I was absent from home and a window got opened in the room where my desktop is.
The temperature went down between 0°C and 5°C for about a month during the night, and under 10°C during the day.
After a first boot, the PC seems to start, but the LCD screen image got black after a short while. The monitor doesn't seem to work any more after that. It stays black and the menu doesn't appear when I press the button.
The PC doesn't start anymore too. Even the boot program doesn't start.
Only an intermittent bip sound is emitted.
I ask if someone could give some advices to me as to what to do now.
Can the PC be repaired if the boot program in the ROM memory doesn't work ?
Thanks in advance.

My guess is that the electrolitic capacitors did not survive the winter. It is not likely that they have frozen (freezing point will be much lower than 0 degrees)

Just to be sure, reseat the memory chips, interface cards and processor.

You could start out with putting the system in a warm room at room temperature, if that doesn't help, it seems that the capacitors are fried (well, kind of...)

The computer can be repaired, but it is hard to say which components are affected, it might be just the power supply (very likely), the mainboard (likely as well), but every other component with electrolitic capacitors mounted may have suffered.

jlinkels

It is not only the cold but it is possible by those temperature that you get damp inside the computer.
It is same as you buy a TV in winter time , to let warm up first , before putting in main plug in
How great the damage is only a repairmen can tell you.

Look through the motherboard manual, there is a list of beep codes and what they mean, it may just tell you what is wrong.

See here:
http://pcsupport.about.com/od/nonwor...eepcodestb.htm
http://www.computerhope.com/beep.htm

The min operating temperature depends on the motherboard but probably varies anywhere from 0 to 10 Deg C. The min storage temperature will be much less like around -40. What was the temperature when the computer was powered on? The same temp ranges goes for the hard drive too.

Difficult to tell which device failed but my first guess would be an IC chip over a capacitor and probably something on the motherboard. These days its usually cheaper to purchase new vs repairing.

Once the LCD monitor is warmed up try it on another computer. Difficult to say if it has been damaged without a working computer.

Something I have done.

You might try a POST test with each RAM stick installed in succession. It would be better if you had a spare PSU to exchange in a fault-finding procedure. Look at everything and clean to ensure you have good contacts. Check to see that everything seats well. If it POSTs start adding pci cards trying POST again each time and at last trying with your screen. If you're lucky it's a an isolatable fault that may be corrected by warming up, drying out, and careful reassembly, or at least by replacing less than the board and the CPU.
Here's a guide. http://www.cpusolutions.com/mm800474...ML/Guides/POST Test a motherboard.htm Good Luck

Thank you all for the replies.
I guess I will have to replace the computer and screen by more recent ones, a forced decision but a rather good one after all.
I hope I could mount the hard disk on another machine to see if something is retrievable on it.
Much spendings and works stand ahead of me now. But this is life.

I wouldn't replace all of it. It may be just something small and fixable. Take it to a shop and have them look at it.

berbae,
If it is any help in drawing up a shortlist of components for a new pc, please have a look at the 4th post on here:

http://www.linuxquestions.org/questi...ux-box-686289/

For an alternative (Intel) motherboard, the Gigabyte GA-G31M-S2L has very good customer feedback and also works well with Linux.

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Produc...82E16813128078

A CPU such as the Intel E2180 would be ideal with this.

berbae;

You might try replacing the cmos battery, they don't like the cold very much, and it may
have died.
Another thing to check, is that if your monitor is in fact an LCD or plasma, plasma's
aren't very cold friendly either..

Best of luck

rcb

I suggest unplug it from the outlet for a few minutes. Then connect it to the outlet and power it up. It should work. If it does not work, use a hair dryer or a heat gun to heat the computer up to around 80 degrees F and try power up the computer. If the window was open for a month and it rained during the month, there is a good chance that some components may have been short circuited. Also the temperature changes from leaving the window open for a month can crack metals in the motherboard because of metal fatigue.

If the computer still can not enter into the BIOS, the processor might be damaged.

rcbpage, An LCD is a liquid crystal display. A plasma is completely different compared to LCD. Plasmas uses a gas that uses electricity to turn it into a different matter state. An LCD works by rotating crystals to let light through or block light.

Electro;

Well aware of that, ... my point the plasma cells are essentially a low voltage
neon tube, have you ever tried to turn on a neon sign when it's cold. they don't work very well. the same is true for an LCD as most use mini fluorescents for their
back-light. There are some that use LED's but they are mostly in cell phones, pda's, and military laptops. I found this out the hard way by having to to dumpsterize
a $1200 plasma tv, it went down to -20F and destroyed the plasma cells.

The LCD may still fire up after it has been returned to room temp. for a while.
in order to return some of the mercury in the tubes to a vapor state.
the same holds true for the battery if it's not very old. but depending on the cmos power drain in the pc it may be completely dead. without the battery the machine will not boot the BIOS. the mo-bo mfr, should have a beep list describing their meanings.
If the OP fired up the the machine with condensation still on the board it is
indeed probably toast, as little as .5volt short onto a data pin on a chip can fry it.
Anyhow:
'berbae'

Best of Luck

rcb

Thank you again for the advices.
I'm not at home presently (of course I closed the window , but too lately I suppose).
I think I will not be able to take care of my installation until next year.
I think I will first show the machine to a repair shop, and if not retrievable, I will buy another one next year.
Good year-end feasts to everyone.

Even with out the battery for the BIOS, the computer should boot up just fine. The processor and other options will set to defaults, so going into the BIOS is a must. After the computer powers down, the stand-by power will keep the information. The battery is just a back up to make sure BIOS information is not lost when the computer is disconnected from the outlet.

Neon displays can light up at low temperatures. It just takes more voltage. Neon displays should have a temperature sensor to figure out how much voltage is needed to light it up.

There are LCD and notebook for consumers that comes with LED back light. New cell phones are also coming with LED for back light. Old cell phones have not come with LED. They come with an electroluminescent display (EL) or they use miniature CCFL.

Electrical shorts can happen below 0.5 volts. It depends on the materials used to construct the component.