if they are securly in their sockets at both ends.

Dunlaffin

No I cant see any loose cable, although there are a couple of unconnected cables but I presume they are for adding something. Ill go through the menus and look for anything significant and post a pic.

Procrastastudy

maybe post pics of the unplugged cables.

number66

And give the name of the drive the BIOS can see, It might not be the DVD drive.

Dunlaffin

Procrastastudy wrote: »

You can see the unplugged cables here. Those white connectors , they are numbered P4,P5,P6, and then there is a black one. I cant possibly see where they might be supposed to go.

Dunlaffin

Thanks for the help Folks, I'll take photos of the menus tomorrow. I really appreciate the time you are taking. Regards.

Dunlaffin

Hi folks , Happy Weekend !


Here is an overview of the error message / Menus i have , there are possibly others , but these seem to be the relevant ones.

Dunlaffin

and a couple more.

Schorpio

What's happening is the PC is checking each of the four boot devices in order to find something to boot (like an operating system or bootdisk etc). There is no floppy drive or hard drive connected which means it's trying to boot from your DVD drive first before then trying to boot over the network. Failing to boot from the DVD doesn't yield any on screen errors because it's generally only once in a blue moon that the user actually wants to boot from it. The three lines starting with "From Realtek...." onwards is the PC's attempt to boot from the network, but you obviously don't have a network cable plugged in and even if you did, I doubt you have that set up on your network. So that fails too and the last few lines are the PC complaining that it couldn't find anything to boot.

I remember seeing a hard drive in the earlier photos. Has that been disconnected? It would seem that it probably has. If so, reconnect it and if there is an operating system on the disk (Windows etc.) then the PC should boot!

ED E

Check these two, and the smaller ones connection to the motherboard.

Dunlaffin

Okay , both of those cables are rock solid connected , without a doubt. Smaller one is certainly properly connected at MB also.

Dunlaffin

Schorpio wrote: »

I remember seeing a hard drive in the earlier photos. Has that been disconnected? It would seem that it probably has. If so, reconnect it and if there is an operating system on the disk (Windows etc.) then the PC should boot!

To the best of my knowledge this computer went from working fine to , no image on screen it would have had windows and other programs on it. There used to be an interent connection in the office and perhaps the guy who was on this computer (gone now) dowmloaded some atrocious virus that did untold damage , and told noone, for obvious reasons , I'm purely speculating here... as I said it should be fully loaded and operational with Windows and other work-related software.

Dunlaffin

There is one thing that keeps coming to mind that may give a clue. When I first opened the PC before, I disconnected the RAM, it was not possible to turn off the computer by simply pushing the button On/off. as you can imagine in a properly functioning PC, when you push the on / off button it asks you to verify do you want to shut down, but as there was no image, I can only presume this was the scenario.
But after tinkering with the RAM it was possible to turn off the computer with a push of the button. Like the difference between, it was primarliy able to load and enter windows successfully(although I dont know , cos I couldnt see it) and now it cant boot up and reach windows at all.

So I wonder, in removing the RAM did I do some damage or wipe a critical peice of info that made the difference between being able to fully boot and now not knowing where to boot from?

number66

Have you got the HDD working? A image of that screen that lists the available drives would be useful. Also are you open to using OS's other than windows? Can you burn a CD? Do you have a pendrive that you can wipe and use?

Dunlaffin

Is this not the list of the available drives ? If it is, then it seems to be telling me that it cant see the HDD. Cant burn a CD on this PC and I am afraid I don't know what a pendrive is.

Procrastastudy

The HDD has become disconnected or is banjaxed - can you take some photos of it?

Try making sure the power and data cables are connected both ends.