Home Theatre PC not booting

[*MH*]

Hi forum,

I have a major issue with my HTPC; it won't boot. It was working fine until I tried to add a second TV tuner card. Windows 7 recognised the Pinnacle TV card and the signal, but when I reinstalled the second TV card the HTPC suddenly refused to show anything on the screen (both HDMI and VGA) when booting, even though the fans started up and the HDD could be heard to start up. I then managed to knock out the power button connector which I have now replaced but now the machine gets into a boot cycle when I turn it on; the fans start up for about 15 seconds, the machine powers off and then starts up again repeatedly

The mobo is an ASRock H77 Pro4-M. I have re-seated all the RAM, checked all the cables, removed the TV tuner cards (BGT3620 and Pinnacle PCTV 7010iX), tried a standard VGA monitor (which reports no signal), but still no luck. Does anyone have any suggestions? At the moment my HTPC is just a really expensive door stop!

Thanks for your help.

 

[MonkeyJug]

Obvious one first - have you tried clearing the BIOS?

 

[PegasusM]

I believe MonkeyJug means clearing the CMOS (resetting the BIOS) - definitely worth a try. If you don't have a jumper for it on your motherboard, remove the battery wait at least 30 seconds (couple of minutes is better) and replace it.

 

[*MH*]

Thanks very much Monkeyjug and PegasusM - I'll give that a try and let you know how I get on. Love the avatar Monkeyjug - I used to love my Astro Wars!

 

[*MH*]

Hi everyone,

Finally had time to try your suggestions (thank you!) and I have managed to stop the machine from rebooting - I re-seated the reboot cables which seemed to do it. I still don't have any video output (not even the splash screen), but the machine does now sound like it is starting up correctly.

I removed all the PCI cards, all but one stick of RAM and connected a single HDD - still no video. I tried adding a different graphics card (dual DVI) - again nothing. I reset the CMOS using the jumpers and by removing the RTM battery (at different times), but still nothing. I have been through the manual and checked all the cables on the mobo, but didn't find anything to help. I have emailed ASRock, but judging by some other posts I have found I don't hold out much hope. My monitor just displays "check signal cable" which makes me think the VGA port may not be getting any power/signal. Do any of you have any more suggestions?

Thanks.

 

[MonkeyJug]

Are you connecting via onboard video?

Have you tried connecting directly to a dedicated graphics card?

Have you tried a different monitor? Connection type? Hdmi/dvi/VGA?

 

[*MH*]

Are you connecting via onboard video?

Have you tried connecting directly to a dedicated graphics card?

Have you tried a different monitor? Connection type? Hdmi/dvi/VGA?

Yes, on-board graphics, but I have tried a different graphics card which also failed to give a signal. I tried the HDMI connection on the TV and I tried DVI with the monitor, still no luck when they both worked before.