This evening my sister in law called me with a computer problem.
She lives in Washington state and I livein South Dakota, so I can't run over there quickly.

For her desktop PC (sorry, no make/model numbers), she had bought a linksys WMP54G wireless card.
She said she put it in the PCI slot PRETTY carefully, but when she tried to turn on the machine, the only thing that happened was the CPU and PSU fans spinnig.

No beeb, and the monitor stayed BLANK. It seems it doesn't boot up.

My fear, a fried motherboard, but I would like to know what you guys think?
If someone called you with this problem, what would you have him/her do?

Any help will be appreciated



1.  Power cords.  Make sure the power cords to the back of the monitor and the computer tower are INSERTED all the way (didn't work loose).

2.  I'd have her remove the PCI card and reboot.  If the computer boots successfully to Windows, I'd SAY the card or its installation caused the problem.

3.  If computer boots successfully without the card, I'd try to re-install it.  I     guess the problem could have been:
    o  Resource  conflict.  Try a different PCI slot.  It may assign different IRQ.
    o  Card not properly seated.  Ensure the PCI card is fully seated and even throughout the length of the PCI slot.  The amount of gold pins visible above the slot should be small (maybe an EIGHTH of an inch) and even the length of the slot.  You put even pressure (two thumbs) across the entire top of the board as you insert it.  It takes some force.  Don't break motherboard, but you may hear a "thunk" as the card pops in.
    o  Dead card
    o  Power short within card or in its installation (not sure about this)
    o  Make sure "Set" screw when tightened doesn't tilt the board in its slot.

4.  There are people who've had problems with this card, although not necessarily the same as hers.
    WMP54G Wireless-G PCI Adapter
    MAJOR WMP54G problems.

5.  Startup Symptoms. 
     a.  Absolutely nothing displays on monitor during system startup?
     b.  Any lights at all during startup (steady or flashing):  monitor power LED state (on/off, steady/blinking, green/amber, power LED on tower, keyboard, floppy, CD-ROM, Hard Drive LEDs?