a confusing hardware problem

J

jonmcp87

Geek Trainee
(for me at least)

Hello there,

i finished a new pc build around six days ago, and everything was going great, until this afternoon.

i installed the latest .net framework 3.5 hotfix and restarted the computer. after the restart, i logged in, and the update tool that came with my motherboard popped up and said it was going to restart the pc within one minute...

the pc went through the shutdown procedure, and then - nothing. the fans were still spinning, the disc drive was active, but no POST, no hard drive activity. tried a hard shutdown, and the button didn't work - had to turn it off at the PSU.

turned the PSU back on and booted, and the fans (case, CPU and GPU) went straight to max speed, disc drive spun, no POST again. none of the power buttons worked either - case or motherboard.

i removed my VGA card, and rebooted, this time the fans weren't going crazy, but there was still no activity. i tried using an IDE hard drive instead - no joy.

Would somebody be able to assist me in diagnosing what the heck is wrong with this pc, any help would be greatly appreciated.

Thank you in advance

Jon


my system:
-CoolerMaster Real Power 530W PSU
-MSI 790GX-G65
-AMD Phenom II 710
-Sapphire Radeon HD 4870 512MB
-Corsair XMS3 1333MHz DDR3 6GB (3x2GB)
-WD Caviar Blue Edition 500GB
-generic SATA DVD-RW

EDIT: it's actually a 520W PSU, oops
 
try reset cmos. this will clear any bios faults. changing harddrives around isn't going to help because it's not an essential component needed for posting. If the reset cmos doesn't work it's either problems with the following: Motherboard, CPU, RAM, Graphics Card or Power Supply Unit.
 
Thanks for your reply, Bobby, however i have already tried clearing the cmos; i apologise for neglecting to mention that.

any other ideas?

thanks
 
Hi, try one module of ram at a time in each dimm, if no luck try another graphics card, if still no post try another power supply, if it still doesn't post it's most likely motherboard. The bios chip could be faulty or could be essential controllers such as memory controller etc.

BTW: was you overclocking at all?
 
no overclocking at all, performance was good enough without

just to clarify, another PCI-E graphics card? i did try it with an old-school PCI graphics card, probably a pointless test, but i gave it a go anyway.

i'll try swapping the RAM modules out tomorrow, but i won't be able to purchase another PSU until the end of next week - no cash.

again, thank you for your help, i will post back tomorrow with the results.
 
Remove things out of your CPU,
then just attach the things required...
Motherboard, 1 Ram, 1HDD, Grafics Card(if u dont hv inbuilt), and then see if it works
 
This will happen if CPU is burned out. Perhaps hsf wasn't attached right.


Also, don't assume you reseted the BIOS. Does your mobo have CMOS jumper, some don't. Remove power cord, short the jumper, wait 1 minute. If no jumper, you need to unplug power plug from the mobo, remove battery, wait 10 minutes. (just removing power cord from PSU won't work in this case)


Steps to take:

Disassemble, reset CMOS. Attach CPU properly. Attach 1 RAM module, attach video card. See if it can POST.


Another common mistake is to grease the CPU so much so that the grease comes out and shorts something. In this case a lot of whiping with alcohol is called for.
 
CPU fan was correctly installed (it came with thermal paste applied and i had nothing to remove it with to replace with some arctic silver i have), and CPU temperature after running BurnIn Test was only 36C.

No CMOS jumper, just a CMOS reset switch, which i tried first, and then tried removing CR2032 battery. Did not, however, leave it so long as ten minutes. i will do so now, whilst trying bobby's earlier idea of swapping out the RAM.

Do you still get the system beep on boot if you have no pc speaker installed? if so, i'm not getting that.

will report back with results of your ideas shortly; thank you all for your assistance.

Jon
 
Do you still get the system beep on boot if you have no pc speaker installed?

I dont think so...it comes out from the little speaker setted inside of your CPU Unit
 
I just wanted to say a huge thank you to everyone who chipped in with advice and assistance.

i have now solved the problem and am now writing this from my once knackered new build. i cannot believe how simple it all was - it was caused by the reset switch. disconnecting the switch from the motherboard header solved the problem immediately.

Why, I don't know, but one of my housemate's friends told me he had a similar experience and that disconnecting the reset switch solved it.

Again, thank you, it is deeply appreciated.

Jon
 
As people have stated above, take out all the essential parts of the computer and put them back in. Hopefully this can diagnose your problem.

Also, try removing and replacing the CMOS battery, as this has been known to fix problems similar to this.
 
i appreciate the input magna

the problem has now been solved (could someone mark it as such, please?) - the problem was caused by my case's reset switch. once i removed the switch from the motherboard's header, the computer booted first time.

an unusual problem, but not unheard of.

again, thanks for your (and everyone else's) input :)

Jon
 
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