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If the PC is not operating at all, follow these steps.
This assumes some basic knowledge, such as always powering off the system before removing or inserting cards or components.
Procedure:
Remove all I/O cards, video card, network card (if applicable), disconnect hard drive, floppy drive, and remove RAM, leaving just the power supply, motherboard, and speaker. Turn on the PC. You should hear prolonged deep beeps (approx 2 seconds each). If this is heard, the basic motherboard functions are there. If not, there is a problem with either the motherboard or power supply. Is the green power LED on? If not, the power supply is probably dead. If yes, it is probably the motherboard.
Next, insert the memory. If the memory is inserted correctly, and power is applied, you should now hear one long beep, followed by several short beeps (depending on the BIOS, this can be between two and five short beeps ). If yes, then the motherboard and memory are working.
Next, insert the video card, connect the monitor, and power up. You should now see the BIOS memory self-test on power up. If not, then the video card may be faulty. If yes, then power down, and connect the hard drive and floppy drive.
Power on, and test for operation. If all is OK, then power down and connect the other cards or peripheral devices, one at a time.
Although the above is not exhaustive, in over 90% of cases the simple fault finding above will lead you to the source of the problem.
Important Note:
It is always a good idea to note your CMOS settings, especially the hard drive settings. One common problem that comes up these days is that a user had a hard drive formatted with one set of parameters, and either the PC loses its CMOS settings or the drive is installed in another PC. If the same settings are not set, you will not be able to boot. If you are unlucky, after trying, you may actually completely corrupt the hard drive. This is because in the old days, the system used sector translation to overcome DOS and CMOS limitations. Often there were several values that could give the same virtual parameters for heads, sectors and cylinders. If a different set of values is now used , you will not be able to see the hard drive.
Robert Gareb>
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