Computer booting problems

[Amailer]

I need some help here with my computer. Around 2 days ago I started having this problem - since then I have attempted to "undo" any changes I had made prior to the issue (bios changes and etc) but it did not help resolve it.

Basically what's happening is: when I shutdown my computer and leave it turned off (however the PSU is still on/running, the motherboard light is lit), and then after a couple of hours I turn my computer on, everything starts up however there does not seem to be any signal being send via my graphics card to my monitor. I see no BIOS boot nothing, but the computer does run - HDD lights do blink and everything.

I can get it to work after leaving the computer running in that state (where there is nothing on the monitor to see), turn off the PSU (hit the off button on the PSU) and wait for like 10 seconds, turn the PSU on, wait for another 5 seconds and then attempt to start my computer. After that "general" process, I get to the boot screen and everything.

It's strange and I am not sure if its got something to do with my motherboard, PSU or GPU. I am thinking its the GPU because the system seems "functional" even though nothing can be viewed on the monitor, but I cannot really test it because: 1. No on-board GPU, 2. no extra GPU laying around. However, why does it start working after a while?

Any ideas?

Thanks

P.S. Also another thing which I think might be unrelated but I'm not sure. The exact same time when this started to occur, apparently my secondary SATA HDD failed. Because when I "managed" to boot the computer, I would get a BOOT DISK FAILURE error; I have hence resolved that error by simply unplugging my secondary HDD.

Plugging in the secondary HDD while the computer is running works. The secondary HDD is accessible and etc, might be a cause of some minor lag/freezes but it does work.

[ProgrammingFun]

An easy way to determine if its the operating system or the hardware is by creating a SLAX bootdisc and checking if it boots up....

[Amailer]

Well, I removed all HDDs - and it still would not boot up. I do not believe its any software/os related issue.

I ran a mint os live cd it worked but that was for the "boot disk failure" problem. Thing is, no BIOS boot screen even gets displayed; no signal is even sent to my monitor (the power button does not change from orange to blue [which means its got a signal])

NVIDIA 8800 GT
Intel Core2Duo 3.0GHz
P5N-T Deluxe

[RapidCP]

Try checking the pins on your ram, I featured a same problem on a server of mine. I was out at work for a week(LongHaul Trucking) and came back to a server that didn't want to boot up without allot of fuss. Checked all the PCI slots etc, to find out a pin on my ram burnt out, and I mean like burnt black.

Now I this can be a long shot, but its worth hinting at.

[Kharybdis]

Get a new power supply if this happens and there are no error beeps.

Mind you, there's also another thing that could have happened. The drivers for your video card might have messed up, or your video card has gotten faulty all of a sudden. Try using a different video card and see if the problem repeats itself. If it does, then it's usually a power supply problem.

[mattie]

I had this problem. I disassembled my pc and made sure that I've drained all the power. Eventually it started and I've reinstalled the operating system. It was great, no hardware changes, if you insist you can start the machine after 20 tries or so but after you shut it down it won't start. Try 20 times once 8 hours with 5 seconds delay between shutdown and start. If you managed to start it give it a restart instead of a shut down.

[mekarls]

Throw back in your old video card, if it works then, it's -probably- your new video card is either
1. Eating up too much power
--You'd need a better power supply to fix this
2. Not working properly - suggest you send it back and get a different one
3. Might not be hooked up right (or the monitor isn't)

If it doesn't work with the old video card, put up a message

_______________
audio video cables

[Amailer]

wow old post The problem was the RAM.

I happened to take the ram and put it in another computer and the same problem occurred the next morning when trying to boot the other computer.