Pentium 4 Computer turns on but screen remains black

I have a home-built computer with an ASUS motherboard and an Intel Pentium 4. It's 4 or 5 years old now. We have had few problems with it, but from time to time it has refused to boot up. When that happened, we took out the lithium-ion standby battery and put it back in, and that fixed the problem.

This time putting the battery back in did not work. I turn the computer on, and everything turns on. But the screen never shows anything. Then the computer will not turn off by the normal switch. I have to turn off the computer at the power supply.

The other things I tried are checking out the hard drive on another computer, which worked fine, and reseating the memory sticks and video card. We also took the motherboard off the case and reseated that. None of that had any effect.

Could the lithium ion battery be bad?

Any ideas? Thanks!

 

Although I said that the battery was lithium ion, it's not. It's the lithium coin cell primary battery that fits on the motherboard. Wanted to prevent any confusion about that.

 

That's something I hadn't thought of. But it makes sense. Any way to check it other than swapping out the power supply? I don't have an extra power supply, but could take one out of a working computer just to test.

 

The power supply does not appear to be the problem. I swapped out the power supply, and still had the same dark screen problem. I also swapped out the lithium coin cell, and still had the same problem. Two possible problems ruled out (at least probably).

What else might prevent the computer from even getting to the first display where it shows the motherboard logo? Seems like it would have to be a CPU or motherboard problem, right? Once or twice early on the computer did display the first screen before freezing at that point. But now it gets nowhere.

Thanks for the power supply suggestion. Any other suggestions gladly welcomed.

 

Video card would be the next suspect.

 

The BIOS needs to check the main hardware at startup. It may be having problems with say, the graphics adapter or RAM. Have you tried changing the RAM modules in the slots? You can try taking the modules out altogether and then start up, it should give error beeps. When you put the RAM modules back in, it may start working.

To test the graphics, you need to try another graphics card.

I doubt it is the CPU unless it may have been running overclocked or the CPU fan is failing. The system may not start up if it does not get a correct signal from the CPU fan.

You can disconnect all the drives, see it if starts, then reattach them one by one.

Those checks should isolate a problem with the motherboard. A P4 m/b may be getting hard to find, but I replaced one successfully not long ago.

If you replace the m/b note that you will need to replace the thermal compound between the CPU and heatsink and also need to run a repair installation of Windows.

Sounds quite likely to be a failing motherboard to me.

Matt

 

Thanks for the video card suggestion, Dennis. Swapped that out too for a video card known to work. Same problem.

It does sound like a motherboard problem, Mattman. I'll try your suggestions to try to isolate it to that. We have a rare hot day in the San Francisco, California area today. It's 92 degrees Fahrenheit at 2 pm, with no air conditioning. So I'll leave it to the evening.

Thanks for the help.

 

You did uninstall old video drivers, remove old card from device manager, and install drivers for new card?? Unless you replace old card with an identical make/model/version, the above would be necessary. Not saying MB may be the problem, but every time I lost my video card (twice on one computer in past 9 months), all I had was a black screen when I turn computer on.

 

Good point. When I swapped out the video card, I did not change anything in the operating system. I couldn't, since I've never had anything but a black screen since this started. So you think it could still be the video card?

I did try unplugging everything, including memory modules, from the motherboad (except for video card), and I still get nothing. No beeps or anything. So it looks more and more like the motherboard has gone flaky on me, right?

If so, think I should get another motherboard for my Pentium 4? Or upgrade both motherboard and CPU? Any recommendations on what to get if I do upgrade?

 

If there are no beeps when you have the RAM removed, that would almost certainly confirm a broken m/b to me. Still, any extra types of checks may find something I have not come across/covered. For example, when you start up, do you see any drive LEDs flash? (Maybe we have missed a basic point, like the monitor is not working.)

If you get a new motherboard, it will most likely need new RAM, graphics card and you will find an IDE HDD is being phased out as well. You will need to search carefully for what hardware may be able to be carried over. It might be a case of finding a replacement P4 "style" motherboard or replacing just about everything. One or two minor alternatives may be to put your old HDD into an external case, get the data you want, format it and use it for added storage space. Another is to look around for someone that has upgraded from their P4 to a new computer, buy it and add your RAM, swap CPU and graphics (if they are bigger/faster), add your HDD and optical drives, etc to make a better machine than both were previously (the Frankenstein method ).

Here's a P4 478 (Prescott) board, it takes DDR2 RAM and PCI Express (X16) graphics:
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16813138079

Matt

 

Hi Daanii, when you said it would not switch off using the computer start button, did you hold it in for 5 seconds? Also have you normally got a flashing green indicator light on your monitor? Did you disconnect IDE cables when you removed M/B from chassis? If you have slight corrosion on the M/B connector pins, you will not get Beeps. If the comp is 5 years, old has it had a good blow out and ALL connectors reseated? Just a few ideas to check before getting another M/B. Neil.

 

As Neil suggested, I tried to clean up the motherboard and reseated everything (except the CPU) with no luck. (I probably burnt out one of the memory sticks -- had it in backwards and did not notice that until I smelled something burning. Haven't made that stupid of a mistake for a while.)

So it looks like the motherboard is indeed shot. Options do seem limited. I may buy an old motherboard of the same type off of eBay. Not only do I have a P4 that I need to accommodate, but I have an AGP video card and IDE disk drive. None of those are much used anymore. I didn't think this system was quite that old. Technology marches forward briskly, doesn't it.

 

At the risk of being to simplistic - my normal mode, I would emphasize points made by Neil and Matt regarding flashes on the monitor. I read back through the posts again and I don't see any reference to trying a known working monitor in the unit. Unless I missed that point somewhere and it has already been done, I would give that a try.

 

check in few steps

hi i am giveing some steps if you want you can try it
check your monitor for this give direct power supply to them is there some
thing appears any symbole that show power supply of monitor
if some thing appear it means your moitor is ok
now take your system at minimum requirement means smps+Ram +motherboard+monitor =
is display appear if not
1-en change your display cable first and try to find disply
2-is the fan of moterboard is running if thats running then change your
ram
3-if display not appear change ram

 

Well, I hope the motherboard is the problem. I tracked down a reasonably priced replacement ASUS P4800SE in Hong Kong and it should arrive in a few days. We'll see if that solves the problem.

 

The replacement motherboard came and I installed it. Works now. And since it was the same make and model as the one that failed, I did not even need to reinstall Windows. Everything worked right away.

The only bad part is that the replacement motherboard, an ASUS P4P800SE, was advertised as used, and indeed it is used. It looks pretty beat, compared to the failed motherboard. It does work, as promised, and I hope it continues to work for many years.

Thanks for all the comments and assistance.

 

One last question before I let this thread go into archives. I've now got a defective motherboard on hand. What should I do with it? Throw it in the trash? Any way to troubleshoot and fix the problem? Any market for defective motherboards (especially this old)?

Thanks.