Power Cut.. Now PC doesn't display.

So last night while gaming we had a powercut in our street. I thought nothing of it and when the power came back at 11pm I hit the power button in an attempt to get a few hours more on the PC before I slept.. The system fans all started (including CPU + GPU), USBs are receiving power and the hard drives and disk drives are also recieving power.. but I am recieving no visual on screen.

Now the first thing I suspected was dead graphics card but the onboard LED diagnostics for my motherboard (Biostar TP45) indicates an "Abnormal Error" rather than a RAM or VGA error.

I'm wondering if theres anything I can do to findout whats causing the problem, as I don't have a spare gpu, other than a suspected fried 7600 GT. I'm receiving no bleeps on boot and its impossible to power down without pulling power from the wall or the PSU power button. The first time after fulling turning off in this manor that I boot, the system start for about 6seconds then restarts and then remains on without a display until I repull the power.

Hoping someone can help me out and hopefully explain how a GPU (if it is the problem) could have been affected by this powercut.

System specs are on the left.
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Aden.

Might be a random question but have you got another power supply that you could try?

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Originally Posted by spiral out

Might be a random question but have you got another power supply that you could try?

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I do.. whether the powersupply works or not is another question. Its a dodgy 400watter which Im reluctant to use on any component worth money as I suspect it was what killed my previous system.

Ah well i wouldn't try that then.

Any other ideas anyone?

Do you have/can you borrow a multimeter or a basic PSU tester?

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Originally Posted by watercooled

Do you have/can you borrow a multimeter or a basic PSU tester?

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I could probably get hold of one?

If you can, start the PSU by connecting the green wire on the 24 pin connector to any black wire using a paperclip. Then, check the voltages are OK - yellow to black(ground) should be +12V, red to black should be +5V and orange to black should be +3.3V. Also, blue to black should be -12V and purple to black should be +5V. Bear in mind voltages can be with in 5&#37; of the stated voltage (apart from -12V which can be ~10%)

Aight thanks, I'll try and get hold of one and check the voltages out.

Maybe I'll try and workout whether my 7600 GT is fried or not.. and see if that'll work in here too.

I was wondering though. I was gaming at the time, could the graphics card have overheated from the power being cut during gaming.

Just Making sure: You did power cycle and unplug/replug EVERYTHING right?

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Originally Posted by M O N S 7 A R

Just Making sure: You did power cycle and unplug/replug EVERYTHING right?

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Yeah I did. Also can't get hold of a multimeter anytime this weekend :(

Was going to test my graphics card theory with my dads old card.. turns out its AGP.. :( So i can't do that..

I'll plug the rig back in shortly (I'm at my dads for the weekend) and see what I can do. I'm sure he won't be too happy if I salvage pieces from his newest build for testing though :P

Well I decided to clear the CMOS as a last resort.. and.. IT WORKED =D

So i'm not sure what the powercut affected, but its all fixed now and thank you all for youir suggestions.

:)

Great! Also, if you can still get hold of a multimeter check the voltage of your CMOS battery which could be running low. How old is the battery and how long each day you have the PC plugged in for, not necessarily running - just power being supplied to the 5VSB rail ie on standby?

Battery was fresh with the motherboard in February and PC gets about 18hours a day.

OK it's unlikely to be bad then. Glad you got it sorted anyway!