Troubleshooting this system.

[puckett]

So, When I decided to upgrade to Windows 7 64 awhile ago....
Installed fine, When it rebooted at the end of installation it froze on the windows logo upon startup. It did this numerous times. Then I tried it another time and I heard 4 clicks from my PC. I immediatly shutdown fearing my western digital hdd bit the dust. In tears I ran a harddrive tester, results said it was in working order. I figured it has to be my PCI wifi card, I pulled that out. Booted the system up, All fans spin, system does a short beep meaning everything is in working order but I got no display on the video card, rebooted couple times then my computer would not beep and would not display. I took out the 8800GTS 512 making sure to ground myself and trying to avoid the PCB as much as possible. Plugged my VGA cable into the onboard. Everything works until windows 7 boots up... into 640x420, onboard LAN senses a connection but does not want to connect to my network, I installed the chipset and video drivers for onboard display and the motherboard. Now it boots up with a white desktop, nothing visible but my cursor.
Does anybody know the problem? I'm thinking my motherboard is toast.

[SnipingCoward]

System specs please. Is your mainboard 64-bit capable?

So, When I decided to upgrade to Windows 7 64 awhile ago....
Installed fine, When it rebooted at the end of installation it froze on the windows logo upon startup. It did this numerous times.

Shortly after installation you should grant windows a bit more time to boot as it still do some post installation configurations. If you rebooted too early you might have caused this loop yourself ending up with a faulty installation.
Or this might have simply been a faulty installation from the start which should have been fixed by reinstalling.

Then I tried it another time and I heard 4 clicks from my PC. I immediatly shutdown fearing my western digital hdd bit the dust. In tears I ran a harddrive tester, results said it was in working order. I figured it has to be my PCI wifi card, I pulled that out.

You are correct, the most-likley cause of (very short) clicks is a hard drive but sometimes it also is something (cable ending) dangling into a fan. Double check that this is not the case.
Another possible source might be (internal) speakers. Instead of beeping it cut off short and ended up as a click. (It would be intersting if the start up beep is working correctly right now. Maybe (very unlikely) the speaker ripped.
I had a hard drive that would do ramdom clicks during usage. It did this for a few month before it finally gave in. This might be why the tester did not report a defect.

Booted the system up, All fans spin, system does a short beep meaning everything is in working order but I got no display on the video card, rebooted couple times then my computer would not beep and would not display. I took out the 8800GTS 512 making sure to ground myself and trying to avoid the PCB as much as possible. Plugged my VGA cable into the onboard.

Spinning Fans are most important.
Some motherboards will (e.g. after performing a safety shutdown) set some BIOS settings to fail-safe values. One of those might have changed the default VGA device to onboard. So effectively meaning you could have maybe just simple switched the cable to the onboard video and left the GFX-Card inside and would have gotten the image.

Everything works until windows 7 boots up... into 640x420, onboard LAN senses a connection but does not want to connect to my network, I installed the chipset and video drivers for onboard display and the motherboard.

Low resolution as the first screen is normal. Since it is Win7 you should be able to simply switch to a higher resolution without any further drivers (1024x768 will usually suffice for that).

my usual installation order:

1. Motherboard drivers ("chipset") (usually from CD)
2. remaining mobo-drivers (SATA, LAN, Audio) (usually from CD)
4. newest GFX drivers from manufacturer (preferably fresh off the net)
5. remaining (USB stuff etc.)

Now it boots up with a white desktop, nothing visible but my cursor.

At this point I suggest simply reinstalling. It does not take as much time compared to troubleshooting and ending up with a possibly impaired OS from the start.

Does anybody know the problem? I'm thinking my motherboard is toast.

Right now it just seem like you are being unlucky with your windows installation process.
But one thing you should do is go into the BIOS and reset to "defaults" (not "fail-safe defaults"), or even better reset it using the (hardware) jumper-method.

[puckett]

SnipingCoward;1497446']System specs please. Is your mainboard 64-bit capable?
Motherboard: F690GVM
CPU: AMD Athlon 64 X2 Brisbane 5000+ AM2
Ram: 4GB DDR2 Dual Channel 677
Video card: Nvidia Geforce 8800GTS 512 G92 GPU

Shortly after installation you should grant windows a bit more time to boot as it still do some post installation configurations. If you rebooted too early you might have caused this loop yourself ending up with a faulty installation.
Or this might have simply been a faulty installation from the start which should have been fixed by reinstalling.

It was an automatic installation, I also tried it twice.


You are correct, the most-likley cause of (very short) clicks is a hard drive but sometimes it also is something (cable ending) dangling into a fan. Double check that this is not the case.
Checked inside the case, No wires appear to be broken but I have not checked inside my 8800GTS 512 which has a huge fan covering the entire top of the PCB
Another possible source might be (internal) speakers. Instead of beeping it cut off short and ended up as a click. (It would be intersting if the start up beep is working correctly right now. Maybe (very unlikely) the speaker ripped.
Without the 8800GTS in the PCI-E slot, It gives a POST test successful beep.
I had a hard drive that would do ramdom clicks during usage. It did this for a few month before it finally gave in. This might be why the tester did not report a defect.
I'm not sure if its the harddrive, This harddrive isnt that old and has never done this before. It only did the 4 clicks once then nothing after that even after a reboot.

Spinning Fans are most important.
Some motherboards will (e.g. after performing a safety shutdown) set some BIOS settings to fail-safe values. One of those might have changed the default VGA device to onboard. So effectively meaning you could have maybe just simple switched the cable to the onboard video and left the GFX-Card inside and would have gotten the image.
I had the 8800GTS in, 6-pin connector inserted, Fans spinning, Yet it would not produce a display. Even with the card inserted and the fans spinning my onboard video would only work. It is set to PCI-E not onboard.

Low resolution as the first screen is normal. Since it is Win7 you should be able to simply switch to a higher resolution without any further drivers (1024x768 will usually suffice for that).
Yeah, But I installed the chipset and IGP drivers and it blanked my screen white... Yet the cursor still appears to be functional.

my usual installation order:

1. Motherboard drivers ("chipset") (usually from CD)
2. remaining mobo-drivers (SATA, LAN, Audio) (usually from CD)
4. newest GFX drivers from manufacturer (preferably fresh off the net)
5. remaining (USB stuff etc.)

At this point I suggest simply reinstalling. It does not take as much time compared to troubleshooting and ending up with a possibly impaired OS from the start.
I tried that twice, without reformatting because I have very important data on the HDD, And I assume it will be put into a Windows.old folder
Right now it just seem like you are being unlucky with your windows installation process.
But one thing you should do is go into the BIOS and reset to "defaults" (not "fail-safe defaults"), or even better reset it using the (hardware) jumper-method.
My mainboard just not have jumpers

Its a OEM board from acer; It looks like a foxconn A690GM2MA-8EKRS2H though.
I wonder if windows just hates my motherboard.
To be completely honest, I want my mainboard and CPU to die instead of my video card... It gives me as excuse to get a newer mobo and a quad core. Besides, my video card is good enough anyways.

Do you think I should open up my video cards cooling system and check for broken parts/wires/capacitors?

[SnipingCoward]

Try with simply taking out the battery to reset the bios. (Clear CMOS - 3 Ways to Clear the CMOS - Reset BIOS)

Do you think I should open up my video cards cooling system and check for broken parts/wires/capacitors?

Taking off the casing is not that critical, if you know what you are doing... go ahead. But I guess it is unlikely you will see anything of interest since it is not rattling when the fans are spinning or you are shaking the card a bit I'd guess.

To rule out that its your GFX card you have to test it on another mainboard and confirm that is working (friend's maybe?).
Also I usually test using other spare parts to figure out which component is broken... pretty much a trial-and-error process

It is possible that your motherboards PCI-E slot is toast. This would explain why the 8800 does not send a signal.

As a general rule of thumb: If you are worried that your data might get lost. It is time for a back up.
When installing an OS I prefere wiping the disc, repartitioning, reformatting and then installing... old school, I guess.

[puckett]

SnipingCoward;1498018']Try with simply taking out the battery to reset the bios. (Clear CMOS - 3 Ways to Clear the CMOS - Reset BIOS)


Taking off the casing is not that critical, if you know what you are doing... go ahead. But I guess it is unlikely you will see anything of interest since it is not rattling when the fans are spinning or you are shaking the card a bit I'd guess.

To rule out that its your GFX card you have to test it on another mainboard and confirm that is working (friend's maybe?).
Also I usually test using other spare parts to figure out which component is broken... pretty much a trial-and-error process

It is possible that your motherboards PCI-E slot is toast. This would explain why the 8800 does not send a signal.

As a general rule of thumb: If you are worried that your data might get lost. It is time for a back up.
When installing an OS I prefere wiping the disc, repartitioning, reformatting and then installing... old school, I guess.

Yeah, I will try taking my 8800 over to a friends and asking if I can test it in his motherboard. I hope my card doesent fry his motherboard or I can kiss goodbye to upgrading my PC, instead paying for his mobo. Also, I opened up my graphics card, cleaned off the PCB and added new thermal grease. The OEM stuff that was on it was all warn out and dry. I know the 8800 series cards had problems with microfractures in the solder because of 60+ temps. I wonder if I put it in my oven for 6 minutes it would reflow the solder? Also I tried the battery procedure and it did not fix the problem.

[Darkpowder]

4 clicks from your PC as has been said before sounds like a failed HD to me.
I would listen closely to the HD and you should be able to hear that quite clearly on bootup to confirm.
Chances are you were working the fallback mode that Win7 uses if it can't ID your controllers on board.

Make sure you DL Win7 (x32 or x64 depending on which you need) drivers for your mobo controller components. Check officially with ACER and look on their forums for compatibility. Best advice so far is the need for a new mobo perhaps.