Some sort of hardware error

[Demosthenes11]

So I was playing a game and it froze, so I had to coldboot. I clicked the button and oddly, it shutdown the program and then shutdown, like normal but a little faster (I thought computer froze; couldn't alt tab, screen wasn't changing, etc.)

I went to turn it back on, and it made 3-4 loud beeping noises over a few seconds, then something a little louder than normal inside started making noise, and there is no display. I opened it up to see maybe what was acting up, but I really can't tell - either motherboard or graphics card? How to troubleshoot this, what could it be?

I assume I'll need to buy new shit sigh

[SephYuyX]

The beeps are trying to tell you whats wrong. Google your MB name + post beep codes, so something like Gigabyte Post Beep Codes.
http://www.computerhope.com/beep.htm

[Demosthenes11]

I was just figuring that out and it's a Base 64 K memory failure...
I have 4 sticks each w/ 1 gb on them in there...did they all fail at the same time from the coldboot? or are those sockets fried now

[SephYuyX]

Try reseating the RAM, thats usually the issue, if that doesnt work try different bank / stick configurations.
IE: Go down to 2gb and see if that works.

[Demosthenes11]

tried many different ram combinations, different banks and sticks, nothing. It only does the beeping thing every so often though...

Thinking this is a MB issue?

[SephYuyX]

Welp, now you get to take each stick of ram one by one and go down the banks one by one. Even if the MB is dual channel it should still boot on one. So thatll take 16 tests by itself.

[Demosthenes11]

doesnt work
(thanks for going through this with me)

[SephYuyX]

Ehhh, that really sounds unusual. No reason for shit to break to that extent in this situation.
It may be a BIOS issue, you can try resetting the CMOS by taking the battery out for a few minutes then putting it back in, or if your MB has a reset jumper/switch.

If that doesnt work.. idk, hardware issues are rough if youre not there physically to test the hardware itself. If anything was broken, my money would be on the MB.

[Demosthenes11]

hmmm, something I thought of: my monitor is plugged directly into my video card (mobo doesnt have a port for it). The monitor is acting like there is no input. I remember that when you don't seat RAM correctly and you boot up, there is still a display. Does this make it point more toward the video card? I'm pretty sure there is no onboard graphics card, so maybe the minimum memory that is not being met is the graphic memory?

[chiyio]

Pretty sure you shouldn't get any display without some RAM seated correctly. Need 4 things to post - video, MB, cpu, ram.

Could try reseating your video card, and anything else you have in there for kicks though.

[SephYuyX]

Oh, so youre not even seeing the POST? Just blank screen and just sounds?
Generally in most situations you should be able to see the POST. You can try reseating the vid card, put it in a diff slot, or find a crappy one to borrow to see if that works.

Edit: As said, you need those 4 things, if not, it'll just give you a nice long annoying beep. Actually you can probably get away with no vid card installed, you just cant see shit. I could have sworn I didnt have MB or a CPU in one time I turned on my Gigabyte MB and I saw POST/BIOS, but I may be going insane.

[Demosthenes11]

my display is what it would be if it were only plugged into the wall - like it's not plugged into the CPU at all. I'm not sure what sounds I should be hearing; bios doesn't have any

[Demosthenes11]

so I got a new graphics card today to start the frys buy and return troubleshoot method, and it works. It seems a geforce 8800 gtx died in the first 9 months of use. tarded

thanks for the help

[mootsfox]

FYI, coldboot means that you booted while the power was completely off, generally after the computer has been sitting in the off state for a length of time, so internally it is cold (or rather, room temperature).

[GentaiShinigami]

Did you get the 8800 new? I haven't seen one for sale new in ages, which I wish I could cause I'd like a cheap 2nd 8800 GTS to SLI with the one I've had for years now.

If it wasn't new and bought used then previous owner probably OC'd it poorly or ran it too hot in a shitty case maybe? Get EVGA's with lifetime warranties ftw so even if you OC they will replace (is how my factory superclocked gts is)! :3

[Demosthenes11]

it's my gf's dad's card that he gave me "on loan"...that's gonna be an awkward conversation. I don't think he OCed it and his machines are the most immaculately clean ones on the inside (he works at intel). It was probably just bad luck that it died.

[Demosthenes11]

whelp, wish I didn't have to bump this but...

A few days after installing the new card, my computer started doing the same thing again, which helped me rule out the card. I played with it a lot more that night and discovered that if I did something while powering it on, it would work for me fine. I have a switch in the back of my tower that cuts power to the entire system (different than the boot button on the front, I think most towers have such a switch now). Sometimes, flipping that switch back to on after a complete power shutdown, it would do a quick little turnon (fans would buzz, it would sound like normal but only for a second) and turn off again. Then I could hit the front boot button and the computer would turn on fine, with display and everything. So this worked for me for a little over a month, but now my computer is doing the same old thing as before with no way to fix it. This points to a power supply fail, right? I have a power supply tester that I plug in to my free power wires of my supply, but it says it's working fine. 500W power supply. Don't really want to buy a 650W without knowing it will fix it, especially with all the shitty work involved with putting in a new one.

[Bockage]

If the lights turn on and the fans spin for a second before it powers off, you likely have a problem with your power supply. The malfunctioning power supply may have been what caused your GPU o go bad.

I have a power supply tester that I plug in to my free power wires of my supply, but it says it's working fine.

You need to plug the Power Supply tester into the 24 pin motherboard connector and the 4/8 pin connector when checking out a PSU. These areas are supplied different voltages then the rest of the devices in your system. So using that extra connection you found will not check the voltages going to the motherboard and CPU, giving you an incomplete picture of the PSU's performance.

Also don't flip the on/off switch in the back of the system unless absolutely necessary. Instead, try holding down the power button for about 10 seconds.

[Demosthenes11]

thanks for the help.

when there is no power to the tower, and I flip the back switch to on, it is more or less the only time it does the momentary stutter start. It only does it after I click the front power switch after the back is turned, and then it (at least used to) turns on fine after I hit it once more. I figured maybe that wasn't uncommon lol. whoops

and is there a way of knowing from the hardware if you need more power?

It's a quadcore processor, 4 gigs memory, 460 gtx 1 gig graphics card.

[Bockage]

When I'm planning a new PC build I use something like http://extreme.outervision.com/psucalculatorlite.jsp to calculate the total power the system will be consuming. It should help you figure out if you're asking your PSU to do more then it was made for.