My computer stalls during boot

[panoramacon]

I start my computer and it starts to boot up like usual, but when it get's to what I guess is the BIOS page which says what kind of motherboard I have and such, it stops. I can't even hit delete to get into the BIOS settings. I have checked my ram by plugging the chip sets into different slots and one at a time and, either way, nothing changes. I tried my video cards in different slots and nothing changes. No matter what I can think to do it still stalls at the same place.

I know I screwed it up somehow because it didn't do this until the night before, when I accidently told it to restart when I just wanted it to shut down. So I waited for it to shut down and then turned it off at the power before it could boot up again. I know it was stupied of me to do and I won't be doing that ever again. If that is not the cause, then the only other thing I can think of is that I installed an upgrade to my NVidia drivers the night before. But my computer had rebooted twice since then. So I am at a total loss as to what to do now. Can someone please help me?

 

[Jakespeare]

Put all the parts back the way they were before.

When it is booting up,hold down the F8 key.
Try to get to a boot screen.
Start in SAFE MODE.

See what happens.


*Also: You mention "video cards" ? You have multiple video cards ? (or was that a misprint)

If you do have TWO video cards, then try booting up with only the Primary video card.

 

[panoramacon]

Yes, I have two video cards and actually I did try to boot with just my primary. I also tried to boot with just my secondary.

And here's an update. It's gotten worse. I put in my windows CD and suprisingly it booted up. I have windows 2000 by the way. Well, when I logged in, it said that I was missing a dll but I can't remember the name of it, sorry. It also prompted me if I wanted to install windows, uninstall it or exit. Well, I was confused since it came up with all of my configurations in order (but only on one monitor). I was guessing that my second monitor didn't come up because I had plugged the video card into the 3rd slot down instead of the slot just under the main one, where it had been originally, (thinking it would get better air circulation that way), so I told it to restart. Well windows shut down but it wouldn't come back up. So I turned the power off and waited a few seconds and flipped the switch again and...NOTHING.

Now I can't even get this thing to turn on! I checked that all my connections were secure. I even went so far as to take the case completely off and check every connection from the powerbutton to the Motherboard, from the motherboard to the power socket. I still couldn't find anything wrong.

I am totally at a loss as to what to do now. Any suggestions?

 

[Jakespeare]

Any suggestions?

Yes, Buy a new power supply and try that.

If you can, try that suspect power supply in another computer to see if it works. It is possible you ruined the power supply by doing that rough shutdown on it. Hopefully it is not the mainboard itself.

 

[panoramacon]

Jakespeare, I took the power supply out and pluged into a cpu fan of another computer and nothing happened. I think I shorted it out some how just like you suggested.

So now I will get a new powersupply just to get my machine running again so then I can pick up where I left off trying to solve the other problem. Man! talk about when it rains it pours, hun?