PC fails to boot

[satimis]

Hi folks,

AMD single core CPU
Asus mobo A8N-VM
RAM 512x2 M
Ubuntu 9.04


When I turned on the PC in the morning. It failed to boot. Pressing [Del] had no function. The [Num Lock],[Cape Lock] and [Scroll Lock] flashed once. Please advise where shall I check.

TIA

B.R.
satimis

[mrrangerman43]

If the system beeps take note of the pattern then google the make and model of the MB for that error. If you get no display at all I would first check the video card, even if you have a old pci video card to through in. If changing the Vid-card has no effect I would check the cpu. I had the same thing happen on a older system of mine, the cpu went bad. Or it could be that the motherboard just went bad.

[saikee]

There are two types of booting failures.

(1) Hardware problem - Do what mrrangerman43 suggests. The signs are no display, beeping sound, loss of communication with the PC (dead mouse or keyboard etc).... This is a failure in the hardware. Most of the times it should be temporary. Switching off the system and retry may overcome it. If the problem persists then it is a hardware fault.

(2) System fails to boot - This is a case with a healthy PC but the operating system failed to boot, possibly from a dodgy hard disk. Again the problem could be temporary. A couple of retries may see the problem disappear. If the problem persists then the device holding the operating system may be near the end of its life. Save the data immediately if that is the case. How? Use a Live CD or any alternative operating system like a Dos on a floppy.

[bs_texas]

You might also try reseating all of the internal and external connectors (power, IDE, SATA, etc.) and reseat the memory and possibly clean and reapply the thermal compound between the CPU and heatsink.