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PC often boots with blank screen

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infinisa
Hello All

I have this PC which often boots with a blank screen. This problem has been around on and off ever since the PC was bought (over 2 years ago!). I took it back to the supplier on a number of occasions whilst it was under guarantee. Practically everything has been replaced, most notably the TFT display, the display adapter and (most recently) the motherboard.

After this last repair the machine worked fine for a few months, but now the problem is back again!

I’ve noticed two curious features related to this problem;
- The noise of the fan reduces a few seconds after switching on when the PC starts OK (with the screen working), but not when the screen remains blank.
- When the PC starts up with a blank screen, the PC often emits a series of beeps a few moments after being switched on.

Some Technical details about the PC:
Motherboard: Intel D915GAV
Processor: Intel Pentium 4 540 3.2 GHz, 800MHz, 1MB, Socket 775
Video adapter: Chaintech SE6600 256MB DDR PCI-Express (Chipset NVIDIA GeForce 6600 GT)
OS: MS Windows XP SP2
Monitor: Samsung SyncMaster 710V (TFT Monitor) ()

I would be really grateful for any ideas on how to solve this one.

Thanks!
froginabox
Try booting the PC and count the number of beeps and remember the pattern.


Then go here and find the correct pattern and what it says the pattern means and post it back here, we can give suggestions how to fix it if you need them.
infinisa
Hello froginabox

Thanks very much for the tip & the site.

Will do!
infinisa
Hello froginabox

I tried what you said - I got 1 beep followed by another 8 (I guess that makes 9!).

However, it's an Intel board with an Intel BIOS, which is not covered by the page you mentioned.

The beep information on Intel boards is available at:
http://support.intel.com/support/motherboards/desktop/sb/cs-010249.htm

which tells me:

You are getting 9 beeps indicating ROM checksum error

    If possible, try reseating the System ROM BIOS chip.
    If possible, try reflashing the system ROM BIOS.
    Swap the motherboard.

Doesn't sound so good!

Meanwhile, my computer supplier says to try removing all the cards from the PC (including memory chips), clean the contacts with a common or garden pencil rubber, then put it all back together. Then, if the PC boots OK, I should upgrade the BIOS software.

So that's what I'll try.

Keep your fingers crossed!
froginabox
That is exactly what I would recommend. Keep all your PCI cards out and clean the memory contacts.
Good luck!
BrianElliott0218
infinisa wrote:
Hello All

I have this PC which often boots with a blank screen. This problem has been around on and off ever since the PC was bought (over 2 years ago!). I took it back to the supplier on a number of occasions whilst it was under guarantee. Practically everything has been replaced, most notably the TFT display, the display adapter and (most recently) the motherboard.


And here's the easy fix (since you long ago fixed that machine anyway...):
Go get the Boot Windows CD ISO and burn it to a disk. Then put it in your machine that won't boot. No more issue. Although, you may need to use the CD to boot from time to time...

Here's the site to fix just about every WinXP boot issue:
ntldrismissing.com (it'll bring you to the main site which is tinyempire.com). He has a boot disk for every situation, and the boot ISO disk really is a useful fix for non- booting PCs.

Best of luck (though again, I'm very late responding to your original note).
~BE
infinisa
Hello BrianElliott0218

Thanks for your 8th April post. And no, it's not too late. This problem has been around for 2½ years, and doesn't look like it's about to go away any time soon!

What I can tell you though is that it's definitely a hardware, not a software, problem. In fact when the boot fails, the system often emits a sequence of 9 beeps (one followed by an interval and then eight more). According to Intel's site, this means:

Quote:
You are getting 9 beeps indicating ROM checksum error

* If possible, try reseating the System ROM BIOS chip.
* If possible, try reflashing the system ROM BIOS.
* Swap the motherboard.


This is an intermittent error, but as it refuses to go away, I suspect that I shall have to do the "Swap the motherboard" thing in the end!
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