First, I am not sure if this is bad list etiquette, but I posted this at
on the PCBUILD forum as well. Please accept my apologizes if it is
against the rules submit the problem to the list and post the same
problem on the forums. It appears that the readership is different which
is why I am doing this.

Here is my situation:

I have a weird hardware problem.

I have a Intel 915A motherboard in a home brewed computer. It has 512MB
of memory and a 450w rated power supply. Windows XP Home is the
operating system on it. I use the built in video. There are no other
cards in the available PCI slots.

When I was running Webroot's Spy Sweeper about a week ago I came back to
the computer to see that the computer had become "frozen". Neither the
mouse or keyboard would respond. Spy Sweeper was stopped in mid scan. A
hard power down was required. When I restarted the computer there was no
signal to the monitor. The fans and lights would come on, but no video
signal so I cannot even see a POST test. There are no beeping sounds
either. I tried restarting the computer several time with the same
effect.

After leaving the computer on for about 5 minutes, the computer shut off
and it smelled like something electrical was burning. It smelled like it
was coming from the power supply.

I replaced the power supply with a spare 300w. The computer started up
again, but without a video signal -- the same as the original problem.

I inserted a friend's Chaintech GeForce 5200 PCI-based video adapter in
one of the PCI slots. When I turned the computer on with the video card
in the PCI slot, it would briefly start (about a second) and then turn
off.

I went out and purchased a new power supply that was rated at what the
original was -- 450w. Now with video card in the PCI slot, the computer
starts up and stays on, but still no video from either the built in
video or the video card.

I have tried all of these steps with two different monitors and verified
those monitors work on other computers.

Whew! If you have gotten this far, thanks!

I am not a hardware person so I am stumped. What should I do next? Is my
system board fried? It seems like it is not since with the 450w power
supply the lights and fans come on and stay on, but I am perplexed as to
why I cannot get a video signal. Was the original "freezing" of Spy
Sweeper indicative of something? Could a virus have infected the CMOS or
damaged my hardware?

Without being able to "see" any error messages or the POST test results
and not hearing any beep codes I do not know where to go from here.

Thanks for any help you can provide.

Matt

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