Maybe the powersupply??

This may be a hard one as not much to go on. I was in the process of replacing ram in a friends computer. When done there was no boot and no video out. At about the same time I noticed the fan on the PS was not running. My initial though was that I had loosened something in seating the ram but after swapping all the memory cards no change. I even put in another video card, no change. I am pretty sure either the PS has something to do with it or the board just gave up the ghost when I seated the ram. I am open to any and all suggestions to pinpoint the fault.

Aye, it may be that or the m/b "coincidence", so let's try this first:
put the old ram which obviously worked back in the pc and remove all peripheral hardware except for the video card and try to boot up again. Tell us what happens.
If it still doesn't boot up, do you have or can you find another power supply, even temporarily, to try on the pc. Also, look at the capacitors on the m/b and see if any have "blown", with swollen tops.

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Originally Posted by TripleRLtd

Aye, it may be that or the m/b "coincidence", so let's try this first:
put the old ram which obviously worked back in the pc and remove all peripheral hardware except for the video card and try to boot up again. Tell us what happens.
If it still doesn't boot up, do you have or can you find another power supply, even temporarily, to try on the pc. Also, look at the capacitors on the m/b and see if any have "blown", with swollen tops.

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I did try reinstalling the old ram in all slots and no success but not without the peripherals. I did verify that the ram was still good by checking it in another computer. Will let you know after I try booting without any peripherals. I will try the recommendations you made as soon as I can get the computer back in hand. I have a question however, regarding the power suppy. I do in fact have a reasonably large supply of them. But are they standard IE. do the plugs fit all or at least most standard boards?

Usually, but not always. There are AT and ATX with varying wattages. Some pc makers are or used to be proprietary. Look at the connections on the m/b to make sure. And, even it it doesn't fit in the case, if it does work with the m/b (the connections are correct), it is one way to troubleshoot the PSU.
So, just to be sure, what pc model are you talking about?

I will get the ID on the motherboard as soon as I get hands on the puter again. One other thing occurred to me after thinking on this. My friend said that at some time during this whole process he had reseated the battery for the Cmos. I did get a blue screen of death (unfortunatly I did not copy it down) but I do remember that it said something about AGI or AGP not being supported. Is it possible that somehow the CMOS got corrupted and needs to be reflashed? Is there any easy test to see if CMOS is at least basicly working?

Geesh, you really need to be at that pc. Now it sounds as if the bios was reset to default settings. We won't know until you look at it again. First off, you need to get it working again, obviously. When it boots, go into bios and set everything properly, and then reboot and see if you still get the bsod. And now, we'll need to know the OS as well.

LOL yes if I Had video I would be far ahead.It is a gateway performance 800 running win 2K. I asked my friend to remove the batter to the CMOS to reset it at least that will give us a piece of info. I am not too concerned once we get to the point that we can look at bios and the system setup. I have downloaded the update bios and can run that if it appears that is a necessary step. Keep the questions comiing. I really need them on this one.

That's the thing. With win2k, if certain settings are wrong, or set to bios default, win2k will not load properly since the settings changed. Therefore: bsod. Was the bsod something to do ACPI? If so, that would explain it.

Think you may have gone over my head. BSOD? I am not familiar with the term and I am not sure how to get into the bios without any video. As I said I am at this point trying to reset the bios to get to a start point with video. If it was just w2k not reloading I could fix the problem quickly but this no video and limited funtionality at the basic level that I am having a probllem getting by. Any recommendation?

Sorry: Blue screen of death.

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Originally Posted by TripleRLtd

Sorry: Blue screen of death.

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Oh yes I( do recognize that one and believe it or not at this point I would welcome it. I am getting nothing at all into the monitor. The yellow light on the front never changes. I did verify the monitor is good so at this point I am seriously looking at bios and P.S. thaseems to me best path.

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Originally Posted by robertdwhite

Oh yes I( do recognize that one and believe it or not at this point I would welcome it. I am getting nothing at all into the monitor. The yellow light on the front never changes. I did verify the monitor is good so at this point I am seriously looking at bios and P.S. thaseems to me best path.

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First of all, try using a different Power Supply. If the fan in the one you are using now isn't functional, the PSU could well be cooked. Leave the drives disconnected until you can get a display, and then go into your BIOS settings, and make sure they are correct. Make sure ACPI is enabled, especially for Win2K, or you will still have power related issues.

Make sure the battery is in the board before you try to boot. Also, see if there is a Clear CMOS jumper on the board. You may wish to do that. But go all the way back to basics until you can get a display.

And keep us advised so that we may help you further.

Thanks tekboy that is exactly my plan now. I spoke with the Gateway techs today and they said there is no normal condition that that fan would not be running when powert is on. I don't know how long the fan has not been running so I expect the PS is toast. I will let you know soon as I get a test with the new PS.

Any further news?

Tried all of the above. I now get three distinct beeps from the post no other positive indication. The only thing that is confusing me to the point of not saying both the PS and board are both bad at this point is the fact that the new PS does not have ACIP capability. I could not connect the leads from the Intel fedora board up. Could that be a problem or would it still give me video if the board was not toast?

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Originally Posted by robertdwhite

Tried all of the above. I now get three distinct beeps from the post no other positive indication. The only thing that is confusing me to the point of not saying both the PS and board are both bad at this point is the fact that the new PS does not have ACIP capability. I could not connect the leads from the Intel fedora board up. Could that be a problem or would it still give me video if the board was not toast?

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I am unclear here. If the board has the slot for it, but the PS has no dongle for it, then the board will not power up properly. You need a more modern PS in that event.

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Originally Posted by Tekboy

I am unclear here. If the board has the slot for it, but the PS has no dongle for it, then the board will not power up properly. You need a more modern PS in that event.

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APM Fan Connector


A keyed, 3-pin connector from the power supply connects here and allows the computer software to control the fan, turning it on or off, thus overriding the power connector. If SCSI devices are detected in the computer, the fan remains on.

This is the connector which is not provided in the alternate power supply. I do not think it is age of the PS as much as possibly something proprietary to Gateway. As the fan was not running on the original pS I was not able to tell if the connection was normally closaed or opened or sensed. That is what I was wondering if anyone knew here.