computer starts up but nothing happens

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31 Jul 2010
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3
Heya
first post here long time reader though. please be nice :p
i am having an odd problem with my pc. basically it turns on but it wont post.
i first thought it was a gfx card problem so i waited till payday and bought a new gtx 480 however that did not help at all. so i spent the rest of the day changing over all the components i could with what little spares i have.
i tried:
updating the bios
swapping the ram for a slower type and only using one stick and using it in different sockets
remounting the cpu cooler
swapping the cpu with a amd 4000 x2 ... possibly i cant remember exactly what it was
clearing the cmos
leaving the mobo with no power and taking the cmos battery out for 20 mins
stripping the pc down so all it had connected was the memory cpu and gfx card
i also tested the cpu and memory in my other pc and they worked fine although neither of the gfx cards i have worked in my other pc
after i did all this i got bored and put my pc back together in the case and just repeatedly turned the thing on and off after about 30 mins it posted!
so i stuck my windows 7 dvd in and started that up but it crashed just after it had finished loading files it comes up with the starting windows progress bar and after about 20 secs it just turns itself off so i retried a few times and then tried it in safe mode and found the file it gets stuck on is disc.sys or possibly disk.sys. i retried with vista and xp and none of them worked vista crashed in the same place and xp crashed after it finished loading all the drivers.
so i googled this problem and found a lot of ideas to try:
changing various bios settings such as changing something (i cant remember what) from ahci to ide and disabling everything that i didnt need like onboard lan sound usb sata.
converting my 2 ide devices boot hdd and dvd drive to sata via an adapter but when i did that it didnt boot at all till i took the adaptors out again
i also tried most of the solutions i posted above except remounting the cpu
then i gave up and went to work for a few hours i have just got back now and it wont post at all again :(

things im going to try tommorow:
pestering a friend to see if i can borrow a mobo
using a different psu

my current specs:
Mobo:asus m2nsli deluxe
memory: 4x 1gb ocz memory 800mhz i think
gfx: all tests were done with the 8800gts because it obviously wasnt that that was dead and i was worried that the 480 would push my psu over the limit
power supply: ocz 650w im not sure on a model number i cant see one
dvd drive: generic ide dvd drive
hdd:80gb ide boot disc no idea of make as i took the sticker off cos it looked better without it but the hdd is about 4 years old

thats as much information i can think of right now
if you need anymore please just ask
sorry for such a long post but this has stumped me

Meow

quick edit: i forgot one thing i plugged a speaker onto the onboard speaker plugs to see if there was any error codes.
to begin with there was nothing with the 8800gts or the 480 but after about 20 mins of me repeatedly turning it on and off i got 2 short beeps and one long beep
 
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ok a new psu fixed these problems but the pc now crashes after about 10 mins of gaming the psu is a 750 watter so i cant see that being the problem but anyone have any ideas what it might be?
its late now and im just using my laptop but tommorow i will try and post some of the error messages i get when it starts back up
 
Have you tried rebuilding it outside the case on a box? Might be a short somewhere..

My thinking is the Mobo is borked

Maybe the hdd is old which is why your getting errors, it doesn't account for lack of response of the system.

Also are you powering the GPU? (Just trying to get rid of basics don't take it personally :D)

Good luck tired, can't think of anything else, get that mobo off your mate asap.
 
Could run mem test to check your ram is ok, and run Prime 95 or equivalent to check for stability.
 
It could be faulty VRMs on the motherboard if you have replaced the PSU. Run some final checks as RJC has suggested and try running the PC on just bare essentials.. see what happens.
 
ok quick update
i remembered the shuttle i have is actually an am2 mobo so i took that out of the case and assembled it on my bed it only has 2 ram slots so i just put 2 in i installed windows it all installed fine i installed just cause 2 and it chrashed on the loading screen
so i swapped the 2 ram sticks over and tried again and it worked ... sort of
at the end of the first level i just stay hanging under the helicopter and nothing happens i can still turn and shoot but it doesnt do anything although i think this might not be a hardware problem i'll try reinstalling the game
im gonna install crysis and give that a whirl and see what happens and then probably leave the pc doing a memtest with the suspected faulty ram sticks whilst i sleep
but i dont know how to do a memtest without a fdd and i dont have one
 
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