No POST on old hardware

[Flyside]

Hey,

 

I've just built a PC with pretty old hardware - should only be a small cheap storage server (Can't even list all the parts - don't know their names). It's actually a friend's old PC, but it doesn't POST. I completely disassembled it, cleaned it, replaced the thermal compound after wiping the old one off with 96% alcohol.

 

When I turned on the PC, all the lights started to glow, the PSU and CPU fans started to spin, and they kept spinning, but there's no output to the display, which was hooked up to the graphics card. I'd have tried to plug the monitor directly into the motherboard if I had had the proper cable to do so.

 

I think the graphics card is dead, but I wanted to hear your opinon.

[Oberon.Smite]

If you tried to boot with the GPU on the board, then that's your problem. Remove the GPU, THEN boot from the integrated gfx.

[guyosi]

do you hear anything from the hard drive?

[Flyside]

Yes, I will try this when I've the proper cable.

[Flyside]

@guyosi Yes the hard drive (at least one of them) is also spinning I believe.

[Jacktastic-Mofo]

It's the fact that you probably don't have the Graphics drivers for the GPU. Try to use onboard graphics and get to the desktop and install the Graphics Driver.

[guyosi]

@guyosi Yes the hard drive (at least one of them) is also spinning I believe.

 i think its a dead gpu then, you do hear a post beep right

[Master Disaster]

It's the fact that you probably don't have the Graphics drivers for the GPU. Try to use onboard graphics and get to the desktop and install the Graphics Driver.

Is this a joke or serious?

OP, have you tried a cmos reset?

[0x1e]

It's the fact that you probably don't have the Graphics drivers for the GPU. Try to use onboard graphics and get to the desktop and install the Graphics Driver.

Drivers mean nothing if you can't get past post. They don't load till long past post.

[Flyside]

 i think its a dead gpu then, you do hear a post beep right

yes i hear this post beep, as mentioned above everything seems to be running but it just doesn't output a signal to the display.

[Flyside]

another problem is, i don't even know the name of the display connector that's on the mainboard, I'll upload a picture when I've time.

[Flyside]

I fixed it! It was a dead RAM stick, I replaced it with 2 512MB DDR2 sticks and now the system outputs to the display and seems to be working.