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arcons · Feb 20, 2006, 05:36 AM

Hi guys,
I'm new here...

I got a problem with my old PC. Suddenly that word appear on my monitor... I can see the power led, also cd led... but not harddisk...
I already replace video card and relocate RAM.. also use another monitor.. still got the same problem...

Don't u think my motherboard damage?

Thank in advance for reply

LTheobald · Feb 20, 2006, 08:06 AM

You said you tried different monitors - did you try different leads? It could be the lead.

Do you hear any beeps when the PC is booting up?

arcons · Feb 20, 2006, 07:08 PM

There is no beeps at all.. the only thing I can hear from my PC is only fans.sorry I'm not familiar with the PC... what do you mean by lead?

Some of my friends said... it was my motherboard problem... for sure it will cost me a lot...

LTheobald · Feb 21, 2006, 02:37 AM

When I said the lead, I mean the monitor lead/cable that goes from the PC to the monitor.

Don't worry about that though - it does sound like a hardware problem. The fact that you don't get any beeps may be something. My guess is that it will be either the RAM or the video card not being seated properly, possibly even damamged. It's more likely to be a problem with one of those than the motherboard.

You've said you are unfamiliar the PC. If you are not familiar with PC hardware I strongly recommend taking your PC to a repair shop to allow them to do the work for you. You can cause a lot of damamge to a PC if you don't know what you are doing. At the same time you can fry yourself on the static as well. Finally, a repair shop will have spare parts lying around so that they can test exactly what is wrong. You don't want to go out and buy a new motherboard to find out it was really the RAM.

If you still want to try though, here's what I recommend:

Take anything you don't need out of the PC for now. E.g. sound card, modem. network card. Leave just the CPU, RAM and the video card. If it still doesn't work, then at least we know it's not one of the other PCI cards causing the problem. If it does work, put the cards in one by one trying to boot up each time. When it doesn't boot up you know the last thing you put in is the problem.
Do you have more than one stick of RAM? If so, try booting the PC with just one stick of RAM. See if it boots. Then take that stick out and try another. If it works for some sticks of RAM but not others, then it looks like you have a dodgy stick of RAM. Replace this and things should be fine.
Ensure the RAM is seated properly. It will have to be facing a certain way so that any clips etc. line up. Also make sure it is firmly pushed into the board. The RAM might also have to be seated in certain slots. For example, say you have 4 RAM slots. Your motherboard may require RAM to be in slots 1 & 3, or 2 & 4.
Have you done anything to your PC recently e.g. installed a new motherboard. This kind of problem is sometimes caused by people installing new motherbaords into their PC and not fixing the motherboard to the case properly.

ScottGem · Feb 21, 2006, 07:50 AM

I echo what LT said about taking it to a tech (tried to just comment but I need to spread). One possibility he didn't mention is a bad slot. Since you tried different monitors that would not appear to be the problem especially if the monitors worked on other PCs. Since you replaced the video board (assuming that worked elsewhere), that would appear not to be the problem.

If you are using a PCI video board you might try it in a different slot. But if you are using AGP, then you probably only have the one slot. And that may be damaged.