Computer help forum: Computer starts to boot then stops

What do you suggest to use as the scraper so as to avoid damaging the surface?

that did the trick (just alcohol on soft cotton). Thanks. Now to find some thermal paste.

...the video card isn't working, I'm curious why you haven't put in a new video card? It seems like an important step if you're looking for a video display to show up on your monitor..

Here's a link to the motherboard model you've given us. Note the specifications of the mobo which show an AGP slot for (8x/4x-AGP 3.0 compliant), supports 1.5v display card only. If you don't have one that's supported, then you'll need to get one that is.

http://www.gigabyte.com.tw/Products/Motherboard/Products_Spec.aspx?ClassValue=Motherboard&ProductID=1756&ProductName=GA-7N400%20Pro2

Hope this helps.

Grif

OK, tried booting with only 1 stick of ram each time.

The first stick gave the beep codes as mentioned earlier. Each of the other sticks gave a single long beep (which may have had a short beep immediately following. Sorry about the maybe but the beep gets muddy there.)

So I installed two sticks (exluding the one that may be ersatz and one other) and now have onscreen video which shows (among other stuff) a RAM test which checks out OK.

A problem is that when it firsts puts up video (during the pre-OS boot up) there are 1/4" wide white vertical bars (about i" apart center to center) on a black background which makes reading the screen very difficult. Then it changes to horizontal white lines composed of low res periods ( " . ") spaced about 1/4" apart also on a black background. A bit easier to read, but not what I expected. (Forgot to mention that this is an old CRT monitor.)

I tried running a virtual Linux install and also an XP install CD, each of which started out OK, but after 30 seconds or a minute the computer gave an irritating noise, very much like a fax greeting tone, for a few seconds and then shut down. One bit of good news is that when the Linux (Ubuntu) CD begins to create video output, it is of good quality.

I wonder if this is also a heat issue which appears when the CPU has to work. The load of an OS install shouldn't tax the CPU very much and so logically it would not seem likely, but given the history and the similarity of the tone to that heard earlier when I first started trying to power up, one has to imagine that it could be a similar issue.

Also, don't know if it is significant, the little light on the mobo which I have always seen as green in colour, is amber.

Any ideas in light of the developments?

Thermal paste should be applied in a very thin coat.. Did you do that? If not, try again..

A new CPU fan is generally inexpensive.. Replace it.

And after all that, before restarting the next time, leave the side cover off the computer tower, point a house fan at the computer inards, then turn it on.. Does the comp now run correctly? If it does, then you need more cooling inside.. If the fans don't fix the issue, then you're motherboard probably is damaged (bad capacitors, etc.) and you'll need a new one.

Hope this helps.

Grif