Boot Problem

[Sharpster]

How would I get to SAFE MODE if it barely stays on for 5 seconds. Nothing comes up on the monitor or anything so I wouldnt even be able to see when to hit the F8 or w.e.

[XMEN Ashaman DTM]

Hmm...

try wiggling your monitor cable at the monitor and at the video card. It may be a loose cable. But make sure your video card is seated in its slot before you go wiggling it (those voltage spikes from connecting and disconnecting the card will be hell on your motherboard and video card).

[XMEN Iceman]

If it is staying on only like 5 seconds then you definitely have a hardware issue. Ok, this is going to sound stupid...make sure the power button is not stuck down. I had that happen before on another clients machine.

If that is not the problem then reset the CMOS to clear out any incorrect settings. Then reboot.

If that does not work then disconnect all drives, put out ALL cards except for the video card. Then see if it comes up. Then one by one reconnect to see what is shorting out the board.

Worse comes to worse pull out the motherboard and reseat it to make sure there is nothing stuck below it that is shorting the board out below.

Report back here.

David

[Sharpster]

Heya guys, I have an update as to what the problem is. After I tried all of the suggestions here including the Ojibwe dance... Still know luck. I set it aside for awhile as im starting to get all the information and starting the beginning steps of applying to colleges. My aunt's neighbor finally found some time to stop by before work ( He lives a good 45 mins away ). He basically fixes this kinda stuff but he is more on the robotics side or somthing like that. Anyway, after a few minutes he determined it was the Motherboard. He took the pc with him when he left a few minutes ago and is gonna place an extra one in there for me that he has laying around his collection of random parts. In the meantime im going to have to dig up the papers on the motherboard and try to get a replacement while it is still under warranty.

EDIT: It's currently running Server 2003 which he said would be better because its a 64bit OS. Do you think newegg would still replace these parts ? The order date was like last august? Is that too long ago ?

EDIT2: lol I think my xfire has been hacked...