Long-ish story, please help.


The problem: After testing a burned Windows installation disk in my computer (which runs Fedora Core 2) as a favour for a friend, my box won't boot. There is no signal to the monitor and no beep upon startup -- only a very weak chirp when I power on. I can't access the BIOS because I have no video.


The backstory: A friend and I slapped together a computer for my roommate, whose motherboard had fried. Thing is, she'd lost the Windows XP Home installation disk. (We had the serial.) While I was at work, my roommate went to a reputable computer shop to ask if a copy of the installation could be burned for her since she already had the serial. They did it for $10.

She took the disk back to my friend, who tried to install it on her "new" computer. The disk wouldn't install properly (he was running the installation from DOS), so he was concerned that it was a bad CD.

When I got home from work, he asked if he could test it out on my computer. Not the full installation, of course, but just to see if it would work. Not only did it not work, but my computer couldn't boot at all. So we took the disc out, powered down, and tried to restart my computer.

No boot at all.


What I've tried: I've removed all but the motherboard (with onboard video), a stick of RAM, and the drives. Still no boot. I unplugged the monitor to see if it would do anything without it. No dice. I unplugged the computer itself for a few minutes, let it sit, plugged it back in to see if it would reset -- nope. The fans run, little lights are glowing, but that's about it.

Could trying to boot from the CD have changed my boot order permanently (as in, I can't change it without accessing the BIOS and I can't access the BIOS without a video signal)? If so, is there anything I can do to fix this, or am I pretty much stuck?

Sorry if this is posted in the wrong forum. It's both software and hardware related, so ... eh. Apologies.

This is a hardware issue. If you have a floppy, you can unplug that also. All you need to get a signal to the screen is, power, the system board, one stick of ram, video card ( or chip set on the system board), and the monitor. Make sure your fans are running.

If you can not get anything to the monitor, I would see if you could find another machine to test some of the components, like the monitor, ram etc. Make sure the connectors are not damaged. That can happen all too easily when things go wrong.

Find the jumper on the motherboard to clear the CMOS settings. (their should be directions in the motherboard manual) Try booting the machine again. this simple procedure has resolved the no post issue for me on more than one occasion.

This article describes clearing the CMOS settings like I described and has pictures.. like I said earlier this info should be in your motherboard manual or on the manufacturers website.

http://www.msicomputer.com/support/sup_tshoot.asp#1_2



btw I don't believe any shop reputable or otherwise should be providing burned media for windows.. I don't believe that's legal.

Thanks for the info, guys. (Sort of an RTFM case, I guess ... still have to have the manual shipped over to me; I just moved. Heh, well, that'll learn me.) I'll try these steps later tonight when I get home.

Re: Legality issues -- I wasn't sure whether it was legal or not. My friend asked and did receive, so I assumed it was fine. I'll have to look into that. It's possible (probable, even) that my roommate was conned into buying a bad burn of software that she can't return or complain about because it wasn't legal to begin with. Which sucks out loud, but ... them's the breaks.

[HTML]still have to have the manual shipped over[/HTML]

If you can get access to a working machine, try going to the system boards manufactures web site ( or the PC makers site ) and see if they have a PDF file for hardware support. Most of the bigger makers do. It will save you some time and frustration trying to get a hard copy.

You are right--not legal. How woule the shop know that you acquired the s/n legally and/or perhaps already sold the original diak to someone?
But maybe moral might be the better question: If you honestly just lost it, then you have'nt compomised your morality.

One reason for Linux is so we don't have to fret over this kind of question.....):;);;:;:0((0:;:00(