Elusive Drivers. Tech Help Please!

[Callum]

Ohhhh dear. While it sounds not too difficultly repairable if you had a techie actually there... this is gonna take forever over the forums. Especially without regular internet access on your part.

Obviously, do check all the cables... but you've probably done that. Make sure that the graphics card (and hell, while you're at it, the memory, and any other cards as well) is properly seated in the PCI slot.

15 seconds after pushing the button? What was it doing before that? Absoultely nothing at all? No lights blinking anywhere on the board, no fans moving, no hard drive activity? If so, extremely weird... What is the contrast between it not turning on, and turning on with no graphics? Do you now have hard drive activity, or just fans? Are there any lights flashing on the board? Are there any beeps from the onboard speaker?

If it seems to start normally... I'd say no, not a power supply problem. They usually happen the other way around... in that it will seem to start up fine and then suddenly lose all power.

[Sever]

Firstly, this is the answer to the recent frustration. Comments welcome. It's not my money though.

I'll probably inherit my parent's old system (i'll have to kill a rig more often ). It HAS to be something simple going on but i'm stuffed if i can find it.

To the questions above:

RTB - Nothing is wrong with the monitor AFAIK. "Check signal cable" appears on screen on startup and then nothing. I've tried alternative (and incorrect) video cable setups and nothing happens on screen so i'm satisfied that something in there is still communicating with the monitor. Pins are clean and straight. If that's not enough, the same monitor works fine on my rig.

Callum - I've popped the bonnet briefly but didn't go as far as reseating components as i can see no way for them to become unseated without shifting the box. May be a wiring problem, but if so, it's well beyond my ability. 15 seconds certainly isn't normal for that thing and struck me as being weird for any machine. The very last time the rig worked (albeit in a not working kind of way) was just before i unplugged the monitor to use on my system. Not turning off automatically is, according to mum, normal for that thing. Knowing this, when i shut it down, i turned it off at the switch on back of power supply. Thinking back, i don't think i waited very long before throwing the switch. But that couldn't cause any trouble, should it? When i set it up again, it wouldn't turn on straight away. The rest is history. Lights and fans on box and monitor are normal, just no video.

Anyways, with the arrival of a new system, in a few days, the old girl has been bumped down the list. I'll take it home and have a crack at it in my spare time.

[Sever]

Back home and back online again. The driver rollback feature proved ineffective in restoring the lost drivers so i had to contact my supplier. A replacement disk fixed the problem and all is well again. Well, all except Oblivion which is still crashing like a 17yo in a Datsun 200-B. Back to Square One. Here we go again...

[TheDutkanator]

Are you still needing help? The following suggestions are extreme!

1. Re-install Windows making SURE you have your MOBO drivers FIRST! (Or access to the internet via a DIFFERENT PC). If you don't know what Mobo you have, open your case and look around for BIG text letters printed somewhere DIRECTLY ON the mobo. Once found, do Google searches for that text.

2. Get a new PC or have me build you one for half price. I custom build PC's for family and friends, not for profit, and I ALWAYS hook up sweet rigs, WAY better than anything you could find from DELL, Gateway, HP, etc.

[Sever]

Hey. You know i'd actually forgotten about that whole drama? The system i linked to two posts above turned out to be a big bucket of useless, but i can't say i'm surprised. Thankfully i don't have to worry about that any more, but i did lack the satisfaction of giving both rigs a suitable firey death. My own system (the one i started this thread for and which i'm typing on now) is fine but i can't remember exactly what i did to fix it.

Without wishing to spoil surprises, i think i know who's coming down a chimney this year.