Desktop will not start

I'm trying to help a friend whose no Brand-name desktop (about 4 years old) does not start. I do not know CPU (logo screen says Intel) or RAM. He thinks the Operating System is Windows XP (not sure about version, pro or home) He called me for help when he heard a squealing from the HDD. When I power on I don't hear any squealing; fan is running normally. About 5 seconds after turning on, I hear a single beep then at 6 seconds after turning on the screen displays the ASUS logo with mb info: P5G41T-M LX with a strip across the bottom saying, "Press DEL to run Setup, Press TAB to display BIOS POST message" I have started with just monitor, keyboaard and mouse connected. When I turn on power, the Num Lock, Caps Lock and Scroll Lock indicator flash on, and again after about 4 seconds, then at 5 seconds there is 1 beep, then at 6 seconds the ASUS logo appears and nothing else happens. System does not rspond to keys (DEL, TAB or ESC). I read somewhere to try turning power on while holding down the INSERT key; there was no difference. I tried turniing on power while holding down the DEL key; there was no difference. If I disconnect the keyboard and mouse and turn on the power, I get the same results (without the keyboard indicators flashing, of course). I would like some help before I remove the HDD and try to connect it to another desktop I have. I look forward to your advice.

Well it certainly sounds like a hardware issue, but before you start changing things chasing ghosts lets check a couple of things first. Can your enter the BIOS ? If you can check 2 things, first check the time\date, if this is wrong correct it and see what happens (use F10 or save and exit to try it). Next check for a "health" screen, it will show system temp's with luck, report back with the results of these then we can see what is best to try next.

Thanks for the quick response, 8210Guy. I can't enter BIOS. Apart from the two flashes of the 3 indicator lights at 1 and 4 seconds after power on, the keyboard and mouse have no input to the system; it's as if they are not connected at all. I'm at a loss as to how I might have any interaction with this PC. Any ideas of where to next?

In the MB manual I found: "Entering BIOS Setup after POST To enter BIOS Setup after POST - press Ctrl+Alt+Del simultaneously - press the reset button on the system chasis" Neither of these options worked; I was just left with the ASUS logo image on the monitor.

Normally it's the Del (Delete) key to enter the BIOS, but I have seen F2 used at times as well, the screen often tells you what button(s) do what, but taking in the info before they pass is not easy. One thing that may help is if you can see who the BIOS maker is, again it is on the screen for a short period, with this we can check what the beep means, but I have found 2 meanings without knowing this, first is all normal, nothing wrong and it's ready to move on, the other is a ram issue, which is the next step I would be advising to try anyway, but knowing the BIOS maker means we can look at those codes alone. As we can't do much without checking out the BIOS, we have 2 things to try, lets start with ram, with the system shut down, remove the mains lead, lay it on it's side and remove the side, then using anti static precautions remove the stick of ram furthest away from the CPU (assuming there are only 2 sticks), if you have more, get some paper, then write 1 2 3 and 4 on it, then calling the stick closest to the CPU call that number 1, and number 4 being furthest out, and make sure you ALWAYS place the right stick in the right place, it may seem mad, but without it you can easily lose track of what is what, and as we are looking for issues we need to know specifically which one could be an issue. Anyway with the above, try a single stick of ram at a time, and see if it will boot with each stick on it's own, if not repeat until all sticks are tried, should none of this make a difference, repeat it again, BUT, this time using the 2nd slot away from the CPU, so the 1st slot will be empty, it may seem crazy, but with ram it's one of 2 things, either the ram itself, or one of the slots on the board has gone bad. My next thought is to the CMOS battery, if this has gone then it can cause all sorts of issues, this is why I asked if you could check the parts in the bios I did previously, if the time\date was incorrect it's a fair bet it needs a new battery, but see what the ram shows up first, if that does nothing then try replacing the CMOS battery with a new one (they are quite cheap luckily, and never hurts to have a spare if helping sort other systems), at the same time set the jumpers to Clear (with the mains lead removed), leave them for say 30 seconds, then put the jumper back, put the new battery in, and see if it makes a difference, with luck you should be greeted with an error, saying settings have changed, and press x button to enter the BIOS and check all the details are what they should be, see if any of this helps.

Thanks for that detailed response; I appreciate the precise instructions. I've been in town all day helping an elderly friend get a book ready to go to the publisher and have only just got to check my messages. I'll follow your suggestions in the monring and let you know what I find. According to the motherboard specifications the BIOs is AMI: BIOS Type AMI . BIOS Features ACPI 2.0 support, ASUS MyLogo2, ASUS EZ Flash, DMI 2.0 support, WfM 2.0 support, SMBIOS 2.5 support (from the CNET website on this motherboard) BIOS: 8 Mb Flash ROM , AMI BIOS, PnP, DMI2.0, WfM2.0, ACPI2.0, SMBIOS 2.5 (from the ASUS website) Does this help before I can actually access it on the PC?

I've just downlaoded the AMI BIOS reference, "AMIBIOS8_Checkpoint_and_Beep_Code_List_PUB" and it indicates that the 1 beep I'm hearing could be memory related. So your suggestion seems to be on the right track. I'll report back in the morning.

Right looking at AMI BIOS codes it says:-

1 short; DRAM refresh failure; The programmable interrupt timer or programmable interrupt controller has probably failed

So it is starting to look like a ram issue, but as I said above sometimes the board slots can go as well, so if the system is several years old I would change the CMOS battery, as I said above it never hurts to have a spare should it turn out the original battery is fine, but clear the CMOS and see if we can provoke a BIOS message on boot, to allow you into the BIOS, set the time\date, and try and check the bits I mentioned above, obviously time will be reset by doing this, so that will automatically require setting, then with that done see what happens when you try to fire it up.

The good thing is it only has 2 slots for ram from what I can see, so it wont be as long winded as 4 slots, but the hope is one stick will work, if not do you have compatible ram at hand ?
If you do try that, if you have a system that can take the suspect ram, try it in that, if the ram works in another system then it's the board, but odds on you wont have these options, not many have that much laying around, but I mention it just incase, fingers crossed you will get lucky and it will fire up with a single stick, good luck.

Hi 8210GUY, Now I'm baffled. With the power cord unplagged, I took the side off the case and observed that only one of the two RAM slots was populated. So I moved the stick to the second slot (furtherest from the CPU). I then plugged in the power cord and tried to turn it on but nothing! I noticed a green LED on the motherboard (see attached snip from the motherboard manual for the Standby Power LED). Previously, pressing the power button started the system and bought up the ASUS logo screen and the only way I could turn off (apart from disconnecting the power) was to press and hold the power button until it turned off. I've tried moving the memory stick back to its original slot but still I cannot turn on the PC. I'm at a loss for what to try next.

Hi, Well next is simply down to what parts you have available, or whether your happy to spend money without the knowledge of it being the solution to the problem. What does amaze me is it only has a single stick, because it can't make use of the boards Dual Channel ability, and as such it wont perform as well as it should, out of interest what is the part number of that stick ? it would be interesting to see just what has been used, but if it does turn out to be a ram issue, they are best advised to get a 2x4gig set to use optimal performance, but this will require a 64bit OS, if running 32bit OS then 2x2gig is the best it can manage, and even then not fully. But that aside, you need access to a working system that uses DDR3 ram, or have such ram as spare somewhere, the spec required is DDR3 1333(O.C.)/1066/800 Non-ECC, Un-buffered Memory, if you have the bits, or a compatible system for testing, then swap the ram between systems and see what happens, where working system(s) may have more than 1 stick, remove all to test the single stick, we don't want to mix ram, see if the problem stick will work in another board, and if known working ram will work in the problem system, then depending on the results you should have an answer as to if the ram is bad or not. The light is simply a power light, it simply lights as described when power is on, as to shutting down I can't think of causes currently, but I come across it often, so given the issues I wouldn't worry too much at this stage, but out of interest try powering the system on with NO ram in it, take note of the beep codes, it will be interesting if they confirm the no ram, but even without ram, it should still bring up the dos screen and be able to access the BIOS I would have thought. Give that a try and see what it does if you have the parts, but have you reset the BIOS yet by removing the battery\power and moving the jumpers ? Doing that should get you a prompt on starting to be able to access the BIOS and check the settings.

Hi 8210GUY, The RAM is: Kingston, KVR1333D3N9/2G. I haven't been able to boot this system so really have no idea of which OS is used. I'll see if I can test the RAM in another system. I have two old systems but neither is compatible with this RAM. I tried to power the system on with NO ram in it, but nothing. Apart from that SB_LED on the motherboard, it's as if the system has no power at all. I can hear the power button click when pressed but the power light on the front of the system does not light and the CPU and power supply fans do not run.

Hi, sorry for a slow reply, been up the hospital most of the day lol (just tests to see what's wrong), anyway it looks like that's a 2gig bargain basement stick, fine for what it is when it works, but why on earth they didn't use both slots to improve performance is beyond me, but that said I have 1 suspicion, they are running a 32bit OS, and know 4gig would not be fully used, but if that is the case they would have been better to get 2x1gig sticks, although I would still have used 2x2gig, and just accepted not all would be used. Now you should of had at least system beeps to indicate it has no ram, but if you weren't even getting that, then I fear the problem is bigger than it seems, the 2 things that now come into the frame, is the PSU, and the board itself, and the ability to go any further totally depends on what you have to work with (spares\tools), and how comfortable you are using a meter, the main test you need to do is for the power, and that requires either a spare PSU, to see if that fires up the problem system, or a meter and ability to take readings from the leads to see what the true power is getting to the system, out of interest what PSU (make\model) is it ? you should see this on a label on the side of the PSU inside the case. The problem with a board is there are no tests to check it, so what needs to be done is check everything else, as it can all be checked with various tools, then if everything else reads fine, it's a leap of faith and surmise it must be the board. So what can be done next is down to what you have, and what you want, it's uncommon for the average user to have spare ram, let alone a spare PSU, which seriously limits what a person can do when it starts becoming a bigger job than first thought, so before I start laying out specifics for what's to be done if you have the bits, or inclination, is to check what you want to do next. You have 2 possible options if you have a comparable working system, if the working system also uses DDR3 ram, you could swap out that ram, and pop in the problem system ram, if it fires up the ram is probably OK, but it would need further testing to be certain, but it is fairly certain it's not that stopping the problem system from starting, but do NOT put good ram in the problem system, just incase it damages that ram. The next thing if you don't have access to a meter, is a pretty gutty job, basically swap out the working system PSU, and wire it into the problem system, if your prepared to do this then I will guide further, but it's a pretty major task, but as a thought incase your on the edge of choosing, take a look at the working system, and see how clean it is inside, you could use it as an excuse to have a spring clean and evct any dust bunnies that may be there, if you have a meter this is not needed, but without it's probably the only way to check this option out, so up to you basically, what do you want to do next ?

Hi 8210GUY, I know all about hospital (my wife broke a leg last June and we are still working on it). The systems I had don't have compatible components. I've spoken with another friend who can test the RAM and HDD in a working system and he will pick up the box and let me know what he finds. Since we moved into the rural area and only have our own solar power supply, I've had to dispose of much of the PC stuff I had and it's times like these I really miss being able to just do these things without the need to pester friends to test things. I'll get back to you as soon as I know what we can do with this system.

I wish mine was a break, had enough of those over the years lol, but hope your wife gets sorted soon, but using it as soon as you can is a major factor to getting back on the road again, but obviously under doctors orders to avoid damage. Anyway the hard drive is not going to tell us anything, not unless it can not be seen by another system, in which case it "might" be a power surge taking out the entire system, but sometimes you can get a message come saying about formatting the drive before it can be accessed, obviously if this comes up do NOT do it, or they will lose everything, we just have to assume that as the system saw it then it's probably OK, but the ram will tell us just how deep the issue may be, if it works then it's a much bigger issue, if it doesn't then it's a question of if that has been taken out with the board and\or PSU as well as other parts. Now lets try and get an idea about power, surges are more common than people think, and are often responsible for taking out entire systems, or parts of, and running without surge protection is a lottery, and you need to feed everything that goes into the PC through such protection, otherwise you may as well not bother, so make sure that the router\net is covered as well. But does the owner have\use such cover ? If not they would be wise too, a UPS device is the ideal, although sometimes expensive, but surge strips are better than nothing if they can't afford a UPS. The next question is about power, you haven't mentioned the make\model PSU in the system, but with solar power I have never worked with it, but I know enough to know it's power can be limiting at times, but would you know if you are getting enough power from it to be able to power things that may be hungrier than your usual kit you run daily ? As such could your power of not been enough to run that system perhaps ?