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PC Hangs Up

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by dgore

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I turned on the power switch on my Compaq desktop PC, and my monitor goes right to the amber color and I get no video. I've switched out monitors, but same result. I tried a different hard drive and same result. Monitor works fine on another computer so I know the monitor is OK. I disconnected all devices...CDROM, Floppy, etc.. to where only the hard drive was on, and that didn't do anything. Anyone have any ideas?

10 replies

by jennifer.gardner

Turn the computer on again, and pay close attention to what your CPU is doing. Do you get the "beep" that you normally hear during boot? Does the keyboard initialize? It could be that the boot sequence isn't getting to the part where the monitor is initialized. This has happened to me twice. The first time, the Processor was not properly seated (after replacing the CPU fan). The second, the motherboard was fried.

by abailey101

You did not say how old your system was or what model. Some Motherboards have the video built right into the board while others use the AGP or PCI expansion slots. If your video is built into your Motherboard you should be able to go to compaq's site and find out how to disable it so you may add a new video card. In an AGP or PC slot

by kdkoch

Are you getting any beeps when you turn on the system? You may have a bad video card. If you are getting 3 beeps in a row the you know that your problem is in the video card. If you are not getting those beeps then it is time to have your motherboard and cpu checked.

ken

by dgore

I hear no beeps when I turn the system on. I also don't get any lights on the keyboard such as Caps Lock, Num Lock.. So it's not initializing the keyboard. The model of the Compaq is MV540.

by dgore

The fan sounds like it is spinning up when I turn it on. It can't be the hard drive because I've tried a different one, and it does the same thing. I've also tried reseating all connectors to the motherboard, including the power supply. The processor is on the motherboard, so it's not removable. I haven't been able to find a way to disable the on-board video, which I would like to so I could try a PCI or AGP video card.

by kdkoch

The MV540 is just the monitor. What is the brand and model of the PC. Also for disabling the onboard video some systems had manual jumper settings. If your system does not then you will have to locate the settings in the bios.

by dgore

Does anyone know how to set the jumpers to disable the on-board video?

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