Hi, I'm having trouble diagnosing what the problem for this P4 system is. When I turn the computer on, no beeps occur and nothing appears on the screen. I have tried different video cards, monitors, power supply units, memory DIMMs hard drives, and IDE cables, and I still get no beeps and nothing on the screen. My MB is an Intel Desktop Board D845EBG2. I tried attaching a keyboard to see what happens. When I power on, the caps lock light flickers, but if I press Caps Lock again, the light on the keyboard does not go on. Is this just a partially dead MB? Thanks -nuj

The KB flicker may just be a response to it getting power and not an indication the motherboard is working. Just remove/disconnect everything except video, KB, cpu and RAM. If the PS has the 115/230 switch make sure it's in the correct position. Check that the motherboard jumpers are correct (I had one once where the reset pins were jumpered). Verify the cpu and RAM are tightly inserted. You may also need to remove them and clean the sockets. If you still get nothing on the screen you may need to remove the motherboard and see if it'll power up that way. (It may be difficult getting the board in a safe position to where the power and on/of switch wires will connect so be careful.) If it powers up then maybe the case was shorting it out somewhere.

Classic case of a dead CPU fan.