Computer not booting

[Tirrock]

My computer crashed and now instead of booting to windows I just see a black screen. No errors, no sounds other than the post beep. It isn't the monitor, since it still works for other computers, and I can see everything normally up until it attempts to load windows.

I don't have any objections to reinstalling windows, I back-up regularly, but I can't even reinstall. CD is the first boot device and when I try to boot from my winxp pro disk I'm greeted by the same black screen.

I consulted my mobo manual (abit ip35 pro) and it told me to reset CMOS and try again. I did that but the black screen came back after the normal boot sequence. I even tried another hdd that I had laying around and I couldn't get it to go to the windows install screen.

So, I'm thinking I'm screwed and need a new motherboard. This isn't the first time this computer has unexpectedly crashed to the point where I couldn't boot windows, but this is the first time that I couldn't reinstall windows. Anything I might have missed?

I don't want to have to get a new motherboard, but I was kind of hoping to use this computer for at least another 6 months.

[Ratatapa]

By seeing attenting to boot windows

do you mean that screen goes black between the windows loading screen and login screen or before the loading screen?

and windows XP or vista?

[Pikarya]

My computer crashed and now instead of booting to windows I just see a black screen. No errors, no sounds other than the post beep. It isn't the monitor, since it still works for other computers, and I can see everything normally up until it attempts to load windows.

I don't have any objections to reinstalling windows, I back-up regularly, but I can't even reinstall. CD is the first boot device and when I try to boot from my winxp pro disk I'm greeted by the same black screen.

I consulted my mobo manual (abit ip35 pro) and it told me to reset CMOS and try again. I did that but the black screen came back after the normal boot sequence. I even tried another hdd that I had laying around and I couldn't get it to go to the windows install screen.

So, I'm thinking I'm screwed and need a new motherboard. This isn't the first time this computer has unexpectedly crashed to the point where I couldn't boot windows, but this is the first time that I couldn't reinstall windows. Anything I might have missed?

I don't want to have to get a new motherboard, but I was kind of hoping to use this computer for at least another 6 months.

Oh Abit. How you used to be the first love in my life.

I guess to start off, does this model have on-board video (Some earlier gen IP35's had them). IF so, are you currently using it as your main source of Video output?

If not, what videocard brand, type, etc. are you using?

Have you tried using another Videocard in the same slot to test if its a faulty card and not the actual motherboard?

[Tirrock]

By seeing attenting to boot windows

do you mean that screen goes black between the windows loading screen and login screen or before the loading screen?

and windows XP or vista?

Sorry if any of that came out weird, I typed that on my phone. Autocorrect on it can be stupid. Now I'm on a laptop, not much better to me for typing.

It turns on, I hear the normal beep and the usual text flies past the screen. I can enter bios and change settings like normal, but if I let it continue then I just see black.

Also, WinXP pro. Disk is service pack 3, but I probably have a SP2 around somewhere too.

Oh Abit. How you used to be the first love in my life.

I guess to start off, does this model have on-board video (Some earlier gen IP35's had them). IF so, are you currently using it as your main source of Video output?

If not, what videocard brand, type, etc. are you using?

Have you tried using another Videocard in the same slot to test if its a faulty card and not the actual motherboard?

It does not have on-board video. I'm using XFX geforce 8800 GTS 320MB. I have no other video cards that would fit there. (The only video cards I have are old AGP cards.) I'm not sure if it is the video card though. I'm greeted by Lenord Nimoy saying weird things whenever windows boots. (Sound clips from civilization 4.) My computer doesn't make me pick an account to log on to when I reboot, as far as I remember. So I would have expected to hear something after waiting for it to load. Instead I just see black.

As a sidenote; I've had this computer for over 2 years and hadn't had any issues with it until a few months ago when it decided to just crash and refuse to load windows. At least then it gave me an error and I could reinstall windows by just popping in the windows install disc. The old error:
http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v2.../iphone009.jpg

This time I was mid-install of new firmware for my keyboard and mouse when it crashed. I forgot to mention that I can't get that keyboard to even pop up the bios screen, it just won't work for whatever reason. It works on other computers just fine though. (Weird thing to test, it's a first gen G15, I would have been annoyed if it somehow broke.) Edit: I've been using a spare $5 keyboard that I got for typing on the xbox 360 to enter bios and such.

[Tirrock]

Well, this was an odd fix. I needed a PS/2 keyboard to be able to reinstall for whatever reason. It wouldn't recognize the USB keyboards. I thinking it was trying to boot from the CD when it was actually just timing out because it wasn't seeing any button presses when it said "press any key".

Thankfully I had an old keyboard in storage.

Is not recognizing USB devices before windows loads normal and I just missed something obvious? Or is this just an abit thing? I was wondering why they bothered to have those legacy ports on the motherboard. ._. Given the troubles I've had with it, I'm unsure if I'll go with an abit motherboard on my next build. Any motherboard company that's pretty good now that isn't asus or gigabyte (the other two companies I considered before picking abit)?

[Olo401]

Just wondering.. what's your PSU and video card specs?

[Tirrock]

PSU: Newegg.com - OCZ GameXStream OCZ600GXSSLI 600W ATX12V SLI Certified CrossFire Ready Active PFC Power Supply - Power Supplies
OCZ 600W

Video card: Newegg.com - XFX PVT80GGHD4 GeForce 8800GTS 320MB 320-bit GDDR3 PCI Express x16 HDCP Ready SLI Supported Video Card - Desktop Graphics / Video Cards
XFX 8800 GTS 320MB

No overclocking as I haven't played a game I couldn't play on a high enough graphics that I could be assed to do it. I'd probably go with a different PSU if I had realized that the cables on it were so huge. I have a huge wad of bundled extra cable sitting where floppy drives go on the case. :/ Heat hasn't been an issue except for a week when the A/C broke, it never got into the temperatures where it'd warn me, but I could hear my fans kick into high.

[Olo401]

Ah ok.. in that case we can rule out insufficient power.