Compaq Presario S4020WM will not turn on

this computer lights come on,fans work but no video ,i unplugged onboard vid and installed a agp card,no joy.
i don't have a recovery disk at all,
ladies down the streets computer.
any and all help needed.

 

Hi crown711,

Have to ask....Do any lights flash on the drives, harddrive LED, CD drive, floppy? No "beep "?

If not, then a major piece of hardware may have failed. Next step would be to take out the CMOS battery, then replace it again after a few minutes (ensure all power is disconnected if you do). You could try this, first without the AGP card installed, then with the AGP card.

After that it will be a process of elimination to find which piece of hardware is causing the trouble.

Matt

 

In addition to what Matt said, you should try a PCI video card. The bios is usually programmed to work with a PCI card as the default, even when it won't work with an AGP card.

 

The most common culprit with a situation like this is a power supply on it's last legs. Take the PSU to a comptuer shop and have them test it to ensure it's in good working condition.

 

thanks

the only lights that flash are the cd-rom
no beeps at all
the power supply fan and processor fan works.

 

That's bad. Sounds like the motherboard/CPU or at least the BIOS has failed. Suggest you try to enter the BIOS Setup program and let us know whether it can recognize the hard disk. If you can't get into the BIOS, then substitute a known good power supply and test again.

 

Just because you don't hear a BIOS beep during the boot phase doesn't indicate trouble. I have never heard a beep on my Dell 4100 system since day 1.

Crown, how do you for certain the PSU works? Just because your hear the fans revving up doesn't not indicate it's good. It could be on it's last legs and not providing sufficient power for the entire system to boot up. That is why i told you earlier to have it checked at a computer shop near you.

 

That could mean your speaker is disconnected (or missing?), or you're hearing is possibly suboptimum at that frequency. Mine is, too! I really have to listen hard to hear my box beep.

 

Yeah right buddy, my hearing is just fine. I listen to MP3s & various CDs on my computer almost everyday.

 

On top of all that is mentioned it could just be that since he installed a new video card the system is not recognizing it. The drivers should be installed.
Can you get into safe mode?
If you can you might want to look in the control panel>admin. tools>computer managment>device manager.
look for monitor, right click, properties.
check drivers.
also I got a used computer and when I went to set it up it had 2 monitors installed and I couldn't get a picture becuase the wron monitor was trying to be used. Check this also.
Good luck

 

The motherboard speaker is separate to the soundcard speaker, isn't it? (I know OEM boards can share both).

Matt