Computer not booting at all

[ninjafinity]

I'm not sure if this is a problem with Fedora or with hardware/firmware, but here's what happened:

After using Ubuntu and other Debian-based distros for a while, I finally decided to install Fedora 17 last night. The installation went fine, everything seemed okay except for a problem with X11 not letting me add a mode with my correct screen resolution. I've rebooted it a few times and have had no problems. I put it in sleep mode (or something like that) and left it for the night. This morning I went to start it back up, but it wasn't working, so I force shutdown the computer and go to restart it. I turned on the power, but nothing showed up on the monitor.

The power light is on and I heard the hard drive starting and whirring, but nothing is showing up. I've tried this several times witht the same results. I'm not even getting the screen that shows up before GRUB. Do you have any idea what this might be? Thanks in advance.

[george_toolan]

That screen before grub is your BIOS information screen and should be working without Linux and even without a HDD.

Shut down your computer completely.

Now double check if both ends of the video cable are connected properly to your computer and monitor.

Also make sure the power cable is connected to your monitor and it is switched on.

Can you test your monitor on a different computer or a different monitor on your computer?

[bkahuna]

If you have been turning off/on your desktop "a few times" you may need to discharge the system. I had this problem a lot with older computers being unable to load the bios or do anything really because the RAM/CMIOS/ROM didn't completely blank out because of an overcharged something-or-other. Anyway, just turn the computer all the way off, unplug (or switch the power supply off), and hit the "power on" button. You should see fans spin and die, a light flicker. Do this a couple times if you need. Then plug back in and turn on.

[ninjafinity]

Thanks! Yeah, I'm using a laptop, so I just tried taking out and putting back in the battery. It boots up fine now. Now I just have to work on customizing my shiny new install . Thanks for the help.