Rummy Posted August 20, 2015 Posted August 20, 2015 So the fucker was working fine last thursday(I don't turn it on often tbh with you, but my laptop plex was slow so HDMI'd out the PC as it's in the corner of the living room) - can't recall if it crashed and I had to hodl the power button to turn it off or what(it's an ACER m3400 running windows 7 btw, if that matters at all). Anyhow tried turning on today - my samsung switches to the HDMI which it won't if it's receiving absolutely nothing, but the screen is blank and says there's no signal. I opened it up, disconnected verything but power and took the RAM out - the motherboard's screaming so it seems it isn't that. Ram back in, mouse+keyboard back in, VGA out back in(switched in case it'd work better than HDMI for some weird reason, no joy) - then tried turning it on again. Still the same thing, but; Now I notice it makes that tick that PCs make up start up, but repeatedly. Isn't the hard drive as I disconnected that and it kept happening - is it something on the motherboard? What, if it is, is it? Or what else could it be? Power issue? PC didn't cost a lot but I like it and ideally I'd like to be able to fix it as cheap/free as possible. If the options for doing so are beyond a mark I'll probs just grab another cheap PC in its place, but I really fucking love this one cos it has a front loading 3.5inch bay and it's kinda cool for swapping the two storage HDDs i have in and out.
Ike Posted August 21, 2015 Posted August 21, 2015 Your motherboard shouldn't really have anything that should make any noise if the noise is mechanical, unless it's the CPU fan? Sounds most likely to be the motherboard, a quick Google shows your PC has both an onboard and external graphics cards and if neither are working then it's the motherboard. When the HDD is connected does the activity light blink when it boots? If it is the PSU, then remove it from the case and you can short 2 pins (Google to find out which ones) with a metal pin to make the fans spin, but this will only only test if the fans work and not if the power is faulty.
Rummy Posted August 26, 2015 Author Posted August 26, 2015 Your motherboard shouldn't really have anything that should make any noise if the noise is mechanical, unless it's the CPU fan? Sounds most likely to be the motherboard, a quick Google shows your PC has both an onboard and external graphics cards and if neither are working then it's the motherboard. When the HDD is connected does the activity light blink when it boots? If it is the PSU, then remove it from the case and you can short 2 pins (Google to find out which ones) with a metal pin to make the fans spin, but this will only only test if the fans work and not if the power is faulty. Soz thought I'd replied to this and I never did! By my motherboard making noise I meant the beep codes it makes(one time an old family PC broke and I couldn't figure what it was, and then someone came and took the ram out - he said because it wasn't making any noise complaining it was definitely the motherboard, but in my case here - my motherboard doth protest without the RAM). Stupid question...but where would my activity light be? There's a blue light sort of thing on the front but it's a bit more of an illumination(terrible description) - I think that's the HDD indicator light as it tended to flicker during use but it's not the clearest due to its style. Re: PSU+fans - do I still need to try shorting it(sounds terrifying) because my fans are actually spinning up anyhow? My mate said he has a PSU tester and will give it a look at some point - I've just been too super busy to get round to seeing him when he's free so far. Also re:graphics - yeah, I've only got on board. I have considered if anyone I know possibly has a PCI graphics card I might try that and see if it works, depending on what my friend says about the PSU.
Ike Posted August 26, 2015 Posted August 26, 2015 Since you can see the fans spinning, then you don't need to short them. I don't think it's your PSU though (probably won't boot at all). The activity light is usually on the front, Googling your model, it looks like the bottom light on the right (there's an icon of what looks a HDD icon with an arrow pointing pointing down underneath), they usually do flicker. Lookup in your manual or Google to try and find out out the beep means as this should tell you what the problem is. Does the beep sound like anything listed here for example? http://www.manualslib.com/manual/232867/Acer-Aspire-M3400.html?page=56 If you have more than 1 stick of RAM then insert 1 at a time and see if it boots, it could be your RAM is faulty. Otherwise the only thing I could think of is making sure everything is plugged in correctly.
Rummy Posted August 28, 2015 Author Posted August 28, 2015 My problem is it doesn't make it to a beep when the RAM's in, I took it out and turned it on to see if it'd make a noise so I know the motherboard's at least a little working. I'll have another look at it tomorrow and my mate's gonna come help too as he used to do a lot of PC/tech support stuff, thanks for your help so far and I'll keep you posted on verdicts/solutions!
Rummy Posted September 4, 2015 Author Posted September 4, 2015 (edited) For anyone who cares - I fucking hate computers. My mate came round Saturday(which meant making time I may have been happy chilling out instead) with his PSU tester - whilst he explained the bits coming out of the PSU he plugged in the main plug to his tester and it said I had a fault. I did ask about the extra bit he mentioned - 12V feed or something? Like another bit that goes on the motherboard. When he plugged that in to the tester too...I didn't have no fault. Then I showed him the mobo makes noise without the RAM. So then I decided to do what I hadn't quite done yet and as you suggested Ike, and try each RAM stick in turn to see if there's potentially a bad one. Iirc I've got 2x4GB, then 1x2GB and 1x1GB(latter two come with the system). So, 4GB - computer boots fine! WTF. RAM isssue then. Next 4GB - fine! Decided I knew it'd be the 2GB fucked and that'd be annoying, so I tried the 1GB first in the hope it didn't work but...it was fine! So the bloody 2GB is the bad one, ok no big deal but I'd have preferred if it wasn't the case. But then I put it in. And the whole bloody PC was working fine!! Spent the next few minutes almost speechless, just repeatedly asking/stating to my mate that he'd fucking seen it. Goddamn computers man. RAM shuffle unexplainable fix. Grr. Edited September 4, 2015 by Rummy
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