Dead PC. Help!

aird

aird

aird

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Joined
29 Sep 2007
Posts
45
Evening folks, just after some troubleshooting help.

Basically, I left my PC last night and it was working. Went to work today and came back to a semi dead pc. Fans are still whirring, however monitor is providing no output via. Hdmi and usb supplied mouse and keyboard are not working.

My dad had been using it during the day.

To test the usb ports. I plugged in a usb memory stick to see if the light appeared and tried a small USB fan which worked. I assume it's because they are low powered devices?

Things I've done:
  • Removed/replaced cmos battery = nothing
  • Moved gfx card to different pci-e slot = nothing.
  • Removed RAM sticks = nothing.
At the moment I'm assuming it's the mobo, unfortunately I think it's out of RMA as it's 6yrs old, i bought it from here.

Specs:
Amd fx-8350
Gigabyte 990fxa-ud3
Msi radeon r9 280x
Gskill rjx 8gb 1600mhz x2

Any help would be greatly appreciated.
 
I've not tried another gfx card but I can get access to one.

My mobo has never beeped, I don't think the case has the connection for it.
 
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theforce said:
Almost all motherboards don't come with a motherboard speaker nowadays but the speaker connection is there.
Click to expand...

Probably a daft question but how would i connect it if I don't have the connection from the case. I have the connector on the mobo just nothing to plug into it.
 
Alan1969 said:
I wouldn't initially jump to the conclusion of a dead mobo - rather as it is 6 yrs old I would suspect the PSU first.

Do you have a PSU in another PC that you could temporarily hook up?
Click to expand...

I assumed that since the fans were still going the psu would be ok, even the disc drive still opens.

But I can also check that too. I knew i kept my old pc for a reason.
 
So if got some mobo speakers ordered. All 10 of them, haha, and a multimeter to test the psu.

Cheers for the replies probably be back if it all goes wrong.
 
Me again!

So I've tested the psu using a multimeter and it's reading the correct voltages. I assume that means the psu is fine?

The buzzers aren't making any noises even if I remove the ram.

Any suggestions or is it definitely pointing to the mobo?
 
sideways14a said:
Well its pretty much the first thing you should look for in diagnosing a dead pc.
No hdd boot up lights, similar to how a normal boot sequence goes will tell you a lot.
No lights at all and no drive spinning up (if mech drive) = prob psu or drive taking the whole lot down.
Lights flashing as would be similar to normal boot but no pic could be duff video system, driver or similar - it also means the board, cpu and prob mem are ok as well.
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I'm all ssd, so no drives spinning. But would dead drives also affect the usb connected keyboard and mouse?
 
Me again folks!

So after plenty of where does that cable go etc I managed to install a new mobo. 970a-ds3p.

Again no gfx/usb output.

The mobo speakers i bought made a loud buzz, which according to gigabyte is a memory error but I took the ram out and reseated and no buzz. No post buzz either.

Tried an old gfx card but same output scenario.

I did test the psu with a multimeter and it was given out the correct readings but I'm not a professional with that so I was going by google/youtube videos.

Anyone got any suggestions or am I aswell giving up and going to a repair shop?
 
Going to try a different cpu and hope for the best.

Don't suppose you guys have any 8350 lying about that need a new home ;)
 
Jay85 said:
I had a similar issue and it did end up being a dead psu, drives would give read errors inconsistently and it would not boot into windows. The only difference here is, it would post but just hang on windows load screen as the drives would not read properly. Can you get into bios at all to read your psu voltages? I know ROG board can display the 12v, 5v and 3.3v and i used that to deduce which rail was packing in. New PSU fixed the issue of course.
Click to expand...

Unfortunately not. I'm not getting any output from gfx and the board doesn't come with on board gfx. Trying to get a spare psu.
 
Hi folks! Me again unfortunately.

So after trying and failing with a new mobo. I bought a new psu. The same one that was in my system but a new one.

So chucked it in today with my old mobo, since it didn't work with the new mobo I sent it back, installed only cpu, gfx (I don't have onboard gfx), 1 stick of ram and the bootable ssd. Powered it on and drum roll please... Nothing still. No monitor output or usb output.

Only things I've not tested are cpu (wouldn't know how) and ram. So I'm officially at a loss as to where to go from here.

Can mobos use older ram sticks? As I'm on 1600mhz would I be able to test it using older stick with older speeds?

So I'll probably send the psu back which is a shame as bequiet switched their orange and black cables to just black. Looked nice.
 
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FlyingScotsman said:
Newer motherboard are on DDR4 and yours is DDR3.
You would probably need to buy new board/cpu and ram, if going new,either that or try and get a cheap 2nd CPU for your board if it's looking like the chip.
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I meant it was a new board but from my generation if that's make sense. A Gigabyte 970A-DS3P. So it was ddr3 compatible.

Might just try order a cpu and ram to test. Doing my head in :mad:
 
FlyingScotsman said:
Yeah I got that mate, you should be able to pick up an 8350 pretty cheap mate, would be my first stop I think, unlikely that both sticks have died at same time, unless PSU took them out.
Feel your pain, nothing worse than being without your pc, hope you get to the bottom of it Aird.
Click to expand...

Yeah, i hope so too. I mean the new football manager is out soon ;)

Times like this I'm glad if failed my tech support hnd. Couldn't be doing this on a day to day basis :p
 
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