Dark Jedi

We seem to be on the same page Madcatz. When everything is disconnected from the motherboard, there is a friendly single beep and lights on the DVD & CD drives come on and they will open. I can also hear that it checks the a: drive if i put a diskette in there. However, the HDD makes no sound, and the monitor is still blank and goes back to sleep. Note that the HDD light is off because its wire is disconnected from the mobo. I completely removed the RAM stick and plugged in again - no beeps of any kind, good or bad. Placed the stick in the other slot, and got the same result as before. I'm looking around for a spare stick that would fit this machine, but I bet we don't have one. This machine was donated, we have lots of spare parts for our older machines. And, since this machine was donated, we do not have the CDs that came with it, although I may be able to contact the guy and see if he still has them (doubtful, and I don't even know how long it has been).

I am not a great diagnostician, and originally posted this in the Windows XP forum because I believed it to have something to do with the standby mode. I still think that's a possibility, the post got moved here. I also still think it may be the video card (also looking around here for a compatible one) or, worst case, the motherboard.

Thanks for your help Madcatz. With what I have told you, what direction would you point me in? (The school is not going to spend significant money to fix a donated machine. If it were the PS, we have spares, and they might spring for a video card or memory stick, but not a new mobo. I just feel sorry for the who was doing a PP project for Grandparent's Day and lost his stuff and it's next week. )