Hey guys. Im trying to get my sister’s computer working. It’s about 2 years old and my problem is that when I start up, I have no video output. Let me start off by what’s in it… - AMD Athlon Processor AMD K7750 - Epok EP-7KXA Motherboard - MPT-A250 Pro-V Power Supply Now for what I have tried already… My first thought was that it would be my video card. So I switched it out with 2 known good video cards. No such luck. So I decided to try some rookie troubleshooting. I took everything out of the case just to make it easier to work with. I checked and double checked to make sure everything was seated properly. Tried booting up, still no display. Tried resetting CMOS by unplugging then removing battery. And trying again. Nuh uh. So I disconnected everything entirely. Tried booting with everything disconnected but the CPU, heat sink, RAM and video card. Nothing. Now when I disconnected the CPU from the heat sink , I noticed some chalky white stuff in between the heat sink and CPU. Is that a sign that something went bad? One other thing… on boot up… I did not hear any beeps. Someone told me that means my processor is bad? Thanks in advance for your help guys. Pete

Chalky white probably isn't good. Now to go over other things, You say you get no beeps in any configuration. Ok Do any fans spin up? Powersupply fan? When you had drives connected were any of them showing signs of activity? The possibilities are: A Power supply is toast B Motherboard is Toast C CPU is toast D RAM is toast E Any combination of A,B,C,D You have eliminated the other variable being the graphics card as you have tested with two different known good ones. So from here you can try a different powersupply. If you have another working system with compatible hardware then you can test the plugin components such as CPU and RAM in the good system. Without known working testbed you will not be ablt to isolate which component/combination of components is the dud. I went through a rebuild recently where powersupply,mobo,CPU and graphics card were all shot. Only things salvaged from the thing were ram and drives. Let us know how you make out. Give a man a fish and you feed him for a day. Teach him to fish and you feed him for life.

The chaulky stuff is probably just old thermal compound....

the chaulky white stuff still works, get more heat sink grease (zinc oxide or something) if you removed it. do any fans, Lights come on? if not, then check the power supply. if they do, then it's probably mobo or cpu.

Thanks for the quick replies Richard59 and jam. Yes, all my fans are working. There doesn't seem to be any problem with any other drives. Richard, you said you did a rebuild where basically everything was shot. What do you think caused that? Power surge? Could it have been a case that was shorting out equipment? Being that the stuff in her comp is a few years old, I imagine it's very outdated. So, perhaps it's time for an upgrade. I haven't talked to her yet about her price range, but how much would it cost to get stuff for a decent computer? I'll probably get a new mobo and processor at least. Therein lies a problem however. I know nothing about what's good these days. Or whats compatible with each other. (RAM included) The computer will be for my sister who will use it for internet surfing, chatting... etc... and music/videos. Does anyone have any ideas/links so I can do some research? Thanks again all. Pete

Hey Pete, My rebuild was prompted by the PSU failing. That put a surge through the rest of the stuff and burned it out. Room smelled of burnt plastic for weeks. I did the rebuild on the cheap using secondhand parts. It is likely that any upgrade you do using new parts will mean replacing the PSU as well as mobo,CPU,RAM and graphics as stuff that's a few years old probably won't be compatible. You may be able to find a local dealer who can test your stuff and work out what's wrong. Once you know the damage your sister can decide whether it's better to repair an old outdated system or to upgrade. Give a man a fish and you feed him for a day. Teach him to fish and you feed him for life.