Thaw out time...

[A. Crow]

so my desktop has been in storage since... February.  I pull the thing out, since i'm going to take it to my next post with me, hook it up to as little shit as possible and wonder what's going to go wrong.  So, it's starting up and nothing is happening now, no post beeps no nothing, it's just there, spinning fans, the hard drive works a tiny bit when it first powers on, then sits there.  No video signal is reaching my monitor, it just goes into standby.  I've already reseated the video card once, it was rather dusty in there and the slot seems... loose (LIKE YOUR MOM! AHAHAHHHAAH) eh, hum, sorry -.- 

Any ideas?

[Neonie]

replug your ram in?

[Geoff]

I'd say reseat everything, clean the contacts, dust everything out, and pray.
















Hek?

[A. Crow]

yeah, i'm giving it some warm up time, then I'm going to reseat everything. 

[KarthXLR]

Let the paint dry

from my experience of thawing out items, you'll want to turn it on, even if it doesn't respond. It will still be generating heat. (That is, of course, if it will even turn on at all)


But what do I know.

[A. Crow]

anyone ever heard of a cmos battery dying while sitting on a table for months?  HeK, i'm looking at you...

[CaffeinePowered]

anyone ever heard of a cmos battery dying while sitting on a table for months?   HeK, i'm looking at you...

It could, but that would have to be a really really old motherboard and you can replace that battery. Usually those batteries are designed to last 10+ years and even if it dies you should still get some kind of boot up message.

[Mission Difficult]

Even if the cmos battery died, your computer should still boot. Check to make sure it didn't leak.

[A. Crow]

nah, no popped batteries or capacitors.  I'm going to try the other pci-e slot here in a minute.

yeah, it's the pci-e slot.  not sure why exactly.

Funny enough, damn thing will work, if the box is on it's side.

[HeK]

Yeah, the CR2025 coin-cell batteries usually last 8-10 years, but I have seen them die in months. They are cheap and cheaply made.
While you can pass POST without a CMOS battery, you loose all your settings, including cpu/ram settings, boot order, etc.

But as Jeff noted, reseat everything short of the CPU.

Also make sure you don't have a loose screw that shifted around while moving.
Two things I've seen at lan parties: loose screws and shifted PCI cards.

[A. Crow]

so yeah, i had the case open and was setting it down on it's side and putting it back up to see if I could see wtf was shifting around in there, the answer: Nothing! But now either my video card or motherboard is toast. 

[cbre88x]

Let the paint dry

haha. that experience pissed me off because now I have an unused PSU under my bed.

[Didzo]

Smack it.

[A. Crow]

After plugging my video card into a friends rig, its the motherboard.  Well,  I guess I can continue to use the crappy lappy. 

[SBCrystal]

After plugging my video card into a friends rig, its the motherboard.   Well,  I guess I can continue to use the crappy lappy. 

If it makes you feel any better, my mum says hi.

[A. Crow]

Well, your mum is a delightful woman, it has brighten my day to hear that.  Please tell her hi for me.

[SBCrystal]