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No video after recovering from flashing power light

5

5pips49

Weaksauce
Joined
Mar 7, 2025
Messages
76
HP Pavilion 500-336 (circa 2015)
upgrades:
took out hard drive, replace with 2 SSDs
replaced power supply with Corsair CX450
replace Ram with 2 x Adata DDR3 1600(11) 4GX8
All of the upgrades were done probably over 5 years ago
Linux Mint is the only OS installed.

I started up the computer. I hadn't started this up in a while probably over 6 months.
The power button lit up to show that it was on. I also could hear the case fan start up. Then, both the case fan and the power button "turned off." This kept repeating.

In effort to fix, I removed one of the RAM chips. The computer now seems to power up (I think case fan and other fan are on) but there is no video output. I tried both video ports on the motherboard.

Any ideas?
 
Yeah, they're expensive no matter where you go, it's the lithium tax. At least the ones at local stores probably didn't sit in a hot warehouse for years, still should check the date before buying though.
 
I put in a new CR2032 battery that was lying around my place. However, there is no expiration date because package was cut and nothing printed on the battery itself.
The computer is still behaving the same way, though.
Side note: the CMOS battery was quite difficult to get out. However, thin wooden kebob skewer was perfect tool (A++). it kind of has a latch that looks like it needs a small screw driver head to release.
 
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Just wondering why the monitor doesn't give a no signal or indicate disconnection of the cable or the cable input change(assuming a different cable is used).
 
Maybe the PSU is faulty? I have an older CX450 and the new machine I was building/bench testing with it would power on but then just randomly shut off after a few minutes.
Do you have another PSU to hook and test with?
EDIT: it was a CX430

1779081774999.png
 
learners permit said:
Just wondering why the monitor doesn't give a no signal or indicate disconnection of the cable or the cable input change(assuming a different cable is used).
Click to expand...
the monitor did say something like "entering power saving mode." might have said, "no signal, entering power saving mode."
I would just try it again and tell you what it said. But, I don't like powering the computer off by pressing the power button excessively.
 
I think I do still have the original power supply. There was nothing wrong with the power supply when I replaced it. I will just have to find the power supply.
 
5pips49 said:
the monitor did say something like "entering power saving mode." might have said, "no signal, entering power saving mode."
I would just try it again and tell you what it said. But, I don't like powering the computer off by pressing the power button excessively.
Click to expand...

Powering it down with the power button is fine, but you might want to unplug your SSD's just in case it is booting but you can't see it, and you could corrupt your OS if you keep powering it off during mid boot.
 
Story about replacing the power supply (if tldr, see cliff notes below):
I disconnected the power supply cables completely and I disconnected the sata cables. Side note: One thing that I didn't mention in the original post is that the case was overly cluttered with power supply cables. Good chance that one or more of the plastic twist ties was/were touching the motherboard. The twist ties were helping to keep the ends of the power supply cables away from the motherboard.

I was just about to start looking for some screwdrivers. I decided to reconnect the power supply cables to the motherboard again and try to boot.
--
edit: Cliff notes for post thusfar: I unplugged all of the power supply cables and plugged them back in. Also, I unplugged the 2 sata cables from the data drives and then plugged those back in.
--
And, it worked!

Powered down. Then, I attached the 2 drives and booted into the operating system. So, at least the boot drive is working.

I might want to run a backup before I try my luck with anything else.

After that, worth trying the second stick of ram again?
 
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You could add the second memory module and use grubs built in memtest 86 in the grub preboot environment to find out if your memory is the issue. I would try to run memtest once before adding the second module because some versions of mint have removed it from the boot loader.
  1. Restart or turn on your computer.
  2. Immediately press and hold the left Shift key (or repeatedly tap it) to bring up the GRUB boot menu.
  3. Look for the Memory Test (or memtest86+) option.
  4. Highlight it using the arrow keys and press Enter to launch the test. [1, 2, 3]
 
learners permit said:
I would try to run memtest once before adding the second module because some versions of mint have removed it from the boot loader.
Click to expand...
thank you for the reminder about memtest86+ being packaged with Mint like that. I actually ended up just using the latest USB installer (Linux Mint 22.3). you boot to the USB installer and choose memtest86+ from its grub menu*. It's memtest86+ 7.00.
Edit: memtest86+ results:
3 passes, 0 errors.

Edit2: memtest86+ results (both RAM sticks):
3 passes, 0 errors.

Edit3: memtest86+ results (both RAM sticks):
ran again: 24 passes, no errors.

*this seems to be easier than getting into the grub menu when there is an "already installed" single OS on the drive. When there are multiple OSes, the user has sometimes has it set so that it's easier to get into the grub boot menu.

Edit3:
I was really panicking at the onset of this problem and it was a big relief to have some ideas on things to try. It was also a great learning experience--I especially liked the idea of disconnecting the data drives to mitigate the chance of data loss.
 
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