have I killed my computer?

[tr3nt]

Hey guys..

I tried to boot my tower pc up the other day, it got to the (pre windows screen) where it has the motherboard logo, stayed there for way too long, so I rebooted, a couple of times, still did the same thing, so I left it for a few minutes, came back and it had a black screen with two flashing cursors..


any ideas? or I think I just have a shit run with technology these days.

[ephect]

what did you update, install, or change the day before it started doing this? maybe usb drive plugged in thats stopping the boot/causing 'post' issues.

trial: removing all plugged in devices, ie printers, drives, only have keyboard, mouse, screen and power and see if it boots. if so, try adding each device to narrow down which one is causing this.

[tr3nt]

Funnily enough I havent added any devices :\ I've only got LAN, external HDD and I think a webcam plugged in.. However, I'll try ur method, and post back in a minute.

[nathanVY]

Hey bud, if its pre anything loading I'd flash your BIOS.

You'd be surprised how many random errors this has fixed for me (when I used to deal with PCs).
Obviously be VERY careful when touching the mother board etc, make sure all power is disconnected (both the kettle cord into the PSU and the PSU looms on the M/B)

Locate the small battery, its like a watch battery but a bit bigger. This should just be clipped in and come out easily with fingers / flathead screw driver.

Now the reason I said to unplug the PSU to M/B looms AS WELL is because the PSU stores some energy.. and the BIOS won't reset with that plugged in. So now that the battery is out, everything's unplugged. Let it sit for 10-20 minutes then plug it all back in and fire it up.

BIOS should be back to standard settings, SO - I'd recommend opening up the BIOS and have a squiz at every page and writing down the settings just in case anything is different after the reset, that way you can set it back to the way you had it.


Just a thought anyways, try at own risk.

[50LTRv8]

Also, when that logo is up on the screen there may be a prompt to press a button to view the POST test, see if you can do this.

[tr3nt]

Wow.. lol.. not being rude, but yeah, havent done that shit for years!

I had unplugged EVERYthing apart from kb/mouse, and it booted, plugged HDD/Lan back in and its now working again, which makes me kinda hapopy that I didnt fry the internal hdd.

cheers!

[DAKSTER]

Hey bud, if its pre anything loading I'd flash your BIOS.

You'd be surprised how many random errors this has fixed for me (when I used to deal with PCs).
Obviously be VERY careful when touching the mother board etc, make sure all power is disconnected (both the kettle cord into the PSU and the PSU looms on the M/B)

Locate the small battery, its like a watch battery but a bit bigger. This should just be clipped in and come out easily with fingers / flathead screw driver.

Now the reason I said to unplug the PSU to M/B looms AS WELL is because the PSU stores some energy.. and the BIOS won't reset with that plugged in. So now that the battery is out, everything's unplugged. Let it sit for 10-20 minutes then plug it all back in and fire it up.

BIOS should be back to standard settings, SO - I'd recommend opening up the BIOS and have a squiz at every page and writing down the settings just in case anything is different after the reset, that way you can set it back to the way you had it.


Just a thought anyways, try at own risk.

MAJOR difference between clearing CMOS by removing the battery and restoring the Bios to factory settings, which is safe for any mug to do provided they earth themselves properly, and 'Flashing the Bios' which is replacing the firmware for the motherboard and not for beginners lol... Clearing CMOS is a good thing to try, just picking you up on what you are calling it, sorry.

[nathanVY]

MAJOR difference between clearing CMOS by removing the battery and restoring the Bios to factory settings, which is safe for any mug to do provided they earth themselves properly, and 'Flashing the Bios' which is replacing the firmware for the motherboard and not for beginners lol... Clearing CMOS is a good thing to try, just picking you up on what you are calling it, sorry.

True, good work

[Auzziephoenix]

Problem is your external HDD, the mobo detects it as a loadable device but will hang there as there is no OS installed on it, i got the same with a pen drive plugged into mine. when you boot just dont have external media plugged in and it should be fine