OT: Computer help; won't start
 

Dimension 8100, P-4, WinME, out of warranty and tech service. No new software or hardware recently. Monitor is a year or so old.

Recently my computer has had problems starting up. I turn it on, it grinds a bit, makes a quiet beep, then nothing happens. After a couple tries it would boot up and run just fine.

Now it won't start at all. Makes the same noise as before, fan fires up, grinds, one quiet beep. Nothing appears on screen.

Notes:

* I took the computer apart, switched around the RAM sticks, no go.
* Cleaned out the inside of the computer (air canister)
* Reseated the RAM sticks and graphics card
* Checked the wire to the HD
* I can eject the CD drive, although it won't boot off the CD
* Keyboard, router, modem all light up when computer is turned on (connection to PC), although pressing caps/scroll lock won't light up the keyboard light (ie: keyboard lights only light up when I turn the computer on)
* Checked the power plug; even switched surge protectors
* Computer was running fine when it was 'alive', no crashes or system slowdown
* Ran scandisk when it was alive, no errors. Also defragged.
* When computer was alive, and booted after several failed attempts, during boot it gave an error that said "Previous attempts at booting the system have failed at Checkpoint [CRT] ?"
* I tried another working monitor, and it still wouldn't boot

I'm about to toss the HD into another computer on my network and see if I can access my files (If the HD is dead, I only lost a couple hundred MP3s, 50gig of programs I mostly have CDs for and my documents I changed in the last month, so it's not MAJOR damage). After that I'm kinda out of ideas. Thanks.

Hmmm....have you tried a different graphics card?

Was on my list of things I might try. The current card is a Gainward GF4, probably a year and a half old or so. I have GF2 sitting around I could try.

EDIT: My recent list, that is. After a suggestion from a friend.

any hardware changes made around the time this started happening?

I think Sabotai is probably on the right track with the video card (changing the monitor shouldn't have any effect). I would doublecheck the seating of the vid card - they can be really finicky.

any hardware changes made around the time this started happening?

I think Sabotai is probably on the right track with the video card (changing the monitor shouldn't have any effect). I would doublecheck the seating of the vid card - they can be really finicky.

Wow, ugh, turned out to be the graphics card. GF4, down the drain. Im kinda ticked ...

Got it in 2002

well, at least you know...

One graphics card I had only lasted around 6 months. It happens with hardware from time to time.