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From: jamesb72 on 7 Apr 2008 16:04
I have a PC running 4 years no problems, Radeon 9200SE 128Mb AGP
graphics card. Since last week it is failing to boot every alternate
attempt, monitor shows 'no signal', I hold power down to power off,
and power on again and it works perfectly. This has happened over the
last 12 or so boot ups, both from cold and restarting windows.

I can only think this is a graphics card fault, so am borrowing an
identical working graphics card to check, but wondered if anyone has
seen a problem like this, where every alternate boot is perfectly OK
as it seems bizarre to me.
From: Calab on 7 Apr 2008 17:39

<jamesb72(a)googlemail.com> wrote in message
news:17d2b2c2-5960-4eb6-b753-acd408f3ab0b(a)m1g2000pre.googlegroups.com...
|I have a PC running 4 years no problems, Radeon 9200SE 128Mb AGP
| graphics card. Since last week it is failing to boot every alternate
| attempt, monitor shows 'no signal', I hold power down to power off,
| and power on again and it works perfectly. This has happened over the
| last 12 or so boot ups, both from cold and restarting windows.
|
| I can only think this is a graphics card fault, so am borrowing an
| identical working graphics card to check, but wondered if anyone has
| seen a problem like this, where every alternate boot is perfectly OK
| as it seems bizarre to me.

Sounds like a failing mainboard or PSU to me...

Check the mainboard for faulty capacitors. Try a Google search if you're
not sure what I'm referring to.


From: kony on 8 Apr 2008 03:13
On Mon, 7 Apr 2008 13:04:37 -0700 (PDT),
jamesb72(a)googlemail.com wrote:

>I have a PC running 4 years no problems, Radeon 9200SE 128Mb AGP
>graphics card. Since last week it is failing to boot every alternate
>attempt, monitor shows 'no signal', I hold power down to power off,
>and power on again and it works perfectly. This has happened over the
>last 12 or so boot ups, both from cold and restarting windows.
>
>I can only think this is a graphics card fault, so am borrowing an
>identical working graphics card to check, but wondered if anyone has
>seen a problem like this, where every alternate boot is perfectly OK
>as it seems bizarre to me.

Your monitor shows no signal because the video card isn't
outputting one, BUT that doesn't necessarily (doesn't
usually implicate) mean the video card is to blame. The
video card only outputs video if the system is successfully
initializing and POSTing, and not doing so can be caused by
many different things.

In other words, a failing video card could certainly cause
the problem but it is more often some other fault causing
the system to fail to initialize. Further, that the video
card is outputting (what we can assume is ok since you
haven't mentioned any further problem with the video)
if/when the system does initialize and POST, that would tend
to indicate the video card is ok, not the problem.

It would be good to have a concise description of all major
parts of the system, including brands and models of
motherboard, video, PSU, CPU, memory... and system model #
if it's an OEM system... just in case anyone recognizes any
of the parts as having known problems. Also it gives us an
idea of the total system power requirements against which
the PSU has to function properly, and in this case it is
even more significant in that a PSU problem is a common
cause of failing to POST.

As another poster has mentioned, checking the system for
failed capacitors is a good start. If you have a
multimeter, measuring PSU voltages is also good. Reducing #
of parts not only reduces variables in case some part were
to blame, but also reduces the power asked of the PSU. Try
the system with only CPU, heatsink/fan, 1 memory module, and
the least power hungry video card you have (an ancient PCI
card would be ideal, though if all you have is the Radeon
9200 I wouldn't be too concerned as it is a fairly power
conservative card and as mentioned above, if it seems to
work if/when the system can POST, we can reasonably suspect
something else is the problem. Your goal is only to get the
system to POST every time, not to boot (windows?) OS or
anything else so disconnect hard drives, and especially any
PS2 or USB devices like keyboard, mouse, etc, in case the
fault is a weak or failing 5VSB circuit on the PSU.

If you had another PSU handy, I'd suggest swapping it in
place of the old one. You might also leave the old one
disconnected from AC for a few minutes then open and inspect
it, especially checking for failed capacitors as you did on
the motherboard, particularly those near where the wiring
harness connects to the PCB.
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